Tap Heroes is an Android RPG game that brings all the combat, the classic retro look and grinding appeal that many of us have come to love without the wait, there’s no travelling from point-to-point, you don’t need to spend oodles of time leveling up to reach the next level, you just tap. Combat is always happening all the time, and while your Heroes will fight on their own, they need a little help from you to tap the enemy and help attack even faster. It’s a nifty RPG game because while it features all of leveling up, purchasing new abilities and level progression, it does with any of the fluff and just puts combat all the time upfront.
To get started with the game, all you need to do is download Tap Heroes from the Play Store. Once you’ve done that, you just go ahead and launch the game and it’ll throw you right into things. I do wish there was a tutorial of sorts here, but really it’s not very difficult to work out how to play.
If you notice the dotted boxes above, one side is your Heroes, and another is the enemy. Tapping on your Heroes will give you more health (the bar is at the top of the display) and tapping your enemy will deal attacks.
Over time, you will come across more difficult enemies and the environments change as well. You’ll have noticed the paper-craft like theme at work here and the whole thing looks really fun. At the end of a few levels, you’ll come across bosses to fight.
Despite the fact that the game is built around a tapping mechanic, these bosses are quite difficult and a nice challenge to get behind. Once you’ve defeated these bosses, you’ll be rewarded with gems that can be used to unlock more Heroes to join your cause. Once you’ve defeated these bosses, you’ll be rewarded with gems that can be used to unlock more Heroes to join your cause with new abilities such as the healer mage and a rogue that shoots poison and slow arrows. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a small team of Heroes to fight evil monsters.
The coins that drop from your enemies can be collected and then spent on upgrading your warriors’ abilities as well as their powers. These start off easy and then get progressively more expensive. If you want to add more gems and such in order to unlock more items and heroes, you can do so with in-app purchases, but I never felt like I had to pay out in order to progress.
The paper theme runs through the whole game’s look and feel and when you reach another level and end up in a new environment, it’s a nice way of portraying enemies and such and matches up well with the simple combat of the game that doesn’t ask too much of its players or take itself too seriously.
After spending quite a bit of time playing the game, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was an RPG game that not only promised a different experience, but actually delivered on it. The simplistic gameplay is a lot of fun here, as it’s really quite frantic and you need to keep up with the pace of everything to keep things moving. It’s a good-looking and fun game that those looking for something fresh but with the familiar grind they’ve come to associate from RPG games. Combat is simple, yet fast-paced and the unlocks come thick and fast as well. Having to upgrade and look at your achievements while the game still runs in the background is interesting as well and gives the game a whole feeling of urgency that can be a lot of fun.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Tap Heroes is a speedy and frantic game that will keep players on their toes with little to no flim-flam.
- Features (4/5) – If you’re looking for an RPG game that has all of the combat and all of the level progression, but none of the messy waiting around between levels and a generic storyline you probably don’t care about in the first place, then this is the game for you.
- Theme (4/5) – The paper-like graphics are really nice to look at here and their animations are well done. However, I do wish that these were higher-resolution and had more about them.
- Overall (4/5) – A solid and engaging RPG game that does away with all the fluff, yet still retains the character progression and grinding people have come to love.
Pros
- Quick and easy to get into, with no need to mess around with character creation or anything like that.
- Fast-paced combat might be simple, but it sure is addictive and it’s ongoing all the time.
- More Heroes are added to your team as things go on and the game progresses at a steady pace.
- Paper craft theme is both fun and good-looking, and matches the simple gameplay quite nicely.
Cons
- Higher-resolution assets would make the game look less fuzzy on newer Android devices.
- Some sort of tutorial at the beginning of the game would be great to see.
All-in-all, there’s a lot on offer here and it’s a game that I can see many people taking to. It’s a fun and simple RPG that’s addictive and offers refuge for RPG fans that are fed up of generic and unnecessary storylines. The graphics are cute and fun and the combat is super-addictive. There’s a genuine progression that keeps moving along the more you play and it’s very easy to get into.