After ten previous installments in the incredibly popular TapTap series, Tapulous gives us Revenge: Kings of Leon. I myself have just recently gotten into the games and find that the Guitar Hero/Rock Band feel is perfect for the iPhone. The easy-to-pick-up controls and addictive gameplay make this a series that more than likely won’t lose it’s momentum any time soon. So how does the KOL version stack up against the others? Click the link to find out!

If you’re unfamiliar with the TapTap series let me give you a quick overview (if you’re in the know keep going). This is a musical beat game. As a song plays, bubbles come down from the screen to the beat. At the bottom of the screen there is a bar with circles on it, and when said bubbles cross the circle you tap the circle to pop the bubble. Sounds simple? Good! If it doesn’t then…well…shit, I can’t explain it any better than that. Sorry.

The first thing you’ll notice is KOL has gone through an impressive graphical upgrade. And while the backgrounds and particle effects certainly make for a beautiful looking experience, there is always something creepy and distracting about a face appearing and staring at you (see below) while you try to play a video game – that’s not really a complaint, just something that weirds me out. Besides the graphics, you get ten (four off the bat with six free) of some of KOL’s most popular songs. Four landscaped ‘boss’ levels appear when a difficulty level is completed. These add a fourth column to the mix which keeps things pretty interesting. The standard Career and Battle modes are here, but online play was left out in favor of Bluetooth capability. This struck me as odd considering that the free TTR3 has online. Aside from that and the aforementioned upgrades/additions, this is same addictive gameplay that you’ve come to expect from the series. This means veterans can rest easy knowing it’s all kosher while newbies get their feet wet with one of the most fluid entries Tapulous has to offer. Everybody wins, give your computer screen a chest bump. Word.

Here’s the current song list:

• Use Somebody
• Crawl
• The Bucket
• Be Somebody
• On Call
• Mcfearless
• Notion
• Black Thumbnail
• True Love Way
• Sex on Fire

If you’re a fan of Kings of Leon and have an iPhone/iPod Touch, then this is a no-brainer (if you’re not then you’ve already stopped reading by now). I do have to admit that although I’m not a KOL fan, I’ve gotten into this so that’s gotta mean something. At $4.99 the price is a little high in comparison to other TapTap music packs (like double the price), but it is a premium package so if you can take the extra $3 hit then by all means have at it. The trick is coercing a friend of yours into a purchase so you can hit up the multiplayer (try beer, that always works for me).

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]