Let's Tap

Let's not?

Source // Nintendo Life

"Wii" and "Gimmick". Two words that are often found together, but whether that's for a good or bad reason largely depends on who you ask.

Having not owned a Nintendo Wii in its prime, and finding no major reason to keep the batteries in the Wiimote in 2021, if you ask me, the two words have a slightly negative lean to them. A Nintendo Wii game has to be really rather special to overcome that feeling, preferably making use of the controller in a way that no other console can do.

Let's Tap goes a step further, and gets players to use the Wiimote in a way no Nintendo Wii game ever did: by not even touching the fancy motion-sensing controller at all.

Bold move? Must have worked at least well enough to warrant a look in by those who follow a 1001 must-play video games list for fun...

Frustrations

I've not been able to find Let's Tap in the wild, and emulating a controller that sits face down on a cardboard box and does nothing but sense the vibrations caused by nearby tapping is a little tricky.

I thought I'd be able to manage it. After all, if it's sensing motion, I've just got to press the spacebar to imitate shaking the controller, right? Or I've got to look into which sensors are being used and work out a way of nudging those sensors alone. It should, in theory, be doable.

Except that the game wants to set itself up by putting the Wiimote down as instructed before moving on, and when your Wiimote is your mouse and keyboard, trying to get all the inputs to trigger a Wiimote that isn't in use is... well, bloody difficult. The game must think the Wiimote is in pieces across the table.

It does seem funny, at least to me, that you play Let's Tap with a Wiimote that looks like it has lost the will to ever sense motion again, face down on the table waiting for its batteries to run out. Hang in there, little guy. I'll find a use for you yet.

Source // Nintendo Life

What am I missing out on, then? Let's Tap is a rhythm game of sorts where you tap your way to success across a handful of challenges, either against the computer or your fellow table tapping chums.

The easiest of these games to grasp is the sprint, where you control a runner as they head down the track, avoiding obstacles by jumping over them or swinging across them, each making use of a different kind of rhythmic tap. I would imagine - having not seen a video of this game at all - that you've got to keep a good pace to run smoothly, and need clear loud distinctive taps to jump, for example, before returning to the pitter-patter of running.

It's like Donkey Konga, then, only not as stupid.

Source // Nintendo Life

Source // Nintendo Life

How on Earth tapping translates to these games is anyone's guess. Pulling blocks out of a tower for some reason or other, having a dogfight in some virtual world for the hell of it. I've no idea how that block game even translates to a controller, let alone one that is only picking up the subtle (or not so) vibrations from someone tapping nearby.

But it does, apparently. Maybe one day I'll find out how and why.

Final Word

When you're not playing these strange little games, you can chill out next to a koi fish pond, gently rippling the water in the hopes of attracting some fish to look at, for no reason other than to look at fish on a Nintendo Wii.

In the calmness, you can let your mind wander wherever it wants to go, to thoughts like "Yuji Naka's new studio made this as their first game. Yuji Naka was the lead developer on the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Huh."

I don't quite know what that says about the man. A diverse range of talents or the name recognition to pull off a game that doesn't use the Wiimote as intended? Or maybe Nintendo did want people to come up with out of the box input methods for the Wii. The Switch would have the cardboard Labo stuff, after all.

Should you play a game that uses a controller or console in an unexpected way? Absolutely. That's where you appreciate the technology and start to open up more opportunities for gameplay, interaction, and entertainment. Should you play Let's Tap? Yes, you should, even if it doesn't work, because then you'll appreciate the technology and yada yada yada.

I've not played it, obviously, but I want to play it, even if it turns out to be awful because I admire that someone bothered to try and get it to work, and seemingly succeeded enough to get some notice from others.

It's still a ridiculous gimmick, as is the Wii itself for the most part. Let's Tap is still a silly game of running, stacking, dogfighting and koi fishing, but none of us can argue that it isn't different, and isn't a head-turner of some sort.

I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for this game. I don't know when I'll be allowed back into a shop to look for it, or if shops will still exist when that time comes, but now I know what it's all about, and, frankly, that it exists, Let's Play is going to be a curiosity that this cat's going to get killed by.

No, I don't know what that meant either.

Fun Facts

The game is best played by using a cardboard box, either supplied with the Nintendo Wii, or, in select regions, constructing one with the packaging for Let's Tap.

Let's Tap, developed by Prope, first released in 2008.