Tap Tap Builder Review

If Tap Tap Builder does one thing remarkably well, it’s that it lives up to its name, word for word. It’s a city-building title that requires constant player input in the form of tapping. Want to build a road? Tap tap tap. Or maybe a hotel? Tap tap tap. I hope you have strong thumbs - you’re going to need them.

The core of Tap Tap Builder’s gameplay focuses on its tap to do everything mechanic, and there’s something supremely satisfying about constructing a thriving metropolis through a series of taps. Building a basic apartment building takes only a few seconds of tapping but more advanced buildings take more and more time to complete. While I did enjoy relying on my own fingers rather than timers, the process became a serious test of patience as the hours rolled by.

You won’t tap only to raise buildings, though. Many of your city’s structures produce goods in the form of cash, citizens and building materials, and you’ll have to tap to harvest them. I enjoyed being able to interact with the buildings, but it greatly increased the sense of repetition. And, after you blow through the steady stream of resources provided by the initial tutorial missions, you’ll start to rely on this interaction to progress.

You won’t be able to use it freely, though, at least not at first, thanks to a mechanic called energy. In its major role, energy dictates the amount of resources you can harvest. If you run out of energy, you can’t gather resources from your buildings. Later on, however, you’ll gain access to a building that allows you to tap to increase energy, so it quickly becomes a moot point. Energy also functions as a rest for your thumbs: it allows you to touch and hold to build or gather. It’s a significantly faster method of construction, but it blows through energy at record speed.

Building is simple enough that you might be tempted to plop down new projects without a second thought, but Tap Tap Builder does push you into the role of high level bureaucrat, even if it’s only in a limited capacity. You’ll have to balance key factors like total population, unemployment levels, and crime risk. Although it’s never truly complex, it does become more difficult as your city grows from a puny village to a sprawling metro area.

That process of growth is a long journey, but you don’t have to play an active role through all of it: your city continues to function and develop even when you’re not playing. If you need a reprieve from all the tapping, you can take it knowing that your city continues to grow as you go about real life.

Tap Tap Builder does an adequate job of introducing new buildings in a timely manner, but I wish there was more variety. There are a number of unique buildings outside of the usual offices, hotels and restaurants, but many are gated behind special keys that must be purchased, and others don’t offer any real benefits. It’s also a shame that there’s so much emphasis on upgrading buildings rather than constructing new ones, as you’re limited to a set number of structures based on your city’s level, and the overall map size isn’t gigantic It’s not a game-breaker though, especially considering that buildings visually grow as they’re upgraded.

Tap Tap Builder might not be a particularly deep or beautiful city builder, but it is a charming one. And, although it becomes repetitive too quickly for my tastes, I have to admit that I always look forward to popping into my city each morning. If you’re a fan of this type of game, you probably will too.