One Tap Hero Review

One Tap Hero just might win the title of "Cutest Game of the Year." There's nothing wrong with cute games, but when your game is this disgustingly charming, you deserve an award. This game is so adorable I want to tattoo the main character on my body so I can always look at him.

You play as a cloudy/marshmallow looking fella whose girlfriend has been turned into a teddy bear by an evil wizard. What is it with wizards and messing with a guy's girl? You'd think with all that power they could get a girlfriend. Your goal is to collect stars and reach your lady friend at the end of each stage. Use the star's power to change her back into ... whatever she is. Eh, the game is so damn cute it doesn't matter what she is.

Everything is controlled by a simple tap of the screen. Jumping, climbing, flipping switches and avoiding disaster is all done by this one finger press. Now that I think about it, you probably don't need fingers to play this, you could just hit the screen with your nose and clear a few levels. Your hero will start walking in one direction and will turn around once he reaches a wall with an arrow. If you reach a wall or step without an arrow, he will stop. Each level features coins and stars. Collect all three stars to get the highest score. The more stars you collect, the faster you unlock more worlds. There are also secret keys in random levels. Collect these to unlock the bonus levels found in each world.

Levels can be fraught with disaster. Thorns, boulders and cliffs will end your life quickly. You can easily restart a level but it's going to take some trial and error to try and figure out some of the trickier stages, especially ones that involve levers. Do you pull the lever now or later? You'll find out soon enough if you end up dead. I do wish there was a way to zoom out to see the entire level or at least be able to pause and scroll so you could plan your route better.

Another thing I love about One Tap Hero is when you unlock a new world you can choose which of the 20 levels or bonus stages you want to play. No need to go in order which is quite refreshing. I also enjoyed the peaceful sounding dream-like soundtrack. Is there anything in this game that isn't dripping with sweetness and cute? The only ugly thing I could find is the sound your hero makes when he dies. "I'M SO SORRY!" is something I repeatedly yelled out to no one because I felt so guilty for accidentally killing him.

One Tap Hero is a fun and refreshing platformer/puzzle game. I instantly fell in love with it and I've interrupted my review about 50 times just so I could play another bonus level. Yes, it's annoyingly cute, but its charm and easy to play game mechanics will suck you in like it did me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tattoo to get.

App Store Link: One Tap Hero for iPhone & iPad | By Chillingo Ltd | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.0 | 63.4 MB | Rating 4+