The Future Tapping Game draws even closer to release – and today we’ve got a brand new trailer to show off the “Silent Blocks” mode!

Silent Blocks isn’t quite as fast paced as Tap Runner, but the real winners will be those who can think quickly with their minds – plotting out the best piece to move is somewhat similar to planning a few steps ahead in Chess, only a bit more simplified.

Side Note: That could very possibly be me on the left, playing like an uncoordinated, colorblind penguin. I’ve since tried to phase out the memories of being absolutely trashed in this mode after my victory in Rhythm Tap.

Let’s Tap! will be arriving here in the US next month!

Check out the latest trailer for Let’s Tap, featuring Rhythm Tap! Tap along with varying pressure in time to the music to achieve high scores. There are several music options (the original Japanese soundtrack) including the Let’s Tap theme heard in this trailer. If you’re into a “future tapping game”, this one is for you!

This is the new trailer for Let’s Tap, featuring the Tap Runner game mode. Use your hands to tap as you guide your tap runner through an obstacle course of hurdles, ice walls, and electric fields.

We’ve talked about Let’s Tap before, and you’ve seen the box art… now you can see it in action! Check out this just-released trailer for Let’s Tap.

Let’s Tap is coming to the Nintendo Wii this summer.

Behold, the pack front for Let’s Tap, coming out this summer on Nintendo Wii.

Now that you’ve seen the cool hand-drawn Let’s Tap artwork along with a Tap Runner figurine and the soundtrack, I thought it was a good time to delve deeper into Let’s Tap, and the unique way the game is played.

Let’s Tap is the pioneer game from studio Prope, created by Yuji Naka. It will be released this summer, and is a Wii exclusive. It is ESRB rated E for Everyone, with Comic Mischief.

Instead of picking up the Wiimote and moving it around while you press buttons, in Let’s Tap you’ll set the Wiimote down on a box or a table. You don’t touch it at all. Instead, you tap on the box or table, and the Wiimote picks up the vibrations from your tapping and controls the game. (Outlandishly large fingers not required.) You’ll tap at different times, speeds, and pressures depending on the game you’re playing and what you want to do.

There are a few different games to be played in Let’s Tap including Tap Runner, Bubble Voyager, Rhythm Tap, Silent Blocks and Visualizer. All games are for 1-4 players except Visualizer, which is single player only.

Tap Runner

Tap Runner is a racing game. Tap your fingers on the box gently and steadily to run, tap slower to walk, and tap hard once to jump. There are 16 different courses, each with obstacles like hurdles, ice walls, and electric fields.

At the Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend, there were a lot of people gathered around Tap Runner to watch as people raced each other. Judging by the laughter and cheers coming from the Let’s Tap booth, everyone really enjoyed it.

Bubble Voyager

In  Bubble Voyager, you are flying around in a space suit. If you’re playing alone, you tap to keep yourself afloat through many levels filled with dangerous objects, and  double tap to launch a missile. In multiplayer matches, you will shoot each other to win.

Rhythm Tap

If you like Tap Tap Revenge, you’ll love Rhythm Tap. Tap light, medium or hard in sync with the music and visual cues on the screen. All of the original Japanese music will be included in the US release of the game, which is fantastic. These songs are quirky, catchy, and lots of fun.

Silent Blocks

This game is for all the Jenga fans. You have a tower of red and blue blocks, you need to remove pieces (using light and hard taps) while still keeping  your tower standing. You can select which piece to remove, which direction to pull it in, and how quickly or slowly you want to remove it.

Visualizer

Visualizer is like the zen garden of Let’s Tap. Play alone or take turns in several stages including Fireworks, Paint, River, Gem Game and Ink. Tapping with light, medium and hard strokes produces on-screen effects ranging from a fireworks display to undersea bubbles. In special tap sequences, various sea animals will appear.

So there you have it! Once you get in the tapping groove, you’ll have no trouble playing this unique and fun game. There are more screenshots and images on our Flickr page, so head over there for more tapping fun.

Our colleagues in Europe posted their photos earlier today, and here are the remaining 5 original, hand-drawn and signed, Let’s Tap art pieces from Yuji Naka. I don’t yet know how many of these we’ll have available to us for giveaways, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to hook a few of you up with these stunning drawings. We’re sure tempted to keep them all to ourselves, but we won’t.

In addition to the drawings, I got some Tap Runner figurines and some Japanese soundtracks! Like the drawings, I don’t know how many we’ll be able to give away, but they’re sure cool to look at in the meantime.

Stay tuned for future details. For now, I hope you enjoyed gawking at these great items!

If you read my earlier blog post this week, then you know that this Saturday and Sunday SEGA is going to be present at the Cherry Blossom Festival here in Japantown, San Francisco.

I mentioned that we had some swag to give away and that we were going to have a Trivia contest… Since then, we’ve finalized our plans and dug deep into hidden rooms here at the SEGA office to find the coolest stuff possible.

Now, it’s time for all of you not attending this weekend to turn hedgehog blue with envy – and for all of you who are making the trip – or anyone on the fence – we’ve got 300+ good reasons to look forward to it.

It’s going to be a very cool weekend.

I want you to focus on breathing normally now. Deep breaths in and out – now pinch yourself once. You aren’t dreaming.

Sunday at 3 PM is our SEGA Trivia Contest at the SEGA Booth, and whichever one of you knows your SEGA stuff the best is going to be rewarded for it – and seriously so. The Grand Prize is a stack of TEN newly released SEGA games, AND the exclusive Sonic T-shirt we found the other week in the Box of Awesome. The winner gets everything you see here:

To the winner go the spoils… and a really cool T-shirt.

The games will be given out at specific times during the day, so feel free to visit our booth and ask when the next giveaway will be. Oh, and if you do something to really show off your SEGA love – like wearing a SEGA/Sonic shirt or cosplaying as a SEGA video game character, we’ll see to it you get rewarded for your efforts with some of the rare merch shown above. (JSRF Soundtracks, NiGHTS Pillowcases, etc) Special bonus points if you cosplay as anyone from Valkyria Chronicles, since our DLC is coming out next Thursday!

We hope all of you attending this weekend are as excited as we are – of course, you can also be the first to play Let’s Tap! and Bleach: Third Phantom before they come out later this year, but we imagine what you guys really want is the free stuff.

We’ll see you there!

This weekend is the yearly Cherry Blossom Festival here in San Francisco! The festival, which takes place in Japantown, is a great chance to immerse yourself in some modern and traditional Japanese culture, get some tasty authentic Japanese food, and take a look at all sorts of Japanese things – and SEGA video games from Japan are no exception!

Play unreleased SEGA Games!

We’re going to have a lot of playable demos at the show, including:

• Let’s Tap – EXCLUSIVE
• Sonic and the Black Knight
• Samba De Amigo
• Sonic Unleashed
• Bleach: Third Phantom – EXCLUSIVE
• Phantasy Star Portable

Especially notable on that list are Let’s Tap! and Bleach: Third Phantom, which I highlighted (for good reason) in bright cherry blossom pink. Both of these games have never been demonstrated to the public in the US before – so if you’re in the area, you have a chance to be one of the first in the country to check out these games in English!

Meet the SEGA Community Team!

Kellie, Clumsyorchid, and RubyEclipse from the SEGA Community team are also going to be there, so feel free to drop by and say hello to us! Kellie and Clumsy will be there early Saturday afternoon, and Ruby will be dropping by Sunday afternoon. Also feel free to work on your conversational Japanese with Clumsy, as he’s been learning recently. (We’re sure he’ll appreciate the extra practice!)

Compete in a special Community contest!

Drop by our booth on Sunday, April 11th, at 3 PM for the first-ever Cherry Blossom SEGA Trivia Contest! Ruby is going to be bringing along some special merchandise to give out to the hardcore fans who score the most points in this contest of both old and new SEGA knowledge and speed – be the first to shout out the right answer to the question he asks, and you’ll score a point. Get the most points and you’re going home with something to show for it!

Get free SEGA stuff!

And there was much rejoicing. We’re going to be giving out free goodies all weekend to people who visit the booth! Drop by and ask what kind of stuff we have left, and we may be able to get you hooked up with some SEGA merch that’s normally exclusive to press or employees internally!

Of course, there are tons of other things to check out at the festival too, which you can find listed here. If you’re in the area, we hope you’ll join us this weekend for a fantastic mix of Japanese and SEGA fun!

Update: The SEGA Booth will be located in the Imperial Ballroom B, and will be open from 11-5 both days!

Earlier this week we posted a look at the music in Let’s Tap!, and more than a couple of you asked us if the tracks from the Japanese version of the game would be making it over to the US. It was a fair question, as some publishers and developers end up changing things to make their game more appealing to the Western markets.

I did some digging and asked around in the offices, and there’s good news to be had – it’s now official that SEGA of America will be staying true to the Japanese feel of the game, and all Japanese music tracks will be included in the US version!

In short: Sweet.

So, whether you’re down for the Kung Fu beat like we showcased last time, or for an upbeat techno rendition of Microsoft Sam singing the theme song (linked above), you’ll get to enjoy them all when the game releases here in the states.

I can totally see this theme song becoming the next big internet meme.