Bop It! Review

As a kid (saying that sentence makes me feel incredibly old now), I remember getting a Bop It for Christmas. It was a toy where you basically just followed the instructions that it shouted out to manipulate a certain object, like hitting the "Bop It!" button or spinning the wheel on there in rhythm with the game. 15 years later, Bop It has been revived on iOS, and the same basic concept is in play: objects pop up, imploring you to bop them, spin them, flick them, twist them in time with the drum beat, and the game will notify you if you're early, late, or right on time.

Bop It's interface and graphics are very clean and neat, with Retina Display support. There are 4 single player modes, including a classic mode that uses just the 3 original Bop It objects, to other modes that will call up one of 12 objects for you to play with. As well, there's single device multiplayer so you can play against a friend. The game handles push notifications perfectly - if you get a pop up while playing, it repeats the instruction from the beginning, so you won't be screwed over just because your friend finally made their move in Disc Drivin' while you're focusing on flicking and spinning objects on your screen.

Bop It unfortunately requires sound to play, so if you're in an environment where you can't use the speaker or don't have headphones, then you can't play the game. Also, the game lacks Game Center support, which is a real shame, as it does track high scores and offers Facebook support for sharing your scores, but no online leaderboards of any kind. The game is also very simple - there's not a hint of complexity beyond what you get - you're tapping and making finger motions on your device's screen to the beat provided, and not much beyond that.

Look, this is not the most complex game of all time, and it's not meant to be so - it's meant to be a fun little game, great for kids and for those wanting to relive growing up in the 90's for a little bit. If you want complexity and mature violent themes, might I suggest something like Dead Space instead? Just don't let your kids play that. They'll have nightmares, and that's just one more thing to deal with. Give them Bop It instead.