Tapple - Idle Clicker

Tapple: Idle Clicker is about as simple as idle games get, but I think that is also where most of its appeal comes from. I start by clicking to earn Tapples, then use those Tapples to improve my clicking power and unlock more ways of making them. Eventually I can automate the income so the game keeps producing Tapples while I am away. It is a very basic loop, but it gives me that familiar feeling of watching a small number slowly turn into something ridiculous. The progression is straightforward and easy for me to understand. There are 10 levels to work through, with the numbers growing from the early stages into billions and trillions. I can buy upgrade Tapples that improve my income, while automation means I do not have to keep clicking forever. I like that the game lets me move between active clicking and leaving it running in the background. When I come back, there is usually something waiting for me to upgrade, which gives the game its main reason to keep going. There is also a collection side that adds a little more to the basic clicking. Tapple drops have different rarities, including common, uncommon, rare, epic and legendary ones, and there are hidden bonuses and achievements to find. The game currently has 90 Steam achievements, which is a lot considering how small the actual gameplay loop is. I like having those extra goals because otherwise I would probably reach the point where I am just watching the same numbers increase without much reason to care. The biggest weakness for me is that there is not much depth underneath the idle system. Once I understand how clicking, upgrades and automation work, I am mostly repeating the same process at a larger scale. There are no complicated decisions that suddenly appear later to completely change how I play. That is fine for something I want to leave running in the background, but it limits how much time I actually want to spend actively playing. I can enjoy checking in, buying upgrades and seeing how far I have progressed, but I would not want to sit there clicking for hours. I also think the collection system is doing a lot of the work when it comes to giving me a reason to continue. Finding different Tapple drops and chasing rarer ones gives me something more specific to aim for than simply reaching the next number milestone. The hidden secrets help too, because they give me a reason to look around instead of treating the game entirely like a calculator that happens to have an apple theme. Still, these extras do not completely solve the basic repetition, and eventually the novelty starts wearing off. What I do appreciate is that the game is free and does not need a complicated setup before I can get into it. I can launch it, start clicking immediately and understand the whole idea within a few minutes. It also supports Windows, macOS and Linux, and the game is small enough that it does not ask much from my computer. For me, that makes it a decent little background game rather than something I need to plan around. Overall, Tapple: Idle Clicker is a simple idle game that does the basic stuff reasonably well. I like the easy progression, automation, Tapple collection and hidden achievements, and I think it works nicely when I only want something that I can check every now and then. The main problem is that there is not enough depth to keep me actively interested for very long, so a lot of the enjoyment depends on whether I am already in the mood for an incremental game. It is not one of the most memorable idle games I have played, but it is an easy game to understand and there is enough progression here to keep me checking back for a while. Rating: 6.7/10