Tap Wizard 2 Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Tap Wizard 2 (Xbox Series X)

Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
by Adam Dileva

I feel like I need to start this review off with two admissions. First, I’m not a mobile gamer at all, so I’ve played very few Idle games like Tap Wizard 2 previously. Second, simply looking at screenshots before playing, I assumed Tap Wizard 2 was going to be some sort of Vampire Survivors knockoff, but it’s not really that at all. Don’t let the name fool you, there’s no tapping to be done, as it’s not an option on console obviously.

Tap Wizard 2 has you becoming a wizard, choosing your spells then sitting back as you watch them do their thing. Being an Idle-type of game, you will need to intervene often with menus, but the actual gameplay does its own thing automatically. The first thing you see on a splash screen is that you move the cursor with the Left Stick and can move you Wizard with the Right if you want, and that’s about it.

When the Wizard is close to securing the Chronosphere, they are ambushed by the Dark Forces and when about to die, time rewinds. This rejuvenates the Wizard and they are slightly more powerful than before. And that’s the catch of the narrative and gameplay, time rewinding when you die and you can try once again, becoming slightly more powerful as time goes on, making incremental progress ever so slowly.

CURSE YOU CURSOR

Released last year on PC and mobile, Tap Wizard 2 finally makes its way to Xbox. While there’s no touch screen or mouse to use, controller implementation is there but is a source of much frustration. Since the game automatically plays itself, you’re more managing menus, so you’ll need to move the excruciatingly slow cursor with the Left Stick and click boxes rather than implementing D-Pad use for ease. You’re not even able to press ‘B’ or some other button to close a menu, instead having to navigate the sloth inspired cursor to the ‘X’ at the top right of each box to close it.

To make the cursor annoyances even worse, it seems it sometimes has a mind of its own and simply disappears for no reason. Moving around the stick will bring it back, but with all the chaos on the screen, even finding it sometimes can be a guessing game. I sometimes must simply hold down on the stick until it reaches the bottom of the screen so I can notice it over the buttons for all the menu options.

Tap Wizard 2 uses a minimalistic pixel art aesthetic, and while it suits the gameplay and setting just fine, with you opening menus often, you’re always covering up the action on screen with big menus, sometimes two or three at a time. The icons also are quite confusing at first until you know what to look for, though thankfully you can basically reorganize the menu icons however you see fit, which I highly suggest doing once you get a grasp on all of its mechanics.

A WIZARD’S JOURNEY

Your first order of business is going to choose which Wizard you want to be, well, watch blast enemies. Each wizard can control certain elements such as fire, ice, lightning, and poison, each with a different combination of two different types. These could be considered ‘Classes’ I guess, but you’ll unlock more over time, and there’s not really one better than the others I’ve found, as they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s more about putting time into the game to become more powerful as you destroy thousands of enemies, automatically.

Each run usually only lasts a few minutes tops in the beginning since you start out quite weak, have low health, doesn’t deal much damage, and you don’t have many perks or abilities yet. Each run will end once you lose all your health, sending you back to the Chronozone, rewinding time before sending your wizard back into the fray.

COMPLICATED PROGRESS

The premise of Tap Wizard is quite simple; you’ll slowly become more powerful over time, even while not playing, but you’ll eventually hit a ceiling where you’ll need to start over, though doing so gives you bonuses that makes that next attempt easier. Repeat this cycle over and over again and you have an Idle RPG like Tap Wizard 2. What’s simple in premise is anything but when it comes to figuring it all out though. This is due to the lack of tutorials and poorly communication of how all the mechanics synchronize with one another.

Sure, I learned a lot by checking a wiki online, but players shouldn’t have to resort to that for having to figure out what does what, or how. There’s a lot of tool tips and I guess technically everything is explained, but it was quite confusing since you’re bombarded with a metric ton of information before you even know what’s going on. Only after a couple hours of ‘play’ am I really understanding it all and finally have some sense of strategy to progress quicker.

As the game plays itself, you’ll simply be waiting for one of your menu icons to show the three dots indicating a new notification or unlock. Choose the appropriate option and then wait for the next unlock. Eventually even some of this can be automated, so don’t expect much in-depth gameplay. As you level up you’ll choose new spell perks, altering how each spell can act or cast. You’re able to increase your power, enchant, awaken, use totems, and more. It’s all quite confusing at first, but essentially you clear waves, level your Staff of Knowledge, Awaken, and repeat until you unlock a new Era. Again, this is all explained quite poorly and takes some time to really understand fully, so I’ll do my best to break it down.

STAFF OF KNOWLEDGE

To level up you need to defeat enemies. They will drop Power resources, and sometimes, even souls, which will convert to more power at the end of a run. Throughout the waves you’ll also find chests that can give a bonus to souls, health, and coin. Every time your Staff levels up, you’ll get to choose a new perk for your spells at random. These will vary from more damage, faster cast times, or other special bonuses. These perks will persist until you Awaken later on. Choosing the same perk will make it more powerful, so each time you level up the next set of runs should be better since you’re slightly more powerful. Once you reach the maximum level for the Staff you’ll be able to Awaken. Think of this as Prestige from Call of Duty, but more on that shortly.

IDLE HANDS

Being an Idle based game, you can let the game play on its own, but when you close the game it’ll continue to progress on its own, albeit at a drastically slower rate. You won’t be able to completely max out by not playing though, as you’ll need to actually play and choose your level up skills and such, as that’s not done automatically. The more you level up the more powerful you become, so it sometimes pays to simply let the game do its thing while you wait to choose perks and upgrades before closing it for another game.

RESEARCH MANUAL

As you defeat enemies and earn gold, this gold will be used to research projects. Think of these as buffs. By spending enough gold you’ll be able to choose upgrades for your health, damage, earned coin, extra souls and more. A timer will count down and once it completes, you’ll have that buff permanently until you Awaken. If you’re flush with cash you can fund the research to have it complete earlier, but I opted to simply wait until it finished for 'free'.

RINGS, RUNES, AND TOTEMS

Rings are powerful accessories that will give you permanent buffs that stay with you even through Awkenings. These can be purchased with a special currency, so they are never a bad option. Runes on the other hand are collectables that can be used at any time and give buffs for a specific amount of runs. You can use as many as you like, and with over 25 different runes to collect and use, they can add a big boost to your runs if utilized properly.

There are 12 different Totems that will randomly appear on the battlefield, used as soon as you touch them. These too offer a number of different bonuses that can greatly help in a run, and if you’re able to collect multiples, the bonuses can stack up to a powerful level 4 version.

OBELISK SHARD

Eventually you’re going to hit a wall of progress, usually because your health or damage output is too low. There are ways to boost them listed above, but the biggest boost you can get is from Enchanting via the Obelisk Shard. This is how you’ll get a big bonus to your damage and research cost discounts. You don’t need to Enchant once you have enough for a single rank (a x1.05 damage boost per), as you can save up for multiple ranks simultaneously. Once you do decide to Enchant, you’re thrown back at Wave 1 on a new run and won’t get your bonus until you’ve earned the same amount of power you used to Enchant. So the longer you wait the bigger the bonus, but the longer it may take to gain as well. Enchanting is well worth the tradeoff, as even a few extra ranks and increases of damage can make a huge difference in follow up runs.

AWAKEN AGAIN AND AGAIN

Awakening is like choosing to Prestige in Call of Duty multiplayer. You lose your main progress, but you unlock new perks and abilities that makes the next run that much easier, thus begins the progression treadmill. Each time you Awaken you’ll get four special skill points to be used in the Memory Tree, unlocking more permanent buffs and bonuses. You can see where the treadmill starts over many times, but each time you become slightly more powerful. Going a step further, there are what’s called Era’s, as well. Think of these as another prestige for your max Awakening. As you can see, there’s lots of layers and complexity and it’s explained very poorly. It simply takes a lot of time to figure it out on your own.

After a handful of hours I’ve finally figured out the clumsy UI and all of its mechanics, but it wasn’t without a lot of fumbling and simply seeing what does what on my own. Since the game essentially plays itself, you’re more waiting on enough resources to upgrade, or waiting for said upgrade to finish so you can wait on the next. This means fumbling around in the menus. I do appreciate that you’re able to reorganize the square icons and move them around like into other bags (essentially folders), but again, this took a lot of time to figure out on my own to really grasp.

The pixel art is minimalistic but it works to get the point across. Your Wizard and enemies are distinct, but there aren’t many arenas you’ll play in. You’ll face new types of enemies as you progress, but you’re generally more focused on waiting for notifications for any upgrades. The soundtrack is surprisingly really well done, and even though there’s not many tracks, the tunes are quite catchy and I’ve not wanted to mute the game so far.

What is odd is that there’s seemingly some PC options left in that don’t seem to do anything, like V-Sync and custom cursors, which seems like an oversight. It’s clear that the gameplay has been ported from PC with the cursor movement, but it’s a constant frustration with it disappearing or getting lost in the onscreen chaos. Coupled with a slow movement, I’m not sure why D-Pad isn’t an option for using the menu.

Tap Wizard 2 is an extremely grindy game. Even though you can AFK for much of it, it does take checking in every so often to actually make significant progress. Interestingly, there’s no Quick Resume support on Xbox, so going to another game closes it completely and puts it into ‘offline mode’. Some might be confused with a $18.99 CAD game where you don’t have to play it very much, but I’ve been hooked, checking back in every chance I can to get one more upgrade so I can make it just that much further on the next run.

**Tap Wizard 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 6.7 / 10
Gameplay: 7.0 / 10
Visuals: 6.0 / 10
Sound: 7.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Tap Wizard 2 (Xbox Series X)

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