Magic Tiles 3

Magic Tiles 3 is a free rhythm game that’s styled after playing the piano. Tap on the screen with the rhythm of the game’s music and show off your precise timing to get high scores!

Magic Tiles 3 is a game that’s all about music. In Magic Tiles 3, your goal is to tap on the screen in time with a song in a rough facsimile of playing the piano. As the song plays, sections of the screen change colors and move vertically. Your task is to tap on different colored sections with your fingers, occasionally holding these taps to simulate holding notes. 

Holding a note in the first position, with a note coming up shortly in the fourth position.

Depending on how accurately and in time with the music you are, you’ll receive a score at the end of the song. With practice, you’ll be able to post your scores to a global leaderboard or participate in head-to-head battles with your friends. If you’re familiar with Dance Dance Revolution (or DDR), think of Magic Tiles 3 as a mobile-friendly way to play DDR with your fingers.

Hit many notes correctly to get a high score

Magic Tiles 3 is an ad-supported game with multiple premium purchases available within the game. The most notable of these purchases is the music subscription. Magic Tiles 3 comes with a number of interesting tracks when you first download it, but not necessarily the songs you want to play. 

Magic Tiles 3 has been around for a while, so the interface has changed a few times.

The game’s full catalog of “premium” songs is only available via a subscription package. Whenever you stop paying for your subscription, you lose access to all of the good songs. On top of that, the subscription is $8 / week or $40 / year, meaning there’s no good way to try things out. Given the huge price difference, subscribing for a week or two to try things out feels very wasteful.

The music featured without the premium subscription isn’t necessarily stuff you’ve heard of

Magic Tiles 3 features a number of obtrusive in-game advertisements. When coupled with the subscription package mentioned above, it’s easy to see how this app makes money. The ads and the extra fees might detract from the fun, however. Expect some amount of frustration and growing pains when you first start tapping with Magic Tiles 3, especially if you’re not used to ad-heavy apps. Alternatively, expect to shell out several dollars to purchase an ad-free pass on top of the price of the song pack.

Time to stop for an ad

Curiously, the rhythm game genre on non-mobile devices is dominated by totally free titles like Osu! and Stepmania. Not only are these programs ad-free and free to join, but they are also carefully maintained by rhythm game experts to ensure they remain fun and responsive.Magic Tiles 3, on the other hand, has a moving “judgment line,” meaning that the location you’ll want to tap shifts as the song plays. This is analogous to a piano that slowly drives away from you as you play it. Sure, you can readjust the bench every once in a while and you’ll be fine, but this is the sort of thing you’d rather avoid if you can.

Earn in-game premium currency by playing tracks

Most importantly, Magic Tiles 3 is one of dozens of entries in the saturated market of piano-based rhythm tapping games on mobile devices. This means that you can choose any of a long list of apps that behave very similarly to Magic Tiles 3, while solving its problems. Despite being removed from the app shop, Piano Tiles 2 is still a popular choice, and free options like Cytoid show more finesse and flexibility than many of the paid apps that compete with it. If you're going to beat your friend's score in Magic Tiles 3, there's nothing wrong with adding it. But if you just want to make a rhythm game for your phone, consider using something else.