We like to laugh at the people dancing around holding iPods in those old commercials, but to tell you the truth the image above basically encapsulates what I was like while playing Groove Coaster on my iPhone.  When you think about it, Apple originally having created their mobile devices for the universal pastime of music, a rhythm game is perhaps the perfect title for iOS.  Whatever the reason, Groove Coaster might be the most fun I’ve had all year for 99 cents.

From the same team behind Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Groove Coaster is probably what Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the rest of Q Entertainment would have come up with had they made an iOS game.  It’s a must-own for the crowd that’s into Miz games or the Bemani series (even the off-note tap produces the exact same noise as in Rez).  It attracts with sleek digital graphics and soothes with a mix of techno, jazz, and rock while not getting in your way with anything more complicated than tapping one finger.

What surprised me so much about the game was how engaging and challenging it could be based on such simple controls.  Literally all you do is tap the screen.  You don’t’ have to tap in any specific place either.  Just tap anywhere on the screen to hit the dots with any sense of rhythm and you are playing the game.  Groove Coaster works what sounds like an insipid gameplay concept – even simpler than Tap Tap Revenge, into an experience that is both moving and efficient.

Eventually you end up having to hold your finger down, rap rapidly (which I somehow found pretty hard), or rub the screen for certain notes, but it’s not like Guitar Hero or anything.  The songs are probably just as complex, and with quite a few of them for 99 cents, the package feels surprisingly full with such a simple face (it has almost no menus at all).

The “Coaster” part of the title comes from the sort of roller coaster your avatar rolls along, catching the dots as you tap them.  The only real purpose the “level design” serves is to try to distort your vision of the incoming dots and look pretty, but it provides a visual stimulation not unlike Audiosurf.  It all comes to a head when you unlock the credits as its own song – affected by the trail of music you unlock as well as the actions of your friends on Game Center.

What rounds out Groove Coaster is stylish menu design.  I don’t think doing anything in that game takes more than three taps.  Through that you get access to unlockable avatars that affect your performance in different ways as well as skins.  That same menu design makes song intros look clean and high class, altogether belying the title’s status as a mobile phone game.

If I had anything against Groove Coaster it would be its in-app purchases (DLC if you will) which end up costing you several times the price of the original game, but not having bought any of it so far, the game does not at all feel incomplete.