Tag with Ryan

"Again, no, I don't think I will."

***Tag with Ryan*** is an endless runner mobile game developed by WildWorks for Android and iOS. It is based on the YouTube channel *Ryan's World*.

## Gameplay

The game is essentially a *Subway Surfers* clone, whereas you taunt Combo Panda and challenge him to tag you. He accepts the offer and starts chasing after you, with there being several maps: Home, the Jungle, the Tundra, the Desert, and more.

## Why Nobody Wants to Play Tag with Him

1. It is just a reskin of the *Animal Jam* game Dash Tag but with *Ryan's World* characters, due to it being made by WildWorks, the same developers, even having an identical looking icon as the latter game, except the background being green instead of blue.
2. The game itself is just yet another generic and overall uninspired *Subway Surfers* clone like a lot of other shovelware games on the Google Play Store/App Store. Even the death animations look similar.
3. Despite being based on tag, a game with a simple concept, **it still manages to screw it up**. If the player runs for long another, they will be able to tag and then afterward unlock another character such as Gus, which isn't how tag works as the player wasn't even "it" in the first place, making it kind of clear that this "unlockability" mechanic was only thrown in just for the sake of more cosmetics.
4. The game is essentially pay-to-win as well, as the only way to unlock more stuff is by buying in-app purchases, such as pizzas and keys, in which the game doesn't give you a whole lot of them if you play it normally.
5. The maps are incredibly generic, taking place in very common locations in video games, such as a jungle, desert, and ice world, all of which seem to be copied directly from the *New Super Mario Bros.* games.
6. Ryan's voice clips can get really annoying to listen to, as he just repeats the same one-liners over and over again, with them also being of poor quality.
7. Unoriginal and uncanny looking character models, with them mainly looking like LEGO Duplo knockoffs, and Ryan himself badly resembling Super Why in a way.
8. Mediocre, bland, and very simplistic looking graphics, especially for that of mobile game released in 2018.
9. While the controls are simple, they can also be quite unresponsive at times. Even if you swipe, Ryan won't change lanes and instead crash into the obstacle in front of him.
10. One of the costumes in the game looks way too similar to the Patty Vehicle from *SpongeBob SquarePants*, particularly the movie.
11. Every time you crash, in order to continue running, you have to either spend 2 Pizzas or watch an ad, and speaking of the ads, most of them are literally just for Ryan's own products, showing even more that the game is just a blatant cash grab and also one big commercial for the *Ryan's World* brand.
12. The game is very buggy, as it can crash easily or just straight up not work at all, particularly on Android devices. It can also cause your device's performance to slow down heavily.
13. The game, overall, in addition to all of the other Ryan's World games (*Race with Ryan*, *Ryan's Rescue Squad*, *Super Spy Ryan*, and *Ryan's Dart Tag*) are all just shallow and cynical cash grabs aimed at promoting the Ryan's World brand and exploiting Ryan Kaji himself's likeness for a quick buck.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite being a reskin, it is at least faithful to the YouTube channel that it's based on.
2. *Tag with Ryan* can be fun for little kids.
3. Ryan at least reprises his role from *Ryan's World*.

## Reception

While the reception of the game is generally mixed-to-negative, it was panned by many due it to being an obvious *Subway Surfers* clone, it being a reskin of the Animal Jam game *Dash Tag*, and also presenting the overall problem with child exploitation in video games. Even *Common Sense Media* (a website that isn't reliable) gave the game a 2/5, (which is quite surprising to see as they seem to give any media aimed at kids 3 stars or higher) describing it as an "over-simplified endless-runner that trips over its commercialism".