The general rule with Android/iOS games is: behind every decent game is an awful pay structure that wants to siphon as much money as humanly possible from you. There has perhaps never been a better example of this rule than Pianista. The game itself is fantastic. The tracks are very thoughtfully arranged to make the player feel a real connection to the piano keys/chords being hit, the selection is massive and there is information attached to the composers for anyone whose Pianista sessions inspire them to learn a little bit about the people behind the music they enjoy. Unfortunately, it has one of the most insulting pay-to-play structures I have ever encountered in a video game. If you want to play for free you'll be watching 30-second ads before *every single song*, and even then watching the ad doesn't always register and give you credit. I'd love to buy the game, but instead of making an ad-free, purchasable copy available, the game offers you a rental structure whose price isn't that shy of a Netflix subscription. I can't emphasize enough how sleazy the pay structure is.

Really loved it at first. But I noticed on heavier songs there are phantom misses on some notes out of nowhere. Particularly with level 50 Normal Mode -- in order to finish tour you need 290 combo which is not possible with particular bugs in the red notes. Unless you pay real money for shields... Also realized there is a delay if you play with Bluetooth headphones. Would have been nice to have been told that initially. The sync settings did not work intuitively at all, despite my graphics being smooth. Really didn't notice these issues much until heavy songs came about. Now, they are game breaking to me. The song play limit is also far too low and slow regeneration. The ability to practice songs would be nice at least if you're going to implement a point regen limit so strict. Also wish there were ways to play other packs though achievements or something. To top it off, the fact alone that a third of the time I watch a video ad and mysteriously don't credit -- frankly raises quite a bit of suspicion about the company's motives. Especially when that issue has been mentioned repeatedly in these reviews and not addressed. Meanwhile, it seems Superb is still responding to select reviews. It's a disappointing collapse in my enthusiasm after seeing the immense promise the game has, and then realizing it's being neglected just for the milking of a few bucks. They'd make far more money in microtransactions, ad revenue, and profit in totality if they cleaned that up and at least have some respect for F2P players that don't mind ads occasionally during an achievement system to unlock things... Without doling out cash directly.