# Taipan! Mobile — user reviews > 142 indexed App Store user reviews of Taipan! Mobile by Fair Oaks Labs, Inc., rated 3.48/5 from 128 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/taipan-mobile/id381945962/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/taipan-mobile/id381945962.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 58 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 6 · 2★ 7 · 1★ 35 ## What do users think of Taipan! Mobile? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 🎮 Faithful recreation of classic 1980s Apple II game - ⚡ Turbo feature speeds up lengthy battle animations - 💾 Auto-save functionality preserves progress - 🎯 Addictive gameplay mechanics remain engaging - 📱 Smooth mobile adaptation with intuitive controls - 🌟 Nostalgic experience for original players - 🐛 Includes original game bugs for authenticity **Cons** - 💰 Deceptive freemium model with paywall after 5-15 minutes - ⚠️ Unclear pricing disclosure at download - 🎲 Difficulty appears artificially inflated compared to original - 🔄 Restore purchase fails across devices requiring repayment - 🎯 Limited gun/ship upgrade opportunities - 🎪 Excessive pirate attacks overwhelm players - 🔊 Missing sound effects from original - 💸 $2.99-$3.99 price considered high for retro game **Commonly reported bugs** - Restore purchase fails on new devices, requiring repayment - Game doesn't save properly when home button pressed mid-transaction - Cannot trade after returning from interrupted session - Restore purchase temporarily works then requests payment again - Game freezes or crashes on iOS 11+ for some users - Starting scenario with 5 guns and 0 cash has zero progression ability **Most requested features** - Sound effects and audio from original game - Option to start with 5 guns and no debt - Ability to purchase upgrades more frequently - Modern graphics enhancement or Taipan 2 version - Larger warehouse capacity and expandable storage - PC version availability - Game time indicator for long sessions - Higher gun capacity limit (beyond 1000) - Delete previous saved games option ## Newest reviews (12 of 142) ### 2/5 — Crashes all the time! *2026-08-17, version 1.5* Crashes more than it works :( used to play this on apple ][+ ### 2/5 — iOS 26 *2026-08-11, version 1.5* After the first year the game exits after every move attempt. There is no purchase option. Or restore purchase. ### 2/5 — Big BUG for iPhone. *2024-11-15, version 1.5* After a few rounds, the “Leave Port” option will exit the game. After which the game can’t be played. Saved game also can’t play further. The BUG IS REAL! ### 4/5 — Fun but must pay to unlock *2024-03-05, version 1.5* Game is fun and reminds me of the game I used to play in the 1980's. You must pay to unlock the game to get anywhere in it. I do not mind paying the $2.99 but it is not indicated anywhere that you must pay to unlock it. That is pretty uncool. ### 2/5 — Not as original *2023-05-30, version 1.5* The old version of the game let you buy more cannons. Here you can only ever get a few. You can’t survive without paying the pirates. ### 4/5 — A fun flashback, but… *2023-04-13, version 1.5* I played this game for hours on my Apple II back in the 80’s. I respect that the money lender glitch is there, too. Unfortunately, guns get hit with incredible frequency and there just isn’t a good way to keep up; not a lot of opportunities to buy a new gun. It’s also odd that you can pay a lot less for a gun than a larger ship in this game. Also, a Ma Tsu should have some bodyguards and not get beat up so often. ### 4/5 — Nostalgia at its’ best. *2022-11-26, version 1.5* Great port of the original BASIC game I played on the TANDY 4 computers in High School. ( I am that old). The only issue with the game is the start version with 5 guns and 0 cash has 0 ability to progress. No way to earn money and elder brother Wu will not lend you a single yuan. I hope the dev team will fix this as it is nearly flawless otherwise. ### 4/5 — Fun game *2022-08-08, version 1.5* Game is a classic. It would be more fun if we had an option button where you could buy upgrades such as guns or larger ships. ### 4/5 — Great game but restore purchase fails *2022-01-05, version 1.5* I’ve paid for this. Bought a new phone, installed it and suddenly I’m hitting a paywall? So, I hit restore and it seems to have worked, for a moment then asks to pay again. Please fix my issue. ### 2/5 — Starts out great! But then... *2020-11-19, version 1.5* Played this game endlessly on my Apple II like 30 years ago. Randomly googled it today to find this app and I was stoked! Seemed odd that it was free at first but I was happy to pay the 3 bucks for ‘unlock’. They put in the effort to port it after all. But after playing it for awhile, it’s not quite the game I remember. I remember playing for hours while I built up my shipping trade. Now I can’t get more than about 20 minutes before the game throws so much at you it pretty much kills you off. They’ve cranked up the difficulty like 2000%. But I don’t see why? You see this kind of stuff in p2p games with lots of paywalls. But this ones a flat 3 bucks. I don’t get it? Definitely needs some heavy tweaking to make it fun again. ### 3/5 — Hidden price a bit steep *2020-08-14, version 1.5* This is a good and addictive game, and I appreciate the app creator’s work in putting it on here, but the surprise price to complete a game is nevertheless a bit high for a recreation of someone else’s good but simple game. ### 3/5 — Fixed against the player *2020-02-22, version 1.5* I was so fun at first to play this mobile recreation of the classic game Taipan! However, as at least one reviewer noted previously, the algorithm is skewed. You get too few opportunities to buy guns, they send more and more massive numbers of pirate boats against you, and the game seems to get locked into a pattern of having pirates hit your guns repeatedly. It’s predictable. Once the “buggers” hit your guns once in a big fight, they go on to hit them every time they attack and you run out of guns fast. The probability does not seem random at all once past a certain point. No matter what strategy you use, the bias in the game will bring you down. It’s too bad because it’s a fun game. But you get tired of the bias fast. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Really *2025-10-14, version 1.5* You let me play for 5 seconds and then say I need to pay to continue. I’m sorry, the game is fun, but you really think you can charge for this? It’s like the most portly quickly thrown together app I’ve ever seen there is no effort and you want to charge? I can go play it on my Roku for free ### 1/5 — Scam *2025-01-06, version 1.5* This game is a scam. It states that you get 12 months free but I was asked to pay after 15 minutes of installing the game! ### 1/5 — 3 bucks *2024-12-25, version 1.5* Bro im not bouta pay 3 dollars for this ig ill js play the slightly worse one on browser 🙄 ### 1/5 — Not worth the money *2024-01-19, version 1.5* Only give you one year of play, then start charging money, you can find this game on the net for free ### 1/5 — Shame On You! *2022-11-26, version 1.5* This game is freeware distributed on the Apple IIe, back in the 1980s. I doubt that you actually created this game and so you have no rights to charge for it. Drop your paywall and let people freely enjoy this old classic game, as it was meant to be. ### 1/5 — It's not free *2022-05-16, version 1.5* I yet to get the hang of it, it's already asking me to buy this game else I can't carry on. What a ripped off. ### 1/5 — Not free at all *2020-04-22, version 1.5* You get minutes of free game time. Don’t waste your time on this game. ### 1/5 — Pay money *2019-06-22, version 1.5* Use andriod its free but ios hv to pay , why ? ### 1/5 — Just charge up front *2019-02-20, version 1.5* Annoyed that this game let me play for 5 minutes and then wouldn’t continue without paying. Jokes on them as I had no interest in continuing, at cost, after such a short playing time. Got attacked by pirates twice and jacked up by the money lender for half my money in that short window too. Geez yeah let me pay for the cavity search :) ### 1/5 — NOT FREE. JUST A DEMO. *2018-11-26, version 1.5* This is a good adaptation of the original game. There are also some versions you can play online with your browser. I would recommend that, because this one lets you play your first year (about 5 minutes of play) and then demands an upgrade fee to continue. I'd have been far less offended if they'd just charged a nominal fee for the real game. Not a fan of this developer. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Memory Lane *2025-10-30, version 1.5* Faithful reproduction of the original. So much fun and as addictive as ever after 40 years. Can’t believe other reviews moaning about having to pay £1.99 for the many hours to into producing this. Well worth it. ### 5/5 — Excellent remake! *2023-04-28, version 1.5* An outstanding remake of an engaging and addictive game! How addictive? Well, I’ve been playing it since I discovered it for my ][e back in the early '80s. THAT addictive! ### 5/5 — Finaly ! *2022-09-27, version 1.5* At last, Taipan the way is was ! Great port of a great game ! Thank You. ### 5/5 — Classic Old School Game *2022-06-04, version 1.5* One of the earliest video games in history. Wozniak is known to be a fan. ### 5/5 — Childhood *2022-04-24, version 1.5* I love this game ! ### 5/5 — Just as much fun as the original! *2020-01-17, version 1.5* I love the way of handling huge amounts of cash — “All of It.” There’s a bug where clicking out of the game will sometimes drop you to the Leave Port screen without remembering the last purchase, but it’s great fun racing to essentially unlimited money. Totally worth the few dollars to recreate the original’s excitement. ### 5/5 — Awesome port of a classic *2019-10-08, version 1.5* Scored over 5 trillion and still trading in 1992 ### 5/5 — Loved this!! *2019-08-09, version 1.5* This is a great port, so much like what I remember in 1982 on Apple II. I also would have loved audio to top of the nostalgia. ### 5/5 — help *2019-03-06, version 1.5* I bought the dlc but i couldnt get a refund cuz i bought it by accident :( pls help Rating it five stars cuz its gucci ### 5/5 — Need to upgrade the game to make it more interesting *2018-11-18, version 1.5* Need to upgrade the game to make it more interesting --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-10.*