Man, what happened to the music/rhythm genre? It used to be that we got excited about new songs coming to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. But nowadays, we barely get a peep about any games that are making a sizable dent in the genre. Fortunately, that’s where games like Trombone Champ come in.
Developed by the team at Holy Wow, Trombone Champ is built on basic principles. You’ve got a series of popular “public” songs that you can choose from, which you play along to with a trombone. The goal is to follow rhythm notes that appear on the screen, which can fair from “nasty!” to “perfect,” depending how much you nail them.
But what makes Trombone Champ stand out so much is that the music is played in real time. No longer are you limited to missed notes from a pre-recorded song. Instead, the rhythm that you create is played out in actual audio. So if you hit the wrong notes, you’re going to sound terrible. If not, you could be a music-playing genius.
The game is so silly and ridiculous that it works. And what’s more, you don’t need a special peripheral to play along with it – your mouse will suffice on PC.
That’s the biggest thing holding back Trombone Champ at the moment – the fact it’s only on PC.
Sure, Holy Wow is probably a small team and they’ve got their hands full promoting the game’s recent release on Steam. But…come on, we need something like this on consoles. And here’s why.
People Need a Music/Rhythm Hero
These days, Guitar Hero isn’t doing much of anything; and Rock Band 4 is still alive thanks to fresh DLC, though its popular days are long over. Yet you can see on eBay and other reseller sites that games of this type are still selling well, along with their peripherals.
A game like Trombone Champ could easily make a killing on the Nintendo eShop or Xbox Live Marketplace. The fact is it’s a silly game that anyone can get into, but, with the right amount of perseverance and time, they can become a master and nail the trombone like a true, aheo, hero. What’s more, it’s not limited to any kind of age set – the all-ages friendly music list, with classics and other “public” favorites should make it accessible to anyone.
It’d Be a Real Hit With Streamers
Thus far, the buzz for Trombone Champ on Steam is immense. It’s got “very positive” marks on the Steam page; and fans can’t stop talking about it. But one key area where it could instantly find more success? With streams.
Imagine it. People having a ball trying to nail every note with their characters, and hilariously cracking up when they screw up. It’s like a game such as this was built with streaming in mind. It’s mind-blowing and really cool.
Not to mention that it would give the game great publicity with a multi-platform release, perhaps even from Sony or Microsoft themselves. Hell, imagine if something like this were to arrive on Xbox Game Pass. People wouldn’t get enough of it.
There Are Collectible Cards – and the Devil!
There’s also a neat little mini-game in Trombone Champ where you can apparently pick up collectible cards. From the trailer, we can surmise that these are probably really popular trombone players that you can add to your collection (though you can’t play as them – this isn’t Band Hero after all). It’s a neat little aspect that should make good with players that love any form of card collecting.
For good measure, the Devil’s in this too! (Well, not Satan.) There’s a devil character that asks for extras you may not need. We’re not sure what he offers in return, but chances are they’re some sort of upgrade. Now that’s a deal we can happily make (while keeping our soul, mind you).
Give Us Our Champ!
Holy Wow has done a great job with this little indie darling, which is available on Steam. But we implore them to give the game a chance on other platforms, if only because we all need a little trombone in our lives. For that matter, how about a sequel called Tuba Warrior? We’d be down with that.
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