Headbangers: Rhythm Royale Review

Glee-Cheese Studio along with Team17, the company behind games like Dredge, Moving Out, Blasphemous 2, and the Worms franchise, is bringing some online multiplayer pigeon action with Headbangers: Rhythm Royale. The first season of this party game has you playing 32 different music-themed games in a group of 30 pigeons. There is no story here, so apparently a group of pigeons had the urge to play a bunch of music-themed games against each other to determine who had the best rhythm.

To advance, in the first game you will have to place in the top 20, then the top 10, and finally to get to the final you need to place in the top five so it is set up like a round of Fall Guys. Like that title, there is no local multiplayer option, only online, though it does have cross-platform play available. Headbangers: Rhythm Royale does not have the option to try out the various games on their own. You only get to play them when they happen to pop up randomly during a tournament.  

The problem comes in that the game doesn’t have a difficulty setting, so even if you play a lot of rhythm games, you may find it incredibly difficult to not place near the bottom of the 29 other pigeon competitors. Usually, the first round that you play is a bit more forgiving and you can mess up a couple times and not instantly be disqualified, but one in particular is especially evil. Piano Mezzo Forte has your pigeon singing in a choir to classical music. Composers' heads are displayed showing a closed mouth, slightly open, and wide open that you need to hit the corresponding button when they show up on the scrolling sheet music. I have never successfully qualified in a round with this mini-game as I am always placed at the bottom. I think playing this game against real players will make it more fair than facing off against the pigeon-bot competitors. They are just too good!

It is easy to see the influence of Team17 in this title because of all the different customisation options that are available for your pigeon. From worm-themed outfits and taunt voices saying “I’m Gonna Win!”, “Take This”, and “Gotcha!” that sound like they were pulled straight from one of the Worms battle games. There are many ways to show off your love for that franchise here. For customisations, a few options are available when you first start including hats like an American flag print cowboy hat, hairstyles like afros or longer rocker hair, and multiple hair colours. As you play more, you will unlock other items and earn bread crumbs that you can spend on other outfits for your pigeon. The shop refreshes every few days, so some of the items you see one day may cycle out. If you have enough bread crumbs to buy the accessory you want, don’t wait on it as it may be gone and not show up for a few days.  

The mini-games that you are challenged with feel like you smashed a WarioWare game and a Rayman Raving Rabbids title together. There isn’t too much for directions, just a few seconds to practise the buttons and you are tossed in. Once you play that game a few times, you will learn what you need to do to be successful, even if the instructions aren’t always the most clear. There are a lot of mini-games that you may have to challenge, but a few of them feel like clones of others you have played here. Garden Party plays the same as After Party with the only difference being the time of day it is set in. The same concept is used in Yes Commander and Oui Votre Majesté, where you follow the actions of a character — a king in the latter and a Commander — jumping, stretching and pecking in the correct order. There are a few other instances of this in Headbangers, but it’s not a big deal unless you happen to play the same similar titles back to back, then it’s a bit annoying.

Since Headbangers: Rhythm Royale is made up of music-themed mini-games, you will hear a variety of music and musical instruments. The soundtrack is done very well, and it’s always entertaining hearing your off-beat rapping and instruments added in with the other music. The accompanying visuals are fun, vibrant, and cartoony. I love how you can customise your pigeon to make them stand out against all the other pigeon-bots that I was playing with. There is nothing cooler than a pigeon wearing a full-body cat costume with a bow tie! This game has tons of personality.

The mini-games in Headbangers: Rhythm Royale are pretty fun, I especially like the ones where you are trying to hit notes spinning on a vinyl record, or the ones where you have to identify which instrument is making that sound. Though the round number will change your experience with the game. The later in the tournament, the harder it’s going to be to qualify to move on to the next game or to win the whole tournament. Headbangers is an enjoyable experience, but I think being able to play with your friends online will definitely add to how much fun you have. But if you happen to have super competitive friends who are good at rhythm games it may backfire and make for a worse experience!

Since I was checking the game out before release, there were no other players to play with online so I had to face off against bots. The biggest issue is that trying to connect to a server takes at least a minute and a half, and then if you happen to get into one, you will have to wait again while the game looks for opponents. By the time it finally realised that the lobby would have to be filled with AI players, I had been waiting for over three minutes, if the game was able to connect to a server. It’s especially frustrating when you have to play a difficult game for your first round because if you don’t qualify you will get your few breadcrumbs and have to wait all over again to get back in. I’m hoping that when the game releases, the loading time will be a lot faster as there will be other human players to fill the lobby with.

If you are a fan of online multiplayer games that have you facing off against a bunch of players in a tournament set-up like Fall Guys, you know exactly what to expect here. The audio and visuals in Headbangers: Rhythm Royale are a lot of fun injecting oodles of personality into this rhythm battle title. For the most part, the challenges that you will be playing won’t be too difficult, but even having played a ton of rhythm games in the past, there were a few titles that I found incredibly hard. Especially if you are in the final round where one mistake means that you are eliminated. Hopefully, when the title releases, the load times will be a lot faster, as sitting there for up to three minutes just to get kicked out of a lobby really sucks!