Trombone Champ

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1-4 Co-Op / Competitive (Local)

.

Review:

Trombone Champ, released on PC in 2022 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2023, is a family-friendly Music Rhythm game that loosely imitates other games in the genre like Guitar Hero, but with the central instrument this time being the titular trombone. However, unlike most games like this, Trombone Champ does not take itself at all seriously, and there seems little pretense that you will be using this game to produce particularly melodic music. In fact, the game seems to count on the fact that you will be doing quite the contrary.

Players control the trombone in this game by moving along a vertical slide pitch and pressing ZR to play notes as they slide across it from left to right. You will need to not only have good timing, but you’ll need to have your cursor at the right vertical spot (representing pitch). Players are rated not only on having proper timing, but on playing as close to the correct pitch as possible.

Sliding the pitch vertically is done via one of four different control schemes – there are two control schemes that use gyroscopic motion control, one of which is the default control scheme and the recommended one. The game does also allow using the analog sticks for this, but it is not recommended – hitting a specific spot using the analog sticks is pretty difficult, especially when you’ll have to do it multiple times in quick succession. Finally, players who are playing with a right Joy-Con can use the infrared sensor to detect the distance from your hand, though I found this method to be fairly inaccurate and difficult to control. While I appreciated having all of these control schemes as options, I felt the default motion control is by far the best. I should note that seemingly the only control type that isn’t available here is touchscreen control (probably because it would have made things too easy and accurate), although the game does support the touchscreen in menus.

No matter which control scheme you use, your trombone playing in this game is likely to be sloppy and at best sound like a first year trombone student struggling to learn how to play the song, and I highly suspect this is intentional. The point of Trombone Champ isn’t really to create accurate music, but to make your playing as close to accurate as possible, with the gap between your playing and the actual song making for discordant hilarity.

The game doesn’t only rely on your ineptitude for its humor, though. The sound plays a large part here. The trombone itself sounds like it’s halfway between being the actual instrument and a cartoony fart noise. This plays over the actual songs themselves, nearly 50 in all, which vary from classical music to tunes made specifically for this game. If you’ve ever wanted to hear someone fail miserably in an attempt at playing Flight of the Bumblebee on a farty trombone as the rest of the orchestra plays the song seriously in the background, this is your game.

This sound is joined by other goofy sounds (in particular, the “hip hop air horn” sound frequently plays to celebrate when you do an especially good job, sometimes mid-song), as well as by lighthearted and goofy visuals. Your selected Mii-style 3D character matches your movements, with his trombone sliding in and out in time with your own movements. Behind him, each song will display images related to the song itself, such as baseballs jumping out at the screen during Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and various photographs of baboons during the song Baboons!

Oh, yeah, that’s another thing. In addition to playing through this game’s various trombone music, you’ll also be gradually unlocking access to the game’s lore, which includes loading screens featuring questionable “facts” such as the claim that all of the trombones on Earth lined up end to end would be able to circle the Solar system four times, unlockable trombone trading cards, and lots of references to hot dogs and baboons, the latter of which seem to be… tied to some sort of eldritch ritual that you’re gradually working toward?

Before wrapping things up, I should mention that this game includes support for up to four players, and this is particularly noteworthy because as silly as this game is in single-player, it’s an absolute riot in multiplayer, where the raucous noises of your group’s instruments further amplifies the silliness of the game.

In the end, Trombone Champ is a great demonstration of how things can be done differently within the Music-Rhythm genre, where the game is not asking players to attain musical perfection, but to celebrate the absurdity of musical imperfection. It’s a delightfully funny game, and sure to be a fun game to bring out at a party, if only to see everyone giggling about how terrible the music they’re making is. And perhaps because of this goofiness, this may not be a game you’ll want to play for long stretches of time, but it’s still a delightful breath of fresh air for the genre.

tl;dr – Trombone Champ is a family-friendly Music Rhythm game where players try to not only time the notes of their music, but use one of a selection of control schemes (including pretty good motion controls) to ensure it comes out at the right pitch as well. Or more frequently, to attempt that and fail, creating a discordant cacophony that is nevertheless still a delight due to just how silly everything, a silliness this game leans into hard. This isn’t a game you’re likely to play for long stretches of time, but you may want to play it with friends in a party setting, if only to see how ridiculously bad the music gets with everyone performing together. For that reason, this game is well worth trying out.

Grade: B-

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Multiplayer – Trombone Champ is a game that’s pretty silly in single-player, but it really shines in multiplayer, where the absolute cacophony of toots that only loosely resembles the song in question makes for a truly delightful Party Game that’s sure to get your group giggling. If you played this game with friends, you almost certainly had a good time doing it.

Runner-Up: Best Music-Rhythm Game, Best Port/Remake, Best Game for Kids and Casual Players, Funniest Game, Most Original

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}