Metal Health Will Drive You Mad: A Headbangers: Rhythm Royale Review

By Al

Players: 1-30 (Online Only)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

Are you a fan of rhythm games, but maybe want some sort of Fall Guys-type action in them? Well Headbangers: Rhythm Royale is (probably) the game you've been waiting for! Mixing together rhythm minigames like those found in the Rhythm Heaven series, with the wackiness found in a WarioWare game, and tossing in the added stakes of it being a battle royale, Headbangers is now out on consoles and PC and is a game that I've been wanting to play ever since I saw it on the Summer Nintendo Direct. Is it worth the wait? How does it stack up to other games in the respective genres? Are those pigeons in the game? Oh, and how exactly does a rhythm battle royale game work anyway? Well, we're going to dive into all that and more in this review!

Booting up Headbangers: Rhythm Royale sees you dropped into the role of a pigeon who you can customize with various costumes, hats, taunts, movements, etc. By default you can swing his head around in a way that reminds me a lot of messing with Mario's face in Super Mario 64, but yeah, you're a bird who is basically headbanging. We're off to a good start, hopefully it stays this way. Beyond the several options that all revolve around customizing your bird avatar, you only have one game mode to choose from: Tournament. From there you join 29 other players as you go through four stages, each with its own minigame. The first stage always eliminates 10 players, the next 10 more, the next all but two, and then you're down to a final showdown for the winner. This means you can be eliminated rather quickly if you're not careful or if you're just unlucky, but that's to be expected in battle royale type games I guess. If you do find yourself on the losing side of things, you can keep yourself in the game as a spectator, and can even choose which player you want to watch. I don't think there is any benefit to being a spectator, except maybe being able to see minigames you haven't played yet, so it's probably best just to jump into another Tournament and try again. Whether you win or lose, you gain experience and bread that are handed out relative to how well you played. Experience levels you up and unlocks various add-ons for your avatar, and bread is used to purchase yet more customization options.

Time to headbang!

Headbangers REALLY needs more games.

Let's talk about the minigames since playing them is most of what you'll be doing here. There are 20+ minigames that are chosen at random at each stage of the Tournament, and not all of them are rhythm games. Some have you match sounds to instruments (Guess It), pick who looks like they'd be singing a song (Guilty), or have you hit notes on a piano with a slingshot (First Piano Shooter). Those and others like them rely more on knowledge, chance, and maybe a little skill, as opposed to rhythmic ability. This could be seen as a benefit to those who may find rhythm gameplay difficult, but more than half the current minigames do require rhythm skill. Most of the rhythm-based games follow a "call and repeat" structure where you play back a series of notes in the same way it was played to you. Pretty simple stuff really. More original takes on rhythm gameplay can be found in games where you have to hit a bowling ball into a goal on the final beat (Super Striker), have to eat food above and below you to a beat (Run Pigeon Run), or ones that have you photograph dolphins by judging their jump relative to the music (The Perfect Shot). No matter the style, all games feature a fairly simple control scheme that often only requires a button or two and maybe the d-pad. While playing you can also snag items that appear onscreen with a trigger button and these can be power-ups, power-downs, or even items, experience, or bread. At various points in the game you can swing your head around (something you can always do with the right analog stick by the way) to power up a bonus meter that takes you a Bonus Round once it's filled. These bonus minigames are far simpler and basically just earn you more bread or exp. It rarely happens, but you can also encounter a tie-breaker that is usually a metronome that you have to hit the closest. While the games are fairly limited, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy a few of them and wish that there was an easier way to play them rather than hoping they come up in the next rotation.

Let's get into this!

Whittling them down!

How you move onto the next round is a bit different depending on the game. Some games will eliminate players after a certain number of mistakes, so you just have to hold out long enough to make it to the next round. Others score you and you can actually follow your progress in-game to see how you fare against the other players. Some minigames actually pair you against another player directly and these are probably the most annoying as chances are you'll encounter an experienced player who ends your run nice and early. From what I've seen the final game will always be one of these duel-style games and since these minigames only have a couple varieties, you'll notice the game's repetition the most in them. Since elimination happens quickly the obvious question is what one does following a loss. The simple answer to that is "nothing", and it's this that first made me lose enjoyment in the game. I know that there can be only one winner, and that you can technically keep "playing" in spectator mode, but I really wish that there was some way to keep going after losing. Maybe a loser's bracket, or a way to continue to interact with the survivors Bomberman-style, but too often than not I find my runs cut short by one of the games that I'm simply terrible at. Rage quitting is a thing of course, but I don't really care for that. Besides, quitting a Tournament gets you no experience or bread, and that's pretty much the only reason you're bothering with them in the first place really.

A power-up that blocks opponents' views.

Super Strikers is a favorite.

Besides bragging rights, new customization options are pretty much the only thig you get for playing or winning Tournaments. There are a few problems with this that I want to point out. For starters, most of the customization options seem all over the place and just look odd to me. Sure I can give my avatar a cowboy hat, sunglasses, an Elvis shirt, and a funny taunt, but do I need to do that? Do these even look good? I'll leave those to individual players since the answers will be subjective, but I didn't care for most of the dress-up options. Second, unlocking them is such a chore that many players will probably not see the "cooler" ones. Third, as far as I can tell these are all limited to the season so if you want to get them you're going to have to play now, and play a lot. Adding to this is the confusion that is the three different ways to unlock new outfits. The easiest way is just by levelling up, but the amount of experience is so low that this isn't an easy task by far. Next is by buying stuff with bread. I've only managed to buy two things with bread and that was after dozens of failed tournaments. The amount for even the ugliest hat is ridiculous, and I almost want to boycott the bread store on that alone. Lastly is unlocking outfits by completing achievements. These achievements are all over the place and are nearly impossible to do. Need to get a certain score in that one minigame? Well, let's hope the game actually lets you play it. If that weren't enough, each of the outfits that require achievements to unlock have 10-30 achievements needed to unlock each. That's just ridiculous really. It's probably no wonder that the vast majority of the players I've seen online still have only the most basic outfits on. I don't blame them since I do too.

If you're looking to get more game out of Headbangers besides the Tournament mode, well, you're out of luck. Tournament is the only game mode currently, and the only other real gameplay "mode" per se is playing with your friends. This doesn't mean you ONLY play with your friends though as you basically send them an invite to a private room and then wait for the room to fill up with enough randos to hit that 30 player minimum. There is no offline content at all, nor is there any other online mode besides the standard Tournament. I can say that cross play seems to work extremely well here, so you at least don't have to worry about matching with friends playing any other version of the game. Too bad there isn't a whole lot for you to do with those friends beyond playing a different game. It feels like a big missed opportunity to be able to set up rooms of specific minigames, or even be able to create smaller tournaments, so you and your friends could make something more out of this shallow experience. Unfortunately I am not exaggerating when I say that this is literally all you get here. Going back to those earlier game comparisons, Fall Guys this is not, as its welcome wears thin rather quickly. Comparing it to Rhythm Heaven is also very unfair as besides that game having tons of offline gameplay, it has more charm than this game could ever hope for. I guess it can be argued that more content could be coming down the road in future seasons, but there is no guarantee of that, and I don't feel comfortable assuming that the game modes will approve when it comes to giving a game an honest review.

Guilty is a weird minigame.

In Spectator Mode.

One of my biggest problem with Headbangers' rhythm games (besides the fact that there are so few of them) is that they feel very cheap at times. You're only given one screen that briefly explains each game, with some of them giving you a short practice run to get a hang of the controls. I can't tell you how many times I lost a game simply because I didn't fully understand what was expected of me. Also, there are some games that are just... weird even if you do know what you're supposed to do. Most of the sound guessing ones are hit or miss and I can only pass them once I've learned what the game thinks an instrument, song style, or whatever sounds like, not what I actually think it should sound like. This means that the game favors those that live for the repetition and have played all the minigames several times to learn the ins and outs. This sounds like it should be expected but, given that it takes several minutes just to get around to playing the games, it comes off feeling very cheap to lose to someone who's made the game their life. Add to this that some of the games seem to be locked into the higher stages of the tournament and you'll find that each game consists of you fumbling around the same 5-10 games over and over again until you master them through sheer repetition and trial and error. If these games had a practice mode, or just any offline mode in general, it probably would've made me enjoy some of the minigames more. As it is, it made me quickly want to put the game down, probably forever.

This is probably my favorite minigame.

The Bonus Game.

It's not all negatives though as Headbangers: Rhythm Royale has some really great presentation. The pigeon theming works extremely well, and even though I still don't think it's as appealing as other rhythm games, it's honestly great seeing the wacky birds play these silly games. Graphics-wise the game isn't the most modern-looking thing out there, but I am pleased to say that there is no lag or delays in the online play, and the spoken bits from the announcers during gameplay are a nice touch. Speaking of spoken parts, the general sounds the players make, and their taunts, really add to the experience too, and are the only customization options I feel area truly worth unlocking. I do wish the home screen offered more options beyond just looking at unlock challenges or customization, perhaps looking over the rules of previously played games, but that isn't too big a complaint since you don't spend a lot of time on that screen. Where I was surprised that the presentation faltered a bit is in regards to the music. You'd think a rhythm game would have spot on music, but it's a rather mixed bag here, and mostly falls into the generic category. Since not a lot of the minigames tie directly to the song playing I guess this shouldn't come as too big of a shock, but I still found myself wishing for a better soundtrack. Due to the online nature of the game, you spend a lot of time waiting around for the next thing to start and music that wasn't just... there would've really helped with the overall experience. I don't want to make it out to be that the music is particularly bad, just not as good as I was hoping for.

There are apparently 23 minigames in Headbangers: Rhythm Royale at the time of this writing. These games make up the content of the first season and I'm pretty sure that many of them are locked to various stages of the tournament since I have played several of them nearly ten times, but have yet to come close to having played 20 different games. This is a problem in that you're basically replaying the same brief games over and over again, with much of your actual in-game time being spent in menus waiting for the minute or so long minigames to actually happen. I guess one could argue that it'd be worth checking out what later seasons have to offer, but I'm not sure if that's going to be the same gameplay experience. It's only a week after launch and there are times the clock still runs out trying to fully fill up a tournament lobby, and I can't imagine that getting any better months into this game's lifespan. Also, if the only true unlocks are going to be costumes and hats, I'm not sure if the repetitive grind is worth it. The only true saving grace is that it has a low price of $19.99 and (currently at least) features absolutely no microtransactions. This feels like something of a rarity these days, and it should be noted. With that said, I can't help but feel that this game would've been better adopting the free-to-play model. I probably wouldn't have bothered picking it up, but it would've set expectations a bit more accurately.

Only hire Professional Pigeons.

BARELY MISSED IT!

When I think party game I think of a group of friends getting around and playing it in a single room. I get that this is a battle royale online game, but I feel that an offline multiplayer mode would've really saved this game from being as forgettable as it feels currently. I can't see myself picking it up again after this review is finished, except maybe to check out the next season's content, and that's sad considering that I was really looking forward to this release when I first heard about it. I guess if you've ever wondered what a rhythm battle royale game is like, or if you're a fan of online games in general, then this is probably for you. Everyone else is probably better off either grabbing something else, or waiting to see if future content eventually brings this game to a better state.

For More Information on Headbangers: Rhythm Royale:
https://www.headbangers.game/

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Gameplay: C
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B-
Value: C-

Overall: C

Pros:
+ The idea of a battle royale rhythm game is cool and executed pretty well here.
+ While the game is online only, complete with seasonal content, there are no microtransactions at all.
+ The pigeon theme is pretty cool and some of the customization options are hilarious.
+ Cross play is easily enabled, and it currently is very easy to get into a full game.
+ Runs very well even on the Nintendo Switch with practically no gameplay lag to speak of.

+/- How long will an online-only game like this remain an active experience?

Cons:
- No offline or local multiplayer content at all.
- While future seasons may offer more gameplay options, there is very little to the game at the moment.
- Actually knowing what to do within a minigame is often due to trial and error rather than actually being given instructions.
- Outfit unlocks and in-game purchases take a ridiculous amount of time to get.
- Some of the rhythm games are very similar to each other, with only a few being truly unique.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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What will Season 2 hold?