Image credit: Curve Games
My first love has always been gaming. It’s without question – as soon as I was able to hold my mom’s Game Boy Color and the Super Nintendo Controller, it was done. The question as to “what was your second love?” comes up less often, but I can confidently say it would be music: from picking up the electric guitar and playing and singing in bands to rejecting conformity and having a serious scene kid phase, music was there through it all. Friendship drama, heartbreak, the general wreckage called youth – I always had the perfect soundtrack at hand for whatever was going on in my life.
Much to the dismay of former 13-year-old me, I never became a rockstar, and I also didn’t stay in the music industry in any alternative way. With Wax Heads, some dreams do get a second lease on life, and just from reading the initial blurb about the game, I knew the concept was going to be right up my alley. But can the execution of it live up to the expectations?
Born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
First things first: in Wax Heads, you get to work at Repeater Records, a record store owned by a washed-up has-been popstar. The pay is mediocre, and as the new kid (and oftentimes only reliable employee), you are lumbered with any odd jobs no one else wants to do. This includes the store’s bread and butter: manning the till and giving personalized vinyl recommendations to customers.
Giving these recommendations is pretty simple to start with, but as the game goes on, giving “rad” recommendations really requires you to put your thinking caps on. You’ll need to stay in the know about what critics are saying about new albums, remember information found on record sleeves, and also stay attentive to any tidbits you learn about bands as you play through the days.
What sounds boring is actually pretty fun, in big parts due to the great visuals embedded into the game. I never felt like it was a chore to look at both sides of a vinyl, read the inserts, and actually look at the vinyl itself, because every single one is a real work of art. The game was clearly created with a lot of love and passion.
I will note that this process is not necessarily fast, so if you don’t find the idea of spending many real-life minutes reading small amounts of fiction and trying to retain information, the game is probably not for you. Unless you’re happy to provide subpar recommendations to customers, of course.
We are all human, it’s time to prove it
The game is heavy on narration, and the central themes revolve around music, community, and friendship. It’s very charming, but I’m also the first to admit that it’s very Tumblr-core-esque. It works for me because I grew up around that time, and, in a way, it makes me feel very nostalgic for a time when I didn’t have any of the typical adult problems, but would just get excited about the next album release of my favorite artists.
The characters are quirky but quite well crafted; they have their own hopes and dreams and aspirations, and I did really feel like I was becoming a part of Repeater Records over time. The fact that you get to decorate some of the spaces in the store helps with that as well.
I enjoyed the story, but the pacing was a bit slow for me. There were a lot of days with little happening, where I was just trying to rush through the 5 recommendations as quickly as possible to get to a more substantial part of the story. For me, it’s definitely a game to play in short bursts, rather than long sessions, and this was really the one big deduction in my enjoyment. The gameplay itself just felt very stale, much quicker than I had hoped.
One aspect of the game I had a lot of time and patience for, though, was the excellent OST. Really, the soundtrack is so varied and good that I spent a lot of time every day just queueing up my favourite titles. With the amount of work they’ve put into the music and the visuals, I do hope there will be spin-off titles to deepen the lore of the universe, potentially exploring different genres.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed my time with Wax Heads, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy, story-driven game that doesn’t mind light puzzle touches.
FAQs
Wax Heads was developed by Patattie Games and published by Curve Games.
The Wax Heads price is $14.99.
Wax Heads is available on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
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