Wax Heads Switch Review

Wax Heads Switch Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 

There’s nothing I love more than getting lost in a great song while playing great games and writing reviews, and it’s been a thematically music-focused week here at What’s It Like? We started things off with a review of Mixtape, and now we’re heading to the record store with Wax Heads, a game developed by a two-person indie punk duo about working in a record store where the customer may always be right but usually has absolutely no idea what they want. What’s It Like? Open the shutters, boot up the till, and prepare to recommend Taylor Swift to metalheads as we review Wax Heads on Nintendo Switch.

Wax Heads opens with a “Where are they now?” style documentary about a band called Becoming Violet, who rocked the charts in the ’80s before ultimately splitting up, causing a rift between bandmates, particularly the two sisters, Morgan and Willow. You play as the new staff member at Repeater Records, a record store owned by former Becoming Violet member Morgan, and your job is to help customers by recommending records based on the information they give you. It all sounds fairly light and casual at first, but as you progress through the chapters, an interesting story begins to unravel, pulling you deeper into the world of indie music, friendships, and the struggle to keep a failing record store alive. That is all I will say about the narrative, because the story elements introduced at the start and end of each chapter often seem innocent until much later in the game, and that mystery kept me hooked throughout the experience.

Gameplay is best described as a cozy puzzle game with a punk rock vibe. Customers arrive at the counter, tell you a story, and you need to recommend a record based on the clues they provide. You can choose between two gameplay modes. “No Refunds” means every recommendation is final and, despite skirting consumer laws in real life, is probably the intended way to play. “The Customer Is Always Right” mode allows unlimited recommendations, although you do take a small penalty for each failed attempt. Either way, the game never blocks your progress, and despite what I thought were some very obvious choices, I still managed to disappoint plenty of customers while progressing through the story just fine.

To help with recommendations, you have access to a smartphone featuring social media and music news apps that can give you additional clues to guide your choices. You can also flip records over to inspect tracklists and examine the vinyl itself, which may hide notes or hints that suggest you are on the right track. As the game progresses, the record store expands its catalogue, giving you even more options when making recommendations.

The record store is not the only place you will visit, either, as you will join the crew for social events and even recommend drinks at a bar to help a nervous vocalist prepare for a gig. Again, the obvious choice is not always the perfect one. If your recommendation matches the genre or band but isn’t exactly what the customer is after, you might still receive an “okay” rating instead of a “rad” one, and if you completely mess it up, you may even end up with a “sad” outcome instead. There’s also a selection of deviously clever puzzles where you have to pack goods into a grid layout and fit every item in, tidy up a noticeboard, or design a music flyer, and these do a great job of breaking up the customer service-focused gameplay. One particular puzzle had me stumped for a good 15 minutes, and finally solving it left me feeling accomplished, only for me to return to serving customers and immediately stuff up a recommendation. You win some, you lose some, I suppose.

Wax Heads has a visually striking cutout art style that’s reminiscent of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Characters are very well drawn, the shop and its locals are bright and colourful, and each album gives the impression that it has been carefully thought out. There’s a lot to love in the art direction here, and characters sometimes surprise with a “don’t judge a book by its cover” sort of personality reveal. It was always exciting starting a new chapter and spotting new album covers or fresh faces appearing in the store. Animations are simple, but they work well with the visual aesthetic, still managing to convey a wide range of expressions. Even with the cutout-style presentation, characters feel surprisingly expressive in how they react during conversations and customer interactions. The store itself is navigated in an almost “blobber” fashion, similar to what we’ve recently seen in the sublime Vampire Crawlers. You simply press a direction to move to the next area, and the A button to interact with items. It’s a minimalist UI approach that helps keep the focus on the bright, colourful art design rather than overwhelming you with menus or clutter. Overall, the game nails its art direction and vibe, which helps reinforce the indie punk identity of Wax Heads.

Wax Heads features several original tracks you can play while working, or you can leave the game running on a lo-fi rock loop that keeps your head quietly bopping along in the background. The audio design here is outstanding, and despite there being no voice acting for customers or cutscenes, Wax Heads lets the soundtrack do a lot of the talking, with the music carrying the atmosphere, reinforcing the indie record store vibe.

For my metalheads looking into accessibility, there are a couple of options that make running a record store more comfortable. These include the ability to remap inputs, isolate audio sources, and override the default font for improved readability. As always, I recommend further research to determine whether Wax Heads suits your specific accessibility needs. At just under $23 AUD, Wax Heads offers great value for money. There is also something here that warrants another playthrough, which I won’t go into due to spoilers.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Wax Heads. Its vibrant visuals, paired with its narrative and puzzle-like gameplay, make working a shift behind the counter an engaging experience from start to finish. Coupled with social events and puzzles in between, Wax Heads is a fantastic puzzle game that tells an interesting story while still letting you take things at your own pace. While it might be on the shorter side in terms of game length, this is one album I wouldn’t mind putting on for a second listen.

So, What’s it Like? Wax Heads it Like a Dungeon Crawler set in a record store, crossed with Potion Craft.

In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.

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