Trombone Champ: Unflattened Meta Quest 3 Review

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Fast Facts

Virtual Tooting!

A few years ago, the internet went wild for a little rhythm-based trombone game called Trombone Champ. It piqued my interest then, but for some reason, I let it toot past me. Fast-forward to now and we have a new VR version called Trombone Champ: Unflattened, a comical name for any VR game if I do say so myself. So grab your trombone and get ready to toot!

Trombone Champ is like any other rhythm-based musical game you have played. You know the sort, like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. You have notes coming towards you and you must, with your virtual instrument, do your best to keep time with the notes as they appear. When you do it sounds fantastic and feels great but when you don’t, it sounds like you have found an instrument in the loft and are just bashing away at it blindly.

Who Knew Trombones Were So Much Fun?

In Trombone Champ, the normal version, you move your mouse, analogue stick or Joycon (dependng on the platform) up and down and press a button to toot. You only have a certain amount of breath though so your toots need to be well-timed. In Unflattened you are holding your VR controllers like a trombone and must move the slide braces forward or back to change the pitch, it’s a tad alien at first but it works exceptionally well. It’s how I imagine playing a real trombone feels.

What blew me away, bear in mind I have not played my Quest 3 for a while, as my kids are always on it, is how well the mixed reality stuff worked. I sat in my chair and after the headset had scanned the boundaries, it asked if I wanted to enter mixed reality. Football was on so I gladly said yes. I then chose where I wanted the notes to come from and I was away, watching football and tooting along like the best of them. It felt simultaneously revolutionary and completely natural at the same time.

A Trombone That’s Also a Fish?

While there is not much to Trombone Champ: Unflattened outside of the songs and unlocking new trombones, what’s there is superbly implemented and extremely entertaining. As the songs get harder and more intricate you earn more ‘toots’ which are used to buy packs of cards. These cards feature famous people and items from the trombone world. You use them to unlock new trombones and trade your duplicates in for new cards for your collection.

Once you unlock a new trombone you can spray paint it to your liking with bright and vivid colours. Trombones ranged from weird and wacky items like a fish to things like a steampunk trombone. They have uncanny trombone sounds attached to them too, they look and sound hilarious. Unlocking them and using them in songs was always fun and rewarding, even if sometimes I had to turn the special sounds off as they made some of the songs sound too weird, even for me.

I Always Wanted to Toot To God Save The King

The bulk of the game is a campaign mode that meanders through the game’s 50-plus songs, each with 3 challenges on each song and difficulty options to boot. While there is nothing revolutionary about the campaign it does ramp up nicely and gets you used to the game before you hit the harder, more intricate numbers. The songs do get quite difficult in the latter stages of the game too, which I like. There is also a free play option for you to practise, with various options available.

The song list is littered with songs we all know and while I would have liked a few more modern tracks, what is there does suit the style of the game and its trombonistic aesthetic. There are national anthems, classical ditties and even a few really weird tunes that I have never heard of but ended up really loving to toot along to.

A Rootin’ Tootin’ Good Time for a Great Price

Trombone Champ: Unflattened may not be big, bold and flashy but what it does, it does with aplomb. It’s so much fun, is wildly entertaining and isn’t that why we play games? Yes, it’s not some 100-hour RPG but it’s great for all the family and will award you with hours of laughter and entertainment.

Trombone Champ: Unflattened is a great VR implementation of an already fun game. It has been translated into VR in a very loving and careful way. The tracking is superb, the menus are flawless and it has none of the VR messiness sometimes associated with the medium. Flat2VR Studios have done a magnificent job and I will certainly be keeping an eye on them in the future. Right, pass me the trombone, it’s time to toot one more!

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

If you want to buy Trombone Champ: Unflattened on the Meta Quest, you can here.