Wax Heads

I clearly remember that there used to be a fantastic record shop in a basement in central Copenhagen. The shop was called Loud Music, and you were always made to feel very welcome there in a way you don't really experience in many places anymore. I spent many hours in front of the Technics 1210 turntables, listening through records I was planning to take home. The owner would often come over to me with suggestions for other music he thought I should hear, and it was so lovely to spend most of a Saturday morning at Loud, surrounded by people who were passionate about what they did.

With these fond memories in mind, I was therefore very excited to see if I could relive some of that same feeling in Wax Heads, which is a small "slice of life" game, or a "cosy-punk narrative sim", as it is also described by the developers themselves. You've just been hired at the small record shop Repeater Records, where you take part in the various tasks in the shop, such as putting up merchandise, helping customers find exactly the music they need, and also keeping up to date with the latest music by reading music reviews.

Helping the eccentric, and sometimes almost chaotic, customers is clearly what you spend most of your time on. They come into the shop and each has their own story to tell, but ultimately they are always on the lookout for a very special record that means something to them or to someone they care about. However, they can't always remember exactly what the record is called; perhaps they can only remember the name of one of the band members or one of the tracks on the record, or perhaps they're more indecisive and simply need a record that can put them in a better mood.

The gameplay is simple. You move around the shop using navigation arrows on the side of the screen and then you have to browse through the various records the shop has in stock. Perhaps the solution lies in the name of one of the tracks on a particular record. It's not always easy to find the right record, and sometimes you have to resort to online music reviews or a post on the social media platform Phonogram to get on the right track to finding the perfect record for the customer.

It's a rather cosy little gameplay loop, and you gradually get to know the records in the shop well, even though new releases are coming in all the time. Unfortunately, the difficulty level sometimes seems rather inconsistent. Some of the clues customers provide can be complete nonsense, leaving you with no idea which record they're looking for and you end up taking a shot in the dark, with a high risk of leaving the customer dissatisfied. A subsequent customer, on the other hand, might be very precise about what they're looking for and can almost immediately tell you the name of the record. But perhaps that's how it is in real life too; in a game, however, these uneven jumps in difficulty are a bit frustrating.

Life goes on at Repeater Records; you chat with the other staff in the shop, you listen to the new music arriving in the shop's jukebox, and as several of the staff also work with music in their spare time, you tag along to clubs or venues to hear them perform. It's quite cosy living life as an employee in this little record shop, even though a specialist shop of this kind is always under financial pressure and from large developers who want to buy the building the shop is in, so they can build a shopping centre or car parks instead. And then there's the fact that the owner of Repeater Records used to be in a band where the members fell out, and that also plays a part in the running of the little record shop. I won't reveal any more here.

As mentioned, the gameplay is very simple and it might well become a bit monotonous over time. Wax Heads is best suited to being played in shorter bursts, but on the other hand, it's also quite good and relaxing entertainment. The positive thing is that you get to hear a lot of great music, and the small developer Patattie Games, consisting of just two people, has put together a really good soundtrack here, featuring music across several different genres.

The visuals are very distinctive and probably rather "hit or miss". The style didn't really appeal to me, but I was quite impressed by the many covers and sleeves they'd had made for the more than 80 records featured in the game. It's been quite a huge undertaking, and they've pulled it off really well.

Wax Heads is a cosy, relaxing little game and especially if you're a music fanatic, it's lovely to potter about running the little record shop. The simple gameplay is perhaps a bit too simple, and the challenge lies in the vague clues the customers give, so it can all get a bit monotonous. However, I think Patattie Games deserves credit for trying something new, and it's actually a great idea they've come up with here and the fact that it's all been created by just two people with help from only a handful of external contributors is even more impressive.

If you enjoy good music and are looking for a relaxing and cosy game that's particularly well-suited to your Switch or Steam Deck, then Wax Heads could be a really good choice, and you can try a demo on Steam if you'd like to check it out before you buy.