High Fidelity: The Puzzle Game, and it’s Well Worth a Spin
While I enjoyed Wax Heads a bunch, I can’t help thinking that it’s set in a fantasy world. It assumes that punters in a record store don’t know what they want, and are open to having the shop staff recommend some LPs. Now, I’m willing to bet that, if you surveyed customers in every type of shop, record store customers would be the least likely to accept that help. Thumbing through dusty records is half the point. Being surprised by a record they want is the real joy. I can only imagine the scowls that the staff of Repeater Records would get in real life.
Wax Heads could be called ‘Strange Records’ and it would give a massive clue to how it plays. It’s a vibrant, vibey sibling to the Strange Horticulture and Strange Antiquities games. Customers approach you at the till with the smallest glimmer of what they want. They might have a half-remembered title of an LP, or a desire for a certain genre. It’s your job, with your knowledge of Repeater Records’ stock, to find the perfect jam for their needs.
Playing Detective in a Record Store
Which plays out, in true ‘Strange’ fashion, by following clues. You can pick up and examine each LP in great detail. You can read a kind of synopsis, flip over the dust jacket, and even peer at the wax itself. Even the price labels and stickers become clues, as there are customers who are open for a bargain or a limited edition. Oh, and make sure to check what the customers are wearing: a band t-shirt or hoodie is often a prompt.
Customers come in repeatedly, and you build an understanding of who they are and what they like. A girl comes in with her dad, perpetually dressed as a mascot, and you have to interpret what he wants through the poor communication between them. Another young girl wants a beginner’s guide to punk, and you watch as her mind gets blown as you broaden her tastes. Wax Heads has a lovely subtle touch, as you can often recommend what they truly want, not what they say they want.
These puzzles form the core of Wax Heads and they almost uniformly work well. I would often tour the record store before opening up, finding the new LPs and learning what they represent. Nine times out of ten, when a customer approached, I already knew what they wanted. Patattie Games are cruel/cheeky, though, so you have to be careful. A new vinyl might have a robot on the front, and a customer wants one precisely with a robot on the front, but it may not fit the other criteria. Traps are often set…
For a Music Game, There’s a Slight Lack of Music
There is an omission. Music rarely or never factors into your decision-making. For a game about music, you can’t listen to the records and determine if it’s suitable based on your own ears. I understand why – that would slow things down enormously, and it would make the game inaccessible for some players – but it undermines the whole ‘creativity is paramount’ message. I also wanted to be Jack Black in High Fidelity, reeling people in by playing music I think they like, but you never get a reaction from the music you play.
Still, this gameplay is ambrosia for any puzzle fans. I love that you not only build knowledge of the customers as they come in repeatedly, but you build understanding of the bands too. I could tell you the potted history of bands like Mimi, Sister and Jarhead, as well as their discographies. Fanzines, found on your shelves, and blogs, found on your phone, help to embellish their backstory. You don’t get to meet a lot of the bands shown in Wax Heads, but you still get a sense of their characters.
Wax Heads isn’t just about being a good music recommender. There’s a bunch of stuff that sits on the periphery. The most important is the wider story: Repeater Records is hemorrhaging cash, and the landlord (plus a shady buyer) want to turn it into an algorithmic store run by AI. That’s overly summarising, but it’s a well-told story of past glories, letting grudges drop, and fighting back against ‘the Man’, especially when that Man is determined to turn all music into AI slop. If you’re on that side of the AI fence, you will get a kick out of Wax Heads.
Waxing Lyrical about Wax Heads
Plus there are occasional puzzles like Unpacking-style sorting games, minigames that test your reflexes, and the whole ‘choose the best thing for someone’ motif gets broadened to include alcoholic drinks. There’s even an arcade machine in the shop if you want to drop a couple of coins in.
I found myself glued to Wax Heads until the end. It’s beautifully created, lovingly made, and way cooler than I am. But, weirdly enough, I wasn’t so taken with it in the opening few ‘Tracks’ (the game’s chapters). The records had no turnover, so I was recommending records from a stock of about ten. I was surprised that the stock wasn’t expanding; that it would become repetitive. But I should have had more faith in Wax Heads, It knows your limits and only introduces new floors and records once you’re ready. Plus it means that any new record is a big deal. You immediately search it out and try to learn everything about it.
It didn’t quite grab me as much as the ‘Strange’ games, but that’s okay. I’ve tried to dis-entangle the reasons why, and I think there are a couple. The first is that the shop isn’t as interesting as in those games. The space doesn’t hold as many secrets, and I was mostly focused on the records. And while the story and the LPs reference each other, they are not indelibly tied. I never really felt like I got an LP that was important or significant. They mostly reflected the story, rather than pushed it forward. But those are only minor quibbles, and they’re only a factor because I have played the ‘Strange’ games so recently.
This is a game that celebrates the joy of music, creativity and independent shopping, and it does it all with a sharp approach to puzzling. I imagine myself in a video game version of Wax Heads, and a punter comes up to me. They like music, the process of buying music, and they like puzzles. I wouldn’t hesitate to go get them Wax Heads. I’m pretty sure I would get the little ‘Rad!’ reaction from the customer.
Important Links
Wax Heads Lets You Live The Record Store Life – https://www.thexboxhub.com/wax-heads-lets-you-live-the-record-store-life/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/wax-heads/9n1k3mj9mqg8
