Wax Heads Review – Spinning Tales

Occasionally, I give in to the gloom and doom of social media and fall into this perception of indie games as just these formulaic trend-chasers. This usually lasts for about three seconds, but it does happen! Yet, all it takes to break that perception is taking a look at music-themed games this past month alone: Mixtape, People of Note, Dead as Disco, and, of course, Wax Heads. Each one celebrates music differently. What makes Wax Heads special is just how modern it feels.

Wax Heads is a game broadly about music, yes, but it is also about the ongoing horrors caused by the rise of artificial intelligence, the communities we’re losing as a result, the challenges of finding identity in a world already trying to demotivate us from doing so, and the egos of those that have power over us all. It is so cutting-edge that, if I didn’t know any better, I could be convinced it was envisioned and created within this past week.

It all envelops what’s a relatively simple puzzle game—a record shop clerk job simulator that relies on connecting the dots based on the descriptions given by customers and the information found throughout the records themselves, but also social media, the latest zine/magazine, or just recent story events. I say relatively simple because, for games like this, I’m used to complexity, a running timer, and perhaps even resource management. So I feel it’s important to know that Wax Heads is no Papers Please, Not Tonight, or Contraband Police. It’s its own thing.

Still, I can’t help but use those games as a point of comparison. See, they occasionally have these special characters that are dealt with outside the usual web of systems. These often serve as a way to provide decisions and extra challenge to the player in an already overwhelming situation, because they have to pay attention to a special detail outside of the usual routine. It’s exactly that kind of character that you can expect as your average customer in Wax Heads. Spot the detail, don’t forget it, use that knowledge when the time comes.

This approach of having each character be a full-fledged puzzle ends up being the main gripe I have with Wax Heads. So many people end up feeling like caricatures written into these hyper-specific situations just to fit a puzzle. It works once, maybe twice, but when that ends up being the norm, it stops feeling genuine. I think the one that truly broke me was a customer whose boyfriend loved an artist, but could not handle space, icebergs, or demons. Wow, good thing one of the four albums has none of those in the tracklist!

Characters like these seriously damage the game’s otherwise strong writing. It becomes hard to buy into this town being a real place when everything feels as if it revolves around enabling increasingly ridiculous puzzles. A rainy day doesn’t feel like it just happens because that’s how weather works—it feels like a pretense for someone who loves dancing in the rain to come in and buy that record about dancing in the rain that’s been on your shelves these past few days. A character’s thoughts have to be spelled out so that they can serve as hints for a puzzle.

In an attempt to make every character, every event, and every record feel unique, Wax Heads loses sight of much-needed groundedness. Unlike the games mentioned earlier, there’s little routine to speak of outside of a few repeating patterns in the puzzles and returning customers. The entire community, which I seriously wanted to feel a kinship with, to bond with over music, starts feeling more like just content for the game. A more charitable, but similarly unfortunate read that came to mind as I was playing is that most everyone’s buying these records for little more than posturing’s sake.

Clearly, regular customers who are there for the music exist. You see them while exploring the store in search of the record that meets the requirements of the current puzzle. They all have equally interesting designs to the many characters you do get to talk to, which are all fantastic and unique, and during those parts it’s so easy to get lost in the wonderful color and style of the game. The amazing artwork on the vinyl covers, little interactables like the store snacks or drinks, the decorations you purchase with your paychecks—there’s so much life to Wax Heads when you don’t focus on its puzzle gameplay loop.

With a story and main characters that really redeem the writing whenever they get the space to breathe, I often thought about whether puzzles were the right fit for Wax Heads. It feels like I’d get a lot more out of longer conversations with the cast, rather than forcing them to conform to a shorter puzzle description. It’d be challenging, but I have no reason to believe this team doesn’t have the chops to get it done after watching a young girl find her taste in music over only three appearances, or seeing the broad viewpoint and unique ways in which it unapologetically tackles the topic of artificial intelligence.

At its core lies a story about two sisters and a man’s ego—his obsession with power over them and the ownership of their voice and image. Among the endless copyright battles, social media drama, and men who try to take away all that shapes your identity, it asks if perhaps the only music that truly matters is the one you hear live at your local club, or the memory of when you played a vinyl in the comfort of your house, with a loved one by your side. A fascinating game in this era of increasingly malleable, personalized experiences. One of the customers even comes in to buy an album just because it contains a cheat code for a game he’s trying to beat, and you know what? He’s so valid for that.

I have to wonder what these developers would have to say about similar topics in video game spaces. It’s not all that different, is it? Physical media being pushed to the side, the rise of AI, dying publications. Even community events like E-sports tournaments are being taken over by corporations and dubious investors. Like music, video games can be communal experiences too. I want to believe that we can still fight for any space that once brought us together, that made magic happen.

Wax Heads is a fantastic, forward-thinking story that reinvigorated that spirit in me in spite of its shortcomings, but there’s still one thing I have mixed feelings about: the music. The mixing on the many unique tracks, as featured on the records you’ll be selling, is just so subdued. Punk lacks a real thump, a lot of pop misses out on truly letting loose, etc. In some songs, like the worst of the game’s puzzles, the lyrics are often painfully straightforward. It also feels like they’re desperately trying to catch up to the melodies in an unsatisfying way.

There still are several fictional earworms here. Mimi’s Unstoppable was on constant rotation since my first day on the job. The local bands really deliver, like the moody, presence-commanding Misunderstand by Girl Junk. I also enjoyed both the ambient Aiko Suzuki track and the solid, though somewhat overplayed, background music that plays for most of the game’s runtime while you’re running the store’s counter. It all makes a solid enough core to get lost in the atmosphere, even if not every song is a hit.

I will truly miss Paul, Tee, Abi, Hank, Matteo, and Morgan. I wish I spent more time with them, but I’ll always think back very warmly to Wax Heads. It’s a debut game that undoubtedly proves Patattie Games has all the right tools to create a real classic down the line, even if I found this one to be too scratched.

Mateusz reviewed Wax Heads on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.