A niche game that is probably more fun if you’re a fan of the rhythm genre.

Have you ever wanted to play the trombone?

If your answer is no, then you’ll probably find Trombone Champ: Unflattened, as boring as the real instrument.

The first title by developer Flat2VR Studios, Unflattened is a made for virtual reality (VR) port of the original flat game by Holy Wow Studios.

This VR game puts you on stage with a trombone in your hand as you play more than 50 songs spanning genres like classical, national anthems, holiday, and more. Now you’re not going to be getting a song list full of popular music from overrated artists, included in the standard song list. But if you’re in this for the experience of playing a quirky music inspired game, there’s more than enough here.

However, if annoying pop songs and uninspired rap music is your thing, the developers have announced that Quest and PC versions of the game will allow for you to add custom songs. It’s unknown at this time if this feature will be made available for the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2) version due to Sony’s regulations.

Gameplay here tries to be as simple as possible where you hold the trombone with one hand and use the other to change the pitch with the slide. Since you can’t exactly blow into the mouthpiece of your virtual instrument, you’ll push the ‘A’ button on your Quest controller, or ‘X’ button on the PSVR2 Sense controllers to toot the horn.

But keep in mind, just like you wouldn’t be able to keep blowing indefinitely in real life, trying to do so in game may result in some heavy panting – and a bunch of missed notes.

As your song kicks off notes will come at you from both sides of the screen – however, you can turn this to just one if you would rather make it easier on yourself. As the notes come in, you need to get the slide into position and toot the trombone at the right time to play the note perfectly – similar to music games of the past like Guitar Hero. 

The better you play the higher your score and overall ranking.

Campaign mode offers you a chance to experience trombone greatness. In here, each song you play comes with different challenges to complete. The more challenges you knock off the list the more music and other surprises you will get to keep the game moving forward.

If you want to just play without the fear of being booed out by an unhappy audience, jump into free play where you can practice to become better – or creatively butcher songs to your hearts content in Improv mode.

Now that the basics of playing this game have been covered, let’s talk graphics.

Everything here is cartoonish, but considering the game it works. Playing on the Quest 3 things are crisp and look pretty good, and on this headset you’re not only able to play in immersive VR, you also have the opportunity for mixed reality (MR). In this mode you can position the conductor and musical notes at the right height to experience the game while viewing your surroundings.

This was an interesting way to experience the game, but overall MR does not really add anything to this game and seems more like a gimmick.

If you’re playing the game on the PSVR2 you get to not only experience things like the advanced haptics and adaptive triggers on the Sense controllers, but better visuals coming in at 4K HDR with a 120 hertz refresh rate.

Now for those who will be picking up the game, there’s more to it than just playing on a boring brass instrument. In fact, there are more than 20 unlockable trombones, some of which are there just to add to the sheer stupidity the game wants to emulate. Do you want to play song on a meowing cat trombone, or a rubber chicken that reacts as ridiculously as sounds? You’re in luck as these and more are available to you in game.

Also available if you want to chase in game items are “Tromboner Cards.” Yes, they really were given that name, and there are 50 of these available within the game for those who need an extra challenge.

Overall Trombone Champ: Unflattened, is a quirky game that is well put together and will probably be pretty popular among the rhythm game enthusiasts. It looks pretty good for what it is, and compared to some of the other games that were ported over from flat, this is probably the best of the group considering it is not being launched an ugly broken mess – like Bulletstorm VR.

If you’re not someone who has been obsessed with games such as Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Synth Riders, and the like during your time in VR, you may find that this game is just not fun.

It’s great that there are developers out there like Flat2VR Studios, who want to expand the offerings available on headsets by bringing flat classics to VR. While they definitely nailed this game and it plays well, it’s only fun for those who like these types of games.

Trombone Champ: Unflattened, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving pre-release access.