Headbangers: Rhythm Royale Review – Pigeon Rave

"This was your dream" is my new LSS. 🐔

Alec Padua
Alec Padua
8 Min Read
Headbangers: Rhythm Royale
8 Great
Review Summary

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale is one of those funny games you never thought you needed. Whether you want to play alone or with your friends, I’m confident that you’ll enjoy this gem regardless. During my playtest, the devs had me play against a couple of challenging AI pigeons, where I actually lost at a couple of AI battles.

I even invited my partner over to play the game and we also had a hard time beating the AI. So should I say that Headbangers: Rhythm Royale is the “Dark Souls” of rhythm games? Not really. But I can say that it’s worth adding to your game rotation. Let’s dive into the review!

Graphics & Presentation

Home screen
Home Screen

When I say that you don’t need “fancy” graphics to make great games, I can say that Headbangers: Rhythm Royale fits right into that category. I would go as far as putting Headbangers and Fall Guys on the same pedestal.

Shop Screen
Spend Bread to buy cosmetic items in the shop; earn Bread by participating in games.

Most games nowadays put some in-game currency as part of level design to hook you to play longer. For Headbangers, Bread is the in-game currency and you can spend it on customization items. Don’t worry, the game isn’t pay-to-win so your wallets are safe. Not unless you’re that type of gamer who’s into cosmetic DLC.

Unlock rare skins after completing a series of challenges.

You can get free cosmetics through their seasonal battle passes and there are in-game shops as well where you can use your Bread to buy emotes, taunts, and other accessories for your pigeon.

Battlepass progression screen
Headbangers also has its battle pass.

Audio

Fitness game screen

Whoever did the voice acting for the pigeons deserves an award. They found a way to amuse and annoy me at the same time. For someone who is musically inclined, I found some of the mini-games challenging even though it was built to be easy. But more on that later.

The Battle Box game screen
Welcome to The Battle Box where you go head-to-head with a pigeon.

I found the Headbangers music to be well-designed. I didn’t expect the musical choices to be so diverse and they tried to cater to every genre. There’s a funny mini-game where you need to make your pigeon rap.

Controls

Bonus Round Screen
This is one of the sample bonus round mini-games that you get to experience. I rather spam my controller over my keyboard.

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale can be either played with a controller or a keyboard. The game recommends playing with the controller especially when you need to trigger a bonus round.

I found it harder to fill up my bonus meter when I used the keyboard. This is because you need to spam the arrow keys to make the pigeon’s head spin. And let’s just say spinning your pigeon’s head isn’t as smooth as I imagined it to be.

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale Garden Party Screen
My hand-eye coordination along with listening to the beat is being challenged.

General Mechanics

Pigeon Lobby

A single game session consists of four rounds starting with 30 pigeons, following an elimination format. 10 pigeons will be eliminated in the first two rounds followed by five pigeons in the third round. In the final round, only five pigeons will remain for a last-man-standing match.

Guess It Random Item Pickup
Pigeon participants have a chance to pick up random item boxes that can either boost or nerf your chances to score.

Most of the mini-game mechanics involve listening to tunes and then trying to reproduce the tune from your side. Also, a lot of the mini-games here are reminiscent of popular rhythm titles like Hatsune Miku, Muse Dash, and Taiko to name a few.

To The Sky Mini Game
To The Sky: Hatsune Miku rhythm racing in space.

My Favorite Mini-games

After spending over three hours with the game, I was surprised at the variety of mini-games and I genuinely enjoyed each one of them. I already have a few favorites that stood out to me such as:

  • Guilty: This mini-game will let you guess which pigeon fits the theme for a certain sound. If you’re a Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan, imagine yourself as Jake Peralta and you try to figure out who the suspect is for singing I Want It That Way.
  • Piano Shooter: Try hitting the piano keys in the correct order with a slingshot. As a pianist, I approve of this mini-game.
  • That 70’s Race: This is actually one of my most hated mini-games especially when you get to play this in the final round. I can already imagine the pressure I’ll get once I match with real opponents.
Guilty Mini-game
“Tell me why…” (Pigeons sing) “Ain’t nothin’ but a heartache.”

These are just three of the 23 mini-games that you can experience with Headbangers so you won’t ever feel drained when you go on those long play sessions. I do feel like there will come a time when you’re ears will itch and you’re gonna look for more sound variety.

The Verdict

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale can make an excellent addition to your Steam library especially if you’re a Twitch streamer. You can host community events with this game and you invite up to 29 players in one game session for a 30-pigeon rhythm royale.

After Party Mini-game
I got eliminated in the After Party too soon.

While I don’t expect it to reach the same levels of popularity as mainstream titles, I do believe there’s a dedicated audience for this game. I could see it at least hitting around the 5,000 to 10,000 average player count in the long term since it had over 50,000+ demo downloads in Steam Next Fest and it also supports crossplay.

If you’re planning to bond with your friends or just hang out with your community over at Discord, definitely pick up Headbangers: Rhythm Royale. You can pick up the game on Steam, Xbox Game Pass, PS4/PS5, or on the Nintendo Switch.

What did you think of our Headbangers Rhythm Royale Review? Share what you think about it in the comments below.

This review is based on the PC version of Headbangers Rhythm Royale. The key was provided bTeam17.

Review Summary
Great 8
Overall Score 8
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Annyeong, my name's Alec and I’m a full-stack content creator where I focus on producing videos and gaming articles – I get mistaken for a Korean. I rebranded my YouTube channel to "Oppa Lec" in 2023 and turned it into a content sandbox around gaming, music, tech, and video editing tutorials. I’ve also been a YouTuber since 2009 as a one-man production team who has built four channels around piano covers, singing, gaming, and finance niches. You can also catch me streaming occasionally on Twitch and I have music released on platforms like Spotify. While I do enjoy playing mainstream games, I love reviewing indie or “hidden gem” titles. Some of my favorites that stood out are Eternal Return, Oblivion Override, Hades, Risk of Rain 2, Battlebit Remastered, and more. I always believe that you don’t need fancy graphics to make a fantastic game.
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