Wax Heads Review: A Cozy Game That Strikes a Chord

If you've played simulators like Tavern Talk or KuloNiku: Bowl Up! (which I had the pleasure of reviewing), then Wax Heads is going to feel familiar. It fittingly describes itself as a narrative sim. However, I don't think that description alone does the game justice. Wax Heads focuses on the passion that the small community that Repeater Records is located in has for music, but it also looks at how capitalism impacts beloved local shops and the residents of the towns they're located in.

In Wax Heads, you start a new job at Repeater Records, which is a local shop run by a former musician that sells vinyl records. Your daily tasks revolve around finding the records that customers want, which is easier said than done in most cases. However, you'll also be asked to do various small tasks, like design a poster for your coworker, Hank, and organize small items. The result is a narrative sim with a focus on getting to know your coworkers and community blended with a point-and-click puzzle game.

The Narrative Is the Title Track

This is what you expect from a narrative sim. If the narrative isn't the star of a narrative sim, then you have a problem with design. Even with the additional charm that comes from just talking to your coworkers and customers, you still learn about the events beyond your place of employment that are relevant to the story. There were moments where I'd have an event like the talk show sections and wonder why it was included at what felt like a random point, but then the topics discussed in the show would be relevant for my next day of hunting down records.

Your coworkers and boss each have their own personality and interests, which tend to be different styles of involvement in music, from managing a band, to playing in one, and producing music, but that's not the case for every employee. Some of them just love listening to music and dancing. Similarly, you'll have regular customers that you get to know through their music preferences, or from the reasons why they're looking for specific records, which can range from extremes like believing the band is sending them hidden messages through the music to wanting to remember a lost loved one through the deceased's favorite artists.

Of course, the narrative isn't the story of a small record shop thriving. As you go through the days at your new job, you learn that there might be a risk of not having the job for much longer, as somebody wants to buy the property for a development. To add to that risk, other small businesses in the area are closing or being bought out for corporate purposes. This felt too real, because I've seen businesses near my own home that have had to close because the cost was just too much, or because the owners were retiring and nobody wanted to take up and continue the business.

Overall, the depth of the narrative sneaks up on you. It doesn't take long to get through the game, but that's for the best, as it means the narrative isn't trying to overstay its welcome. It's contained, quaint, and makes you think about the return of hobbies like collecting vinyl records at a time when the focus of the corporate world is profit above all else, alongside practices that make it difficult for small businesses to survive. I went into Wax Heads expecting a nice, cozy job simulator, which it is, but that ended up coming with a side of charming existential crisis.

The Gameplay of a Point-and-Click Adventure

You aren't able to move freely throughout Repeater Records. Instead, you use arrows to navigate between different areas of the store to find the record that a customer wants. It's a bit confusing at first, but by the time I finished the A Side, I realized there's a little map at the top of your screen that helps with this.

The hardest part is that customer requests vary in how helpful they are. Some customers give you enough information to find what they want immediately. Other customers give you incredibly vague requests that leave me feeling like Nancy Drew as I read through all the album information for every album. I don't think this is a bad feature for the gameplay to have, as I enjoyed the song titles and blurbs that are included, but I could see how it might frustrate some players.

Having little minigame tasks and the arcade game in the shop are a nice touch for the gameplay, letting you break up record searches. The side tasks add to the feeling of being a regular employee at a shop, as I've had to do plenty of random little tasks in previous retail jobs that included the same kind of organization.

In general, the gameplay is lighter. This isn't a style of game that demands a lot of user input or action, as the gameplay is an accessory to the narrative. I will say that you'll get notifications on your phone in-game that might not seem useful at first, but the information from the posts you're notified about is the key to finding the record a customer might be talking about, so figuring that out was insanely helpful, and it's a nice way to give you hints but keep them feeling natural rather than forced. So, the gameplay elements that exist work together, meaning you want to make use of them if you want to find the correct records for customers.

The Odds and Ends

There are other aspects of the game that aren't exactly prominent enough to warrant an entire section. First, and what you notice right away, is the unique art style used for the characters and the world they inhabit. I thought the style suited the game. It gives you the feeling of being in a comic book or graphic novel, limiting the animations used for the characters. Still, the design for each character and customer is so distinct that you have an idea about the type of person they are from the moment you meet them.

Then, you have the music and sound design. I was worried that a game focusing on a record store might have distracting music, but it doesn't. It's fun, but not overpowering, so you have proper background music in the store and the ability to control the jukebox from your phone. The music on the soundtrack has a nostalgic feeling to it, even without it being composed of nostalgic songs. Instead, it embodies the essence of them.

Wax Heads is a fun, but short, cozy narrative sim that puts you into the world of physical media via selling vinyls, which is actually seeing a resurgence in the real world. What starts as a charming new job with friendly coworkers turns into the story of how hobbies have to be balanced with real-world obligations and the reality of how corporate practices often hurt small businesses the most, taking away beloved features from towns. It's cute and a bit of a puzzle game, but I wish it lasted longer and gave me more options when speaking to characters, especially to ask follow-up questions regarding record requests.