# Trombone Champ

Trombone Champ is a trombone-based rhythm game developed and published by Holy Wow Studios, released on September 15, 2022. Similar in gameplay to rhythm game titles Guitar Hero and Wii Music, players are tasked with timing their input to music note prompts as they appear on screen, with greater accuracy yielding more points and a higher score. The debut indie title reached widespread popularity on Steam after becoming an Internet meme. It was nominated for the British Academy Games Award for Debut Game, as well as Family Game of the Year during the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.
A standalone virtual reality version, Trombone Champ: Unflattened, was released in November 2024.

## Gameplay

Trombone Champ is a rhythm game in which players use a virtual trombone to play along to various songs, ranging from classical and public domain songs to original tracks and remixes. Players move the mouse to change the pitch of the trombone and use either the mouse button or keyboard keys to play. Players earn points by successfully hitting notes as they slide across the screen, with more points earned by maintaining successive combos and filling a meter that activates Champ Fever when filled, earning even more points. Missing notes, however, will cause the player to lose their combo multiplier and Champ Fever, as well as potentially lose points. Players will also momentarily run out of breath if they hold a note for too long.
At the end of each song, players receive a rank from F to S based on their score, as well as an in-game currency known as Toots. Toots can be spent on in-game trading cards known as Tromboner Cards, which contain humorous and sometimes fictional trivia about musicians, trombones, and game lore. Unwanted or duplicate cards can be transformed into Turds, which can then be spent to create new cards. Hidden throughout the game are non-playable characters who assist the player in becoming the eponymous Trombone Champ. By fulfilling requests such as offering a certain amount of Toots or Turds or trading specific Tromboner Cards, players can unlock additional playable characters, trombone colors, and sound sets. There is also a secret boss level that requires certain conditions to fully defeat and claim the title of Trombone Champ.

## Development

Creator Dan Vecchitto had long thought of an arcade video game based on moving a trombone-like slide controller, but the idea was always a joke. He later got the idea of using the mouse cursor to act as the trombone slide, and realized that there was a game concept behind that. His studio, Holy Wow Studios, was a group of part-time developers and while Vecchitto had thought it would take only about six months to realize the game, it ended up taking four years. Two features of the game forced the longer development time: the introduction of the Tromboner Cards, which was to parody loot box systems in other games, and a loose story involving baboons, which Vecchitto created in parody of the Dark Souls series' narratives.
The studio ran a small open playtesting of the game a month ahead of its planned release, from which they received a far greater amount of feedback than expected. When the game was first fully released in September 2022, the reaction to the game went viral, drawing in more players and feedback. Due to this, Vecchitto said they were considering more features as well as potential console ports of the game.
Initially released only for Windows, Trombone Champ became available for macOS users in January 2023. A port for the Nintendo Switch was announced during a Nintendo Direct on September 14, 2023, and released on the same day. The Switch version features alternative control schemes that use the gyroscopic and infrared sensors of the Joy-Con to play the game, as well as local multi-player support for up to four players.
Localization was added to the game on March 14, 2024, with support for ten languages.
Trombone Champ: Unflattened, a VR adaptation by Flat2VR Studios supporting Meta Quest, Steam VR, and PlayStation VR2, was released on November 26, 2024.
A patch released on March 13, 2025 for Windows and macOS added native support for custom tracks, and an in-game level editor.

## Track listing

As of March 13, 2025, Trombone Champ has a total of 71 playable tracks: 60 arrangements of public domain music, 9 original compositions, and 2 contributed compositions by third-party artists. Developer Holy Wow Studios has expanded the number of playable tracks through free updates, and expressed interest in using future downloadable content to expand the tracklist as well. In addition to the first-party included tracks listed below, there are unofficial mods that allow custom tracks such as "Through the Fire and Flames" and "One-Winged Angel" to be loaded into the game. (In-game support for custom tracks was added in a patch released on March 13, 2025.)
Public domain Original Contributed
| Title | Composer | Added in |
| "Also sprach Zarathustra" | Richard Strauss | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Auld Lang Syne" (Champ Mix) | Robert Burns, Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Baboons!" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony" | Ludwig van Beethoven | v1.00 (original release) |
| "The Blue Danube" | Johann Strauss II | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Eine kleine" (Champ Mix) | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (Trap Mix) | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "The Entertainer" | Scott Joplin | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Entry of the Gladiators" | Julius Fučík | v1.00 (original release) |
| "God Save the King" | Unknown | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Hava Nagila" | Abraham Zevi Idelsohn | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Long-Tail Limbo" | Max Tundra | v1.00 (original release) |
| "O Canada" | Calixa Lavallée | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Old Gray Mare" | Thomas Francis McNulty | v1.00 (original release) |
| "SkaBIRD" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Skip to My Lou" | Unknown | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Stars and Stripes Forever" | John Philip Sousa | v1.00 (original release) |
| "The Star-Spangled Banner" | Francis Scott Key, John Stafford Smith | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" | Albert Von Tilzer, Jack Norworth | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Trombone Fuerte" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Trombone Skyze" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Warm-Up" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.00 (original release) |
| "William Tell Overture" | Gioachino Rossini | v1.00 (original release) |
| "Rosamunde" (Beer Barrel Polka) | Jaromír Vejvoda | v1.03 (September 21, 2022) |
| "Jarabe Tapatío" | Jesús González Rubio | v1.05 (September 29, 2022) |
| "ARE U READY 4 THIZ?" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.07 (October 15, 2022) |
| "Happy Birthday to You" (Ska Mix) | Patty Hill, Mildred J. Hill, Holy Wow Studios | v1.07 (October 15, 2022) |
| "Ode to Joy" | Ludwig van Beethoven | v1.07 (October 15, 2022) |
| "Martian Killbots!!!" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.08 (October 30, 2022) |
| "The Celebrated Chop Waltz" | Euphemia Allen | v1.085 (November 14, 2022) |
| "Sakura Sakura" | Unknown | v1.087 (November 30, 2022) |
| "Taps" | Daniel Butterfield, Oliver Wilcox Norton | v1.088 (December 7, 2022) |
| "La Marseillaise" | Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle | v1.088 (December 7, 2022) |
| "Jingle Bells (Jazz Mix)" | James Lord Pierpont, Holy Wow Studios | v1.089 (December 15, 2022) |
| "Max Tundra's Silent Night" | Franz Xaver Gruber, Max Tundra | v1.089 (December 15, 2022) |
| "Mars, the Bringer of War" | Gustav Holst | v1.0897 (January 3, 2023) |
| "Funiculi, Funicula!" | Luigi Denza, Peppino Turco | v1.091 (January 16, 2023) |
| "Gymnopédie No. 1" | Erik Satie | v1.093 (January 31, 2023) |
| "Old MacDonald" | Unknown | v1.095 (February 10, 2023) |
| "Commander Tokyo, The Dancing Robot" | CV | v1.096 (February 24, 2023) |
| "The Sailor's Hornpipe" | Unknown, Max Tundra | v1.096 (February 24, 2023) |
| "St. James Trombonery Blues" | Unknown, Holy Wow Studios | v1.098 (March 17, 2023) |
| "Danny Boy" | Unknown, Frederic Weatherly | v1.099 (April 1, 2023) |
| "In the Hall of the Mountain King" | Edvard Grieg | v1.099 (April 1, 2023) |
| "Flight of the Bumblebee" | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov | v1.10 (April 25, 2023) |
| "Washington Post March" | John Philip Sousa | v1.11 (June 2, 2023) |
| "When the Saints Go Marching In" | Unknown | v1.11 (June 2, 2023) |
| "The Barber of Seville" | Gioachino Rossini | v1.13 (August 11, 2023) |
| "Down by the Riverside" | Unknown | v1.14 (September 13, 2023) |
| "House of the Rising Sun" | Unknown | v1.15 (October 11, 2023) |
| "Hino Nacional Brasileiro" | Francisco Manuel da Silva | v1.15 (October 11, 2023) |
| "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" | Unknown | v1.16 (October 27, 2023) |
| "Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua)" | Unknown | v1.16 (October 27, 2023) |
| "Night on Bald Mountain" | Modest Mussorgsky | v1.17 (November 17, 2023) |
| "Arirang" | Unknown | v1.17 (November 17, 2023) |
| "O Christmas Tree" | Ernst Anschütz, Melchior Franck | v1.18 (December 12, 2023) |
| "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" | Unknown | v1.18 (December 12, 2023) |
| "Habanera (from Carmen)" | Georges Bizet | v1.19 (January 25, 2024) |
| "Trombone Skyze (Nasty Mix)" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.19 (January 25, 2024) |
| "Hello! Ma Baby" | Joseph E. Howard and Ida Emerson | v1.21 (April 16, 2024) |
| "Korobeiniki" | Unknown | v1.21 (April 16, 2024) |
| "Toccata and Fugue" | Johann Sebastian Bach | v1.22d (June 4, 2024) |
| "The Four Seasons (Summer)" | Antonio Vivaldi | v1.22d (June 4, 2024) |
| "Trombone Champ Medley" | Holy Wow Studios | v1.22d (June 4, 2024) |
| "The Can-Can" | Jacques Offenbach | v1.23E (September 9, 2024) |
| "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" | Franz Liszt | v1.23E (September 9, 2024) |
| "Carol of the Bells" | Mykola Leontovych | v1.24B (December 16, 2024) |
| "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah!" | Unknown | v1.24B (December 16, 2024) |
| "Puttin' On the Ritz" | Irving Berlin | v1.24B (December 16, 2024) |
| "Rhapsody in Blue" | George Gershwin | v1.25E (March 13, 2025) |