Hextech Mayhem review: a music game filled with freedom

The purpose of rhythm games is to follow a strict set of patterns. Hextech MayhemWe understand how much fun it is to ignore the rules.

Hextech Mayhem: A League of LegendsStory is one of the first two Riot Forge initiatives — games designed by indie studios set inside the League of Legends universe. The story-heavy and long-form RPGs are not the same. The Ruined King is a League of Legends Story Surprise! Hextech MayhemIt is an easy rhythm game that’s short. There is more to the game than meets the eye. Hextech Mayhem doesn’t just reward players who follow its prompts judiciously. This is the meat. Hextech MayhemThe improvisation that it incites is what makes this unique.

Through over 30 levels and three boss fights, I control Ziggs — a fluffy explosives expert — in an auto-running, left-to-right side-scrolling platformer. Instead of jumping just to dodge obstacles, I also jump. Hextech MayhemIt is also an audio game. You will find prompts scattered throughout the levels. To follow the beat, you need to press the button that corresponds with each one. Green prompts note where I need to time Ziggs’ jumps, white dropping prompts tell me to send him immediately back to the ground, and bomb prompts tell me to throw one of Ziggs’ unlimited supplies of bombs. It’s like playing a Mario game where you have to carefully jump to the rhythm.

Image: Choice Provisions/Riot Games

When you’re playing well, Hextech Mayhem’s variety of sound effects meld into the music to create a perfect harmony. The buildings in the background dance in-sync to the music, and some sweet guitar fades in when I’ve hit several prompts in a row without missing. In its best moments, it’s impossible for me not to bob my head along to the music, working as a kind of self-metronome to keep me in the groove.

However, Hextech Mayhem is fun, cute, and groovy when I’m just following instructions, it doesn’t punish me for going off script. There are several parts to each mission that allow me to jam to the music and send Ziggs flying, without messing up my combo. These empty spaces, when combined with the prompts visible to me, allow me to add my creativity and enhance the music. There are also invisible prompts during this section, and if timed well, they allow me to pick up collectibles — but they’re in no way necessary to hit.

If I am able to find them, these invisible prompts will guide me on new routes. A metal box might be a sign that I am supposed to follow the music. However, an indecipherable vent may mean I need to slam Ziggs against the ground instead of letting him fall naturally. These hints are hard to see at first, but they’re so tied to the music that I began noticing them after only a few levels.

Image: Choice Provisions/Riot Games

All the while, I’m increasing something called Mayhem — a stat that tracks how many guards, boxes, vents, walls, and balloons I destroyed on my way to the finish line. A great way to score high is to hit 100% of all visible prompts. However, great scores also require an extremely high Mayhem level. Score chasers can ask for help in finding the hidden prompts.

As someone who doesn’t often play music or rhythm games, my improvisation and effort to discover invisible notes did tend to get me in trouble. But I was able to explore and learn from the music and became a better player. It’s easy to imagine fans who really invest themselves in Hextech Mayhem creating some incredible routes through each level — even beyond the invisible inflections — enhancing the music with their own explosive rhythm, and then realigning themselves in time for the next prompt. For those of us who can’t do that on our own, finishing the game unlocks a mode that shows a path to 100% Mayhem, giving a lot more guidance by filling the empty spaces with visible prompts.

However Hextech Mayhem stands strongly on its own merits, it’s also riffing off the League of Legends universe. Hextech MayhemZiggs is an explosives expert who plans to destroy Piltover. Heimerdinger acts as his foil. League players like myself are already deeply familiar with this pair, but the cutscenes and pre-mission dialogue do a nice enough job of selling these characters to the uninitiated — they’re like Cogsworth and Lumiere from Beauty and the BeastLumiere might have preferred pyromancy to dine in entertainment.

Image: Choice Provisions/Riot Games

In all of Riot’s games, the focus is on groups of these heroes acting in dynamic multiplayer modes — be it as chess pieces, cards, or the regular controllable Champions. But Hextech MayhemThe focus is on one spot in the universe, and one relationship. This gives you a whole new perspective. There’s not a lot of lore or story, but Ziggs and Heimer’s big, familiar personalities shine through the dialogue, the increasingly ridiculous mechs they both create, and the explosions all around them, living up to the “League of Legends Story” subtitle in a satisfying way for longtime fans.

Hextech Mayhem is a lot of things in a small package: It’s a music game with an excellent soundtrack, a League of Legends game that doesn’t punish players not-in-the-know, and a rhythm game that lets you color outside the lines to find new routes to pursue. But it’s that last part, the freedom to jump around to your own beat just in time to fall back in line, that will keep it in my memory.

It’s rare that a single feature adds both accessibility and depth, but Hextech MayhemThis unique title is capable of inspiring creativity in a way that seems to be a linear pathway.

Hextech Mayhem – A League of Legends Story On November 16, the game was available on both Windows PC and Nintendo Switch. Epic Games Store provided a press account for the review and Riot Games provided a prerelease download code. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions on products sold via affiliate links. Find out more. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.