League of Legends Rhythm Game Hextech Mayhem Launches Today

Earlier this month, Riot Games announced Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story, a beat-matching game with some serious side-scrolling/platforming gameplay. Riot calls it a “fast-paced rhythm runner,” and that phrase was personified in Hextech Mayhem’s explosive (literally) launch trailer that premiered during today’s Riot Forge Showcase with Nintendo Switch. Below is gameplay footage.

Piltover, Valoran’s cultural center with a gorgeous steampunk aesthetic, serves as the primary backdrop for Hextech Mayhem. Your role is that of Ziggs. Hextech Mayhem’s main backdrop features Ziggs. Ziggs is a wild yordle, which can take the shape of a mammal and has a profound love for big bombs. Ziggs isn’t content to use his explosives against other champions, but instead he embarks upon a quest to create the bomb that will rule all. He also avoids his rigid and strict nemesis Heimerdinger. 

As Ziggs, you’ll “bomb to the beat,” running over floating icons that change your orientation (e.g., launch you in the air, drop you back down to the ground, etc.) While you’re destroying waves of enemies and bosses, your horizontal Piltover map will be displayed. Heimerdinger and his armoured troopers, weaponized machinations and armed troops are the only thing standing between you as well as your musical adventures. 

Hextech Mayhem’s challenge seems like it derives its sensory overload. You’ll be moving in tandem with the music, but balls of fire emitted after hitting enemies and objects alike with bombs fill the screen and make navigation a disorienting activity. You’ll have to pay attention and try your best to disregard the colorful carnage to stay alive. 

If this gameplay loop excites you, then you’re in luck. Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story launches today on Nintendo Switch and PC. 

You are ready to run down the Piltover streets and slay everyone that you meet?