The Most Infamous Guitar Hero Song Comes To Trombone Champ

For a brief few years in the early 2000s, it was nearly impossible to go to a friend's house and play anything but "Guitar Hero." It's hard to describe just how popular this series was at its height, and its success inspired countless different takes on the concept in titles like "Rock Band" and the more educational "Rocksmith" — culminating in an important cultural moment, according to VICE. Though the "Guitar Hero" franchise itself is getting dusty, the rhythm game genre is far from dead. For example, "Beat Saber" has sold more than four million copies, even though it's restricted to VR systems only.

There's a lot of variety in the rhythm genre scene, but almost every rhythm-based game takes itself seriously, to a degree. "Trombone Champ" is completely different, offering players a sillier take on the rhythm game formula. To play the trombone in-game, players must use the slide to alter their pitch and match the notes that float towards the left side of the screen – and it's even possible to use gyro controls with the Steam Deck. Though the game only comes with a select few songs available for players to take on with a trombone, the game's vibrant modding community has seriously expanded the choices players have.

Now, thanks to a mod from DerpyChap, fans of the infamously difficult "Guitar Hero 3" track "Through the Fire and the Flames" — originally by the band DragonForce — can take on this legendary challenge with a trombone instead of an axe.

Holy Wow Studios, the development studio behind "Trombone Champ," makes what its Twitter bio describes as "stupid and/or funny games." "Trombone Champ" is much more than just a silly game, as fans are finding it to be extremely replayable — made even more replayable with the use of mods. DragonForce's "Through the Fire and the Flames" went viral after players perfected the expert version of the song, making for quite the "Guitar Hero 3" challenge. The "Trombone Champ" version of the song is not much different, just replacing the screaming metal guitar with rapid brassy toots.

DerpyChap credits the "Trombone Champ" modding Discord server for putting together tools that let players make custom songs for complex projects like this. In the video where DerpyChap revealed the "Through the Fire and the Flames" mod for "Trombone Champ," the creator could hardly get a combo going. Almost immediately upon releasing it, though, DerpyChap was surprised that two people had already earned an A Rank on the song – they did admit, though, that it's "impossible to full combo." Unlike the original track, it looks like the "Trombone Champ" version of "Through the Fire and the Flames" will be nearly impossible to 100%.