Trombone Champ is an indie rhythm game that continues to blow us away (opens in new tab). When Chris Livingston (Chris Livingston) started posting videos of his attempts at this game, the PC Gamer chat was filled with laughter. Coupled with his enthusiastic avatar and a screen that flashes "NASTY" and mocks your attempts, those hilariously bad notes are simple comedy brass.

But of course, there's something even better. We're not the first to become obsessed with the Trombone Champ. Recently, one clever fan showed off a VR implementation (opens in new tab). Naturally, trombone peripherals are the next step, and once again, people's ingenuity has made it possible.

You may have heard of Rudeism, a hardware madrassa that loves to play games in unconventional ways. He plays "Sifu" with punching controls (opens in new tab), "Untitled Goose Game" as a goose (opens in new tab), and "Hades" with a pomegranate (opens in new tab). He is the king of controller shenanigans and is working on the next step in the natural evolution of the trombone champ.

Rudeism posted a video on Twitter (opens in new tab) of his trombone controller in action, explaining that an ultrasonic sensor controls the slide portion of the trombone and a microphone controls the toot. Under normal circumstances, the slide would move the mouse, and the toots would click and press buttons on the keyboard.

He also explains that the slide does not move as it should, which is super true. In the video you can see he cannot extend the slide past the bell. As any trombonist will tell you, this is not good enough, and from what I can see in the video, he can only get to about the third position on the slide. This would only allow me to play 3 out of 7. Of course, a cool trombone player like me wouldn't care.

But it turns out that Rudism isn't the only one with his hands on the grindbone; the Trombone Champ developer Twitter account (opens in new tab) shares photos of various fan-made peripherals.

The little controller (opens in new tab) made by Twitter's ThereminHero is super cute. It uses an arduino control and a microphone trigger to power the trombone, and I'm guessing that Rudeism scaled back his build to solve the distant problems he was having with the slide. Plus, I'm glad to see that this user name has made you love the theremin even more. (opens in new tab)

Another great effort by TheNoochGoodler (opens in new tab). This one is also made with arduino, but is more DIY friendly. Another example of a great slide that works, although there seems to be some difficulty with the distance options. theNoochGoodler has posted their project on github (opens in new tab).

It's great to see a charming indie darling soar virally, especially when it's as weird and hilarious as Trombone Champ. With so many people already on board, the V2 round of Trombone Controller should be even better. Nothing sparks creativity in a community like the challenge of taking something great and making it just a little bit silly.