Just headbang! Experience the bird-skateboarding VR game ‘TORIMA HEADBANG’ where you headbang with your whole body! [Review

In May 2026, at the BitSummit PUNCH, Japan’s largest indie game event, held at Miyakomesse in Kyoto, there was a corner right next to the “XR Yokocho,” a dedicated XR game area that had a huge presence in the center of the venue. This corner exuded a particularly free and energetic atmosphere. It was the booth for the newly established “BitSummit Game Jam XR Division.”
The exhibition is packed with works created by teams of students and young creators who worked together to produce them in a limited amount of time. They are rough around the edges but full of raw energy, different from the polished works of professionals. Among them, the one that most firmly captured my heart and mind was a game where you simply shake your head repeatedly—’TORIMA HEADBANG’.

■ A playground called “BitSummit Game Jam XR Division”

Before introducing the main story, let me talk a little about the setting.
A “Game Jam” is an event where teams form on the spot and create a game within a set short period of time. This year at BitSummit, an XR (a general term for VR and AR) category was newly added. Creating a game using a headset from scratch in such a short time is quite a challenging task. Nevertheless, all the works displayed at the booths were bold and honest, representing the desire to “try it!”
Symbolizing that atmosphere was “TORIMA HEADBANG.” Among the entries in the same category, it was the winning entry of the “BitSummit Student Gamejam Award.” It’s a game whose bold, student-like ideas clearly resonated with the judges.▲ Scenes from the BitSummit PUNCH awards ceremony (Image provided by Toribanzoku)

■ A game where you become a bird and run around at full speed on your comb

In “TORIMA HEADBANG,” you control a bird—and it’s riding a skateboard! This is already a bit absurd, but the story continues from here.
The game was developed by “Birdbarian,” an eight-member team of students from Japan and China. They describe it as a “conventional VR headbanging rhythm run action game,” and true to that description, the concept is quite outrageous. You control a “bird street performer” with a cool crest of feathers. Your goal is to become a bird gang member and ride your mini skateboard against traffic on the streets.
▲ Key visual. The main character is a cool bird riding a skateboard (Image provided by: Bird Barbarians)
The controls are surprisingly simple. Just put on the headset and shake your head as hard as you can. That’s all there is to it. The air pressure from shaking your head like a bird’s comb propels the skateboard forward.
What’s interesting here is the direction of movement. The idea is that the wind generated by headbanging will be used as propulsion, so the back of your head will be leading the way. In other words, you’ll be moving backward at tremendous speed. The feeling of the scenery in front of you flowing past you and receding into the distance behind you is something you can’t easily experience anywhere else.
The play style is also unique. You play while sitting in a chair with your feet on a skateboard. You’re sitting, but shaking your head with all your might. This imbalance of combinations is what makes this game so distinctive.

■ Use all four headbanging techniques to power through the song

According to official information, this game features four types of headbanging: “Normal Headbanging” (shaking your head vertically), “Side Headbanging” (shaking your head from side to side), “Windmill Headbanging” (drawing a circle with your head), and “Eight-Cross Headbanging” (drawing a figure eight with your head). Each type seems to have different effects and uses, such as accelerating, changing direction, or generating an explosion.▲ The instruction to “windmill” is also given during the song (official screenshot)
While I was playing, I was basically just swinging my head vertically to accelerate, but occasionally instructions would pop up on the screen like, “Figure eight here!” or “Circle here!” The fun is supposed to be switching between movements in time with the rhythm… but even though I was trying to move according to the instructions, the text gradually became harder to read amidst the moving scenery. Before I knew it, I didn’t know how I was shaking my head anymore, and it was a complete mess. But I was still moving forward, so I kept shaking my head while shouting.

■ Shake your head with all your might! What awaits you is an exhilarating feeling beyond your imagination

When I first heard the rules, I was skeptical about whether simply shaking your head could really constitute a game

But my worries were unfounded. The more I swung, the faster it accelerated. This feeling was so satisfying that I naturally became more enthusiastic about how I swung. I headbanged with all my might right next to a crowd of passersby. From the outside, I must have looked pretty suspicious, but I didn’t care at all

There was also a fan placed behind me. It wasn’t working when I was there, but it was probably there to simulate the “wind” effect when you headbang. If it were spinning, a real headwind would hit your back every time you accelerated. The next time I have a chance to play, I would definitely like to headbang with all my might while the wind is on

What I found most interesting about this game was the input method, which is the core of the game.
VR and MR games are typically played by holding controllers in both hands, and recently, hand tracking that directly reads hand movements has become more common. ‘TORIMA HEADBANG’ is neither of these; it uses your head. The headset itself acts as the controller.
The headset constantly tracks the player’s head movements, directly converting those “head shakes” into propulsion. The mechanism is simple, yet I never imagined such a way to play until I actually experienced it. There are still ways to control VR that I haven’t yet experienced. This was the biggest discovery of this game.
Incidentally, according to official information, you’ll be harassed by law enforcement birds and have missiles flying at you on the course, but apparently you can shoot them down by “shouting into the microphone.” It seems they’ve incorporated some pretty crazy features. I didn’t encounter them in the version I played, but just hearing about it makes me think it’s going to get even more chaotic.

■ The unconventional origin story as told by the development team

Wanting to learn more about this work, I sent a question to the development team “Toribanzoku”ponse than I expected, so I will share my exchange with the leader, Aritake Yuki, exactly as it happened

—Could you tell us about the inspiration behind your work?Aritake: “We interpreted the theme of BitSummit Game Jam, ‘High Impact: Breakｄ Through,’ as a challenge to ‘shock players and spectators with rules, input methods, controls, and viewpoints that break with common sense.’ So, we started conceptualizing ‘mind-based games’ in VR space along two axes: ‘intellectual puzzles (thinking)’ that make full use of viewpoint switching, and ‘physical games (physics)’ that involve engaging the whole body.”
Initially, we debated intensely for about a month within the team between the “Dullahan Puzzle” idea, where players throw their heads to switch perspectives, and the “Headbanging Race” idea, where players shake their heads to race. After creating prototypes of both and comparing them, we considered which one would generate the most “buzz” and “impact” at the exhibition hall and be intuitively enjoyable for everyone… and decided to focus solely on “Headbanging,” which even elevates the psychological barrier of “embarrassment” into entertainment. At this point, the gameplay was mainly like a racing or running game, but during the development process, we refined it to strongly emphasize the rhythm game elements.
To make the idea of ​​”moving forward by headbanging” work as a game, I, as the leader, adopted “birds,” which I love, as the motif. Focusing on the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, which has a large crest, I likened the headbanging motion of raising the crest to the action of fanning the wind, and from that momentum, by turning the laws of physics on their head, we created a groundbreaking VR headbanging rhythm run action game where you “charge backward.”▲ Members of the development team “Barbarians Bird” (Image provided by Barbarians Bird)
—Could you tell us about your intentions behind the creation?Aritake:“The question of why we use a VR headset for control was something all the team members thought about throughout development. There were suggestions and discussions that it could be done with Joy-Cons or a webcam, but we considered those as backup plans. We believed that a headset was the only way to compensate for the loss of vision while headbanging and to present the player’s movements and the in-game situation as a unified whole, so we insisted on implementing it in VR. We also reused a wind sensation system that I had developed for another project (the VR flight game “Hayatsubasa”), and by making the wind blow from behind, we designed it to stimulate the feeling of ‘moving backward at high speed’ even when the player’s vision is obstructed.”
Regarding the sound, at the beginning of the game jam, we didn’t have a dedicated sound team, so creating a rhythm game that dealt with sound in particular was incredibly difficult, as we didn’t know the scale of the work, the technical feasibility of implementation, how it would match the game’s worldview, and many other aspects. As a result, we abandoned composing our own music and instead selected “Orpheus in the Underworld,” a song whose groove could be immediately understood by overseas attendees. We then arranged it in a heavy metal style to create an impact while clearing the rights issues, and used it as the stage music. In addition, we incorporated plenty of the team members’ voices and beatboxing sounds, which they are skilled at, into the in-game sound effects and title BGM.
And what we particularly valued in this game was the complete affirmation of the diversity of headbanging. In the songs, we created a level design that requires a variety of headbanging actions, not just the usual up and down movements, but also the “windmill” which draws a large circle and the “eight cross” which moves in a figure eight. What we valued most was the complete affirmation that “no matter who it is or how they do it, if they think it’s headbanging, then it’s headbanging.” On the results screen, we introduced a unique title system that praises the parts of a player’s gameplay that particularly shone.
We created a customer service manual for the staff, and all members wore team T-shirts for the exhibit. We set up skateboards on the floor just like in the game, and attached helmet chin straps to the headsets to prevent them from falling off during vigorous movement, paying attention to every detail to create a “high impact” not only for players but also for spectators.
Furthermore, inspired by the service at theme parks that automatically photographs and sells images of riders screaming during attractions, we also offered a paid service to photograph people playing the game using an instant camera (Cheki). The blur, which is usually considered undesirable in photographs, was actually seen as a positive, dynamic element in the instant photos taken at this booth, and was very well received.
▲ Instax camera sold at the booth. The blur actually speaks to the energy of the moment (Image provided by Toribanzoku)
Currently, we are further refining the game based on the enthusiastic feedback we received at BitSummit. Most recently, we are collaborating with a university’s sound research lab to enhance the sound for “Game Kami Evolution Creator.” We will continue development to deliver this groundbreaking experience to even more people, including adding tutorials and new music.

▲ In the results screen, players are awarded unique titles based on their performance (official screenshot).

■ Summary: A film you’ll love so much you’ll want to shake your head over heels

A bird skateboarding game where you go faster the more you shake your head. When you describe it in words, it sounds like a complete joke game. But when you actually play it, you get a real sense of accomplishment and exhilaration.
The ingenuity of the idea, the boldness of its approach, and the challenge of new input methods unique to XR—all of these factors combined to create such a memorable game within such a short development period. I truly felt the power of the GaGame Jam event.
As someone who has experienced it firsthand, I’m really looking forward to seeing how ‘TORIMA HEADBANG’ will develop in the future!
By the way, this game is available for free download from the development team’s official itch.io page. Even if you don’t have an HMD, you can still play by recreating headbanging using mouse controls or repeatedly pressing the spacebar. So please, give it a try and shake your head to its limits!
Official website: https://x.com/TorimaHeadbang
Distribution page: https://bitsummit-gamejam.itch.io/bsgj2026-torima-headbang-e02

Software Overview