The Lil Nas X videogame is exactly what you think

Lil Nas X's Twerk Hero
(Image credit: Roni Games, Columbia)

Hot on the heels of his chart-topping hit Montero (Call Me By Your Name), American rapper Lil Nas X has released Twerk Hero—a free tie-in browser game for the salacious tune.

Nas released his booty-shaking rhythm game yesterday—and fair enough, it's very much what you'd expect from an accompaniment to such an unashamedly horny song. I just wish it wasn't, y'know, a lil' naff.

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In Twerk Hero, you grab Nas' ass and slam it against the side of the screen, supposedly in time with slow-moving arrows coming in from four directions. Naturally, there are some extreme jiggle physics on the booty, and Nas'll sometimes turn his head to look you dead in the eyes.

Sadly, it's just not a great rhythm game. I couldn't really work out what triggered scoring a hit, instead flailing the poor lad's rear wildly. It's also just a bit listless for a song so madly energetic and unabashedly queer it involves Nas twerking against—and then beheading—Satan. Watching arrows drift lazily across the screen against a looping mp3 doesn't quite compare.

It's a quick and dirty joke, sure, and maybe it works at that. But Lil Nas is extremely online and evidently no stranger to games, and I reckon we'd see some properly wild stuff result from him taking a proper stab at games. How about a collaboration with Robert Yang, the developer behind pointedly homoerotic games like The Tearoom and Hard Lads? Now there's a mash-up I'd pay to see.

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.