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GAMING FEATURE

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ANYONE CAN PLAY GUITAR!

the same classic rhythm game, playable as two different experiences, and all within the main Fortnite free-to-play game. The Fortnite Festival Main Stage delivers classic rhythm game action, where you pick a song, pick a difficulty, pick an instrument, and play through it while trying to hit all of the notes the best that you can. The Fortnite Jam Stage is different, in some ways resembling Harmonix’s Fuser . Players lob into a lobby, where they can hang out with other players, mixing up loops, key changes, and tempo nudges to create cool musical mashups.

Radiohead made this bold declaration back in 1993, although they should have appended it with “although not necessarily very well”. But when the game Guitar Hero and its accompanying plastic axe hit the west in 2005, it proved somewhat of a leveller – anyone could play guitar, or at least sort-of look the rockstar part. Words Amy Flower A collaboration between companies Harmonix and RedOctane, and soon taken over by Activision, Guitar Hero But much like the toys to life craze that swept through gaming at much the same time with the likes of Skylanders and LEGO Dimensions , the plastic

Good to know is that if you have a Rock Band 4 wireless guitar controller in your possession, it’s now compatible with Fortnite Festival . Otherwise, there’s a new kid in town in the PDP Riffmaster…

• The PDP Riffmaster is out Jun 14

very quickly struck a chord with the public, and became a new party sensation. Who’d have thought that there’d be so many wannabe rock beasts out there? The formula was simple. Strap on your plastic guitar, pick one of the (mostly) licensed original tracks, opt for a difficulty, strike a pose, and hold coloured buttons matching those hurtling down a conveyor belt towards you (somewhat akin to the classic arcade puzzle game Klax ), hitting the strum bar at the precise moment when the note slid into a coloured circle. It proved fiendishly

guitar started to lose its allure, being relegated to cupboards – or worse, attics – the world over, save for those stalwart pretendsies rockers who soldiered on with Rock Band 4 , which remains supported by Harmonix to this day. Mind you, we know of many people who, inspired by their time with Guitar Hero and/ or Rock Band , picked up the real thing, even if many of them didn’t stick at it when they realised that it wasn’t as easy as they thought. So, could now be the time for a pretend rock ‘n’ roll renaissance? While there have been murmurs that Activision are looking at some sort of Guitar Hero revival, Epic Games have plummeted headlong back into the encore fray in full-on stage dive style by bringing the classic formula to their behemoth Fortnite . Yes… FORTNITE ROCKS!

UNLEASH THE RIFFMASTER!

If you thought that the days of cool plastic guitar controllers were over, you’d better think again, for this month PDP unleash their brand new Riffmaster. Designed for full compatibility with Fortnite Festival , but also perfect for any S gigging you may wish to partake in, it packs all the features you’d expect – high on fret and low on fret

addictive, with sequels aplenty flowing, and a rival from the original software developer themselves, Harmonix,

sets of five coloured buttons, strum bar, whammy bar, and wireless connectivity in either PlayStation or Xbox flavours. While there’s no dedicated overdrive button, there is a very handy thumbstick up near the

in Rock Band , which changed up the formula by adding vocals and drums, and even, less successfully, keyboard later

One of the latest additions to the ever-expanding Fortnite universe is Fortnite Festival , which will be very familiar to fans of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series. Created by the people behind both of those classic franchises, Harmonix, Fortnite Festival is basically

DYK?

on. They also scored a coup by attaining the rights to release an exclusive The Beatles edition.

Guitar Hero wasn’t the first plastic guitar gig on the block. That honour belongs to Konami’s GuitarFreaks , which first hit Japanese arcades in 1999, and soon came home on PlayStation a few months later.

headstock, making in-game navigation more of a breeze. It’s also suitable for left or righthanded faux shredders, has a 3.5mm jack for headsets, and even folds for easier storage when not in use.

42 JUNE 2024

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