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I just want Harmonix to keep doing what it does. Guitar Hero and Rock Band are some of my favorite games of all time, and I will never stop professing that Fuser was an underrated gem. For now, Harmonix's next big thing is Fortnite Festival, a game-within-a-game that's launching today inside the megapopular free-to-play game. I can't help but feel like this is Harmonix's future, yet after getting some hands-on time with Fortnite Festival, that future might not be such a bad thing.
Fortnite Festival is basically Rock Band without the plastic instruments. You and up to three others choose a song, then pick your own instrument and difficulty level before you press buttons in time with a rolling note highway. Each note you hit accurately adds to your score, and a combo multiplier ticks up the longer you go without making a mistake. Accurately hitting specially marked sections of the track will grant you overdrive power, which you can spend to increase your multiplier further - and if your bandmates do it at the same time, those bonuses stack.
It's a winning formula, and one that works surprisingly well even on a traditional controller. The note combinations, holds, and other pattern tricks force you to perform some fun thumb gymnastics, and there's little lost in the transition away from plastic instruments. Honestly, that shouldn't be a surprise if you're familiar with Harmonix's controller-based games, from Amplitude to Rock Band Blitz, which were doing this kind of thing to excellent effect decades ago.
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That's the 'main stage' portion of Fortnite Festival, but there's another aspect here in the form of the jam sessions. These, in essence, are the best (and worst) parts of the ill-fated DJ game Fuser turned into a minigame within a tiny Fortnite lobby. You pick a loadout of songs, and as your Fortnite character you can start playing an instrument or vocal track from any of those tunes. Other nearby players can do the same, and the music will all sync in key and tempo to create a (mostly) harmonious mix.
You can definitely do some very entertaining musical crimes, but as with Fuser, the fun in this mode is discovering surprisingly effective musical combinations. (I ended up being a big fan of how Gangnam Style's lyrics fit over the bass line from The Hand That Feeds.) These jam sessions seem like a decent way to have a few laughs with a group of friends between other Fortnite sessions, but after just a few minutes messing around with the mode I was ready to go back to the main stage.
But the fact that a light version of Fuser can exist here is what interests me most about Fortnite Festival. The devs say this is effectively the opening act for the game, and there are plans for seasonal support with new content, music, and cosmetics. If this ends up being the space where Harmonix can finally bring to life all its weird, experimental ideas for music games to life, then this is for me the most exciting project that could ever exist in the live service space.
It certainly helps that Fortnite's popularity, budget, and penchant for licensing deals means that it's probably going to be a bit easier to keep the music deals alive. The starting soundtrack is exactly what you'd expect from a big budget rhythm, with just enough songs that you'll definitely be familiar with to ensure that you'll find at least a few you actually like. With everything from Kendrick Lamar to Fall Out Boy there's a pretty wild range here.
Based on the time I've spent with all three, Lego Fortnite and Rocket Racing seem like the more fully featured of the new games within Epic's megalith, but it's Fortnite Festival that's really captured my heart. Blame it on my long-suffering nostalgia for Harmonix's glory days in the Xbox 360 era, but this game is scratching an itch that's been with me for years, and I fully intend to wring everything I can get out of Fortnite Festival.
Our list of the best rhythm games would look a lot different without Harmonix.
