There are so many games released each year that I sometimes only notice a couple of years after the fact. Unfortunately that's sometimes long enough for a game to be unreleased again. So it is with Fuser, Harmonix's 2020 music game in which players create new works by mashing up other people's songs. It's being delisted from sale later this month and its "live services" are being switched off.
]]>Epic Games have bought Harmonix, the studio behind rhythm games including Rock Band and Fuser, to help support their boring attempt to "build the metaverse". The Fortnite and Unreal Engine overlords say that Harmonix "will collaborate closely with Epic to develop musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite". The battle royale has seen some fancy musical performances, with elaborate in-game events to promote pop stars including Travis Scott and Ariana Grande, but hopefully Harmonix aren't consigned to advertising for eternity?
]]>You too can now enjoy mashing Smash Mouth's All Star into other songs, thanks to a free demo for Fuser. Made by Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Fuser's a game about slamming parts of different songs together on the wheels of steel to create mashups that... actually kinda work? When I started the demo myself, I did not imagine I would soon be bopping in my chair along to my own mix of Rage Against The Machine, Warren G and Nate Dogg, Billy Eilish, and yes, Smash Mouth.
]]>I'll always make it my business to check out a game if music is meaningfully integrated. From Crypt Of The NecroDancer's beat-hopping and Vib-Ribbon's path-generating, to the Rock Bands and DJ Heros that clogged up all of our attics with plastic instruments, I love it all. Well... not all.
I don't need to tell you that Harmonix are the superstars of this world. They're the ones that gifted us the cultural phenomenon of toy guitars, so you better believe I'll be paying attention to whatever they release. It's like that chart-topping act you had plastered all over your walls 20 years ago: they don't get radio play anymore, but you'll always give their new stuff a spin.
]]>Plastic instruments and rock music is out, readers. It's all about mash-ups now, and while we don't all have the patience to actually go off and learn audio engineering, the Rock Band and Dance Central buffs at Harmonix are re-mixing things up with their new game, Fuser. The studio's new act takes the stage today, with over 100 bangers on the shelf ready for you and your friends to slam together in a do-it-yourself desktop concert.
]]>Harmonix, the creators of rhythm games including Rock Band and Dance Central, have announced their new jam. Fuser is its name, and mixing vocal and instrumental tracks of different songs together into a new song is its game. I think that's what the kids call "mash-ups." The tracklist actually does include All Star so you should expect Shrek hell to be spattered across more of pop culture. Fuser is coming this year, will indeed be on PC, and no, it does not require any plastic instruments. Have a peek in the announcement trailer below.
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