I lovedFortniteand played it almost every day for years. It played a big role in pulling me back to video games after I had fallen out of love with the medium, the only titles added to my library every year being whateverFIFAandWWEhad to offer. My love for Fortnite has waned recently, though. The game has evolved, leaving me behind, and even a return to its original map didn’t pull me back in like it did so many others.
Adding three entirely new games to its roster, though, did the trick. However, unlike most others, it isn’tLego Fortnitethat has me logging in every day again – it’s Fortnite Festival. I saw the buzz online claiming it was just likeRock Band, and even though it was created by Harmonix, I remained unconvinced that the rhythm series’ magic could be replicated in a free-to-play battle royale game.
It turns out that, aside from the lack of instruments, it really is just like Rock Band. I was transported back to a time when I spent the bulk of my game time playing Rock Band andGuitar Heroas soon as the first track started to play. I even latched onto a song I’d never heard before and listened to it incessantly for weeks after, just like the good old days.
The song was Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo. Yes, I know it’s six months old. I’m incredibly out of touch.
Despite me being able to find a new earworm to put on repeat and annoy my partner with, Fortnite Festival’s library is its biggest pitfall. Even though the tracks are rotated every day, I quickly hit a point where I felt like I had played every song hundreds of times. Yes, you’re able to buy more songs, but therein lies the problem for me. I’ve already paid through the nose for songs I can play in a video game, and now that library is lying dormant in my attic.
I mentioned I played Rock Band a lot in its heyday, and I meant it. Living in a student house, we didn’t sleep much and had very little to do between seminars. Sure, we could have been doing the work assigned to us during those seminars, but why would we when we had various editions of Rock Band and all of the instruments that go with it? We’d play pretty much every night (our neighbors must have loved us) and regularly spent money that should have gone towards groceries on new tracks.
Everyone would chip in, and even though the money was coming out of my account, I was more than happy with the setup. That’s because we were playing Rock Band on myXbox 360. That meant all the songs were being saved to my hard drive. I knew the good times would come to an end eventually and we’d all have to join the real world as grown-ups, but when we did, I’d be taking my library of Rock Band songs with me.
What I didn’t bank on was the Rock Band train grinding to a halt, my hard drive not coming with me to my next console, and adult life preventing me from playing rhythm games for hours every day. It hurt, but I moved past it. Then Fortnite Festival came along, its microtransactions a stark reminder that my extensive Rock Band library is still useless. I long for that hard drive, just three rooms away with everything from Avenged Sevenfold to Elton John on it, as Mr. Brightside echoes around my living room for the 50th time this week.
Barring some sort of technological advancement, mods that will bring my library back from its eternal sleep, orEpicadding all my old songs to Fortnite Festival’s library for free, my experience with the new Rock Band-like will always feel incomplete. Eventhe promise of instrument compatibilitywill only go so far, and not just because the instruments I used years ago didn’t belong to me and are long gone. I guess that was the trade-off for taking the songs when my Rock Band split up. I’m Liam with the lyrics, they’re Noel with the guitar.
Even though they can’t be played, having already paid for so many Rock Band songs will forever prevent me from paying for them again. I’m doomed to play Epic’s limited rotation until the end of time. Or, you know, until I fall off of Fortnite Festival much like I did regular Fortnite.
