So, I’ve been messing around with Fortnite Festival, and the first thing that popped into my head was, “Can I use a guitar controller?” I mean, it’s a rhythm game, right? It just feels wrong playing guitar parts on a regular gamepad. I’ve got a couple of old plastic guitars from the Rock Band and Guitar Hero days just collecting dust in the closet, so I figured, why not give it a shot?
Getting Started
First off, I had to actually dig out the guitar. Found my old trusty PS3 Les Paul controller. The dongle, man, finding that little USB stick was an adventure on its own. Thought I lost it for good, but it was hiding in a box of old cables. Classic.
Plugged it into my PC, crossed my fingers. Windows made its little “device connected” sound, so that was a good start. Then I booted up Fortnite, navigated over to the Festival mode. I was half expecting it to just ignore the guitar completely.
The First Strum
To my surprise, the game actually recognized the guitar input! The menu navigation was a bit weird using the guitar’s d-pad and strum bar, but hey, it worked. I jumped into a song, I think it was “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo, something fairly straightforward for a test.
And… it was okay. The notes were coming down, I was hitting the fret buttons, strumming away. It felt familiar, yet different. The default layout wasn’t quite what I was used to from the old games. The green, red, yellow, blue, orange buttons on the guitar neck corresponded to the lanes on screen, which was fine.
Tweaks and Hiccups
The big thing was activating Overdrive (their version of Star Power). On my guitar, tilting it up used to do the trick. Here, it seemed a bit hit or miss. I found out later that there’s a specific button mapped for it, which felt less cool, but more reliable, I guess. Some folks online said their specific guitar models worked differently with the tilt.
I also noticed a tiny bit of latency. Not unplayable, but enough to throw me off on faster sections. I dove into the Fortnite settings, and thankfully, they have calibration options. Spent a good 10-15 minutes tweaking the audio/visual sync. That made a huge difference. It’s super important to get that right, otherwise, you’re just fighting the game.
Another thing was the sustain notes. Holding the fret button and just letting the note ring out felt natural. The hammer-ons and pull-offs (HOPOs) also worked, which was a relief. Playing “Expert” without those would be a nightmare.
Getting into the Groove
After the calibration and figuring out the Overdrive button, it started to click. I tried out a few more tracks. “Seven Nation Army” on lead guitar? Oh yeah, that felt good. The physical act of strumming and hitting the frets is just so much more engaging for these kinds of songs than pressing triggers on a gamepad.
Here’s what I found works best:
- Calibrate! Seriously, do this first.
- Check your guitar compatibility. Most of the common USB ones seem to work, but your mileage may vary with older or more obscure models.
- Don’t expect a 1-to-1 Rock Band or Guitar Hero experience. It’s Fortnite’s take on it. The UI is different, the feel is a bit different.
- Focus on Lead or Bass parts. Drums and Vocals obviously won’t work with the guitar in the traditional sense, though you can technically hit buttons for drum mode, it’s just not the same.
I even tried using an old Xbox 360 Xplorer guitar I had, the wired one. That one worked pretty much plug-and-play too, which was nice. No dongle needed for that bad boy.
Final Thoughts
So, is it perfect? Nah. It’s not a dedicated, built-from-the-ground-up guitar game experience like the old classics. Sometimes the note charts feel a bit off for a guitar, maybe designed more with a controller in mind for some tracks. But, it’s surprisingly fun and way more immersive for the guitar-heavy songs.
If you have an old guitar controller lying around, I’d say definitely give it a go. It costs nothing to try if you already own the hardware. It breathed a bit of new life into my old plastic instruments, and smashing out solos in Fortnite Festival with an actual guitar in hand is a pretty cool feeling. It’s not the second coming of dedicated plastic instrument games, but it’s a decent way to rock out.