Fuser

While there’s definitely fun to be had with Fuser, the not-particularly-musically-gifted people (like myself) may struggle. The budding Calvin Harris and Tiesto's of the world, on the other hand, will surely find enjoyment in the game.

With a huge variety of music, an amazing UI interface, and enough content to keep you happily bobbing your head for days, Fuser is one of the best music games ever made. Even those with no musical skill will enjoy learning how to create great sounding mixes in Fuser, and the game gives them plenty of leeway to practice. Fuser is a burst of happiness, light, and live music, all of which are sorely needed in the world right now. The highest recommendation.

Harmonix is perhaps best known for pioneering the plastic instrument revolution of rhythm games, plucking along on a plastic guitar to popular songs while making the player feel like an absolute rockstar. They continued to iterate and refine, going from guitars to full bands to DJs, and exploring the broad spectrum of what a rhythm game could possibly be. Their latest is FUSER, and it tosses away the plastic instruments in favor of almost complete control over the music via a controller.

Harmonix, through the years, has carved out a huge niche as the head of the rhythm game movement. One of, if not the only constant for music games, Harmonix has created an impressive array of revolutionary titles. Starting with Frequency and Amplitude, running through the Guitar Hero and Rock Band craze, and Audica last year, we now arrive at Fuser. And having put a pretty hefty number of hours into the title, Harmonix may have truly outdone itself this time out.

FUSER would be an incredibly special game if it came out last year. But now, in late 2020, it almost seems necessary.

Harmonix shows once again why they are very good at what they do - making fun rhythm games.  Fuser is a fantastic music creation tool that is a ton of fun to play. Online battle modes are fun, when you can find people to play with. Fuser is something I will be playing for quite some time, if only to try and get five stars for all the campaign missions.

I can see myself spending a lot of time with FUSER, as I regale moments of my youth with various software that didn’t have any of the shine present here. A music game without custom peripherals is a breath of fresh air - both in reducing the cost and in showing that it’s about the creativity of mixing tracks, rather than just playing back some buttons in time with the screen.

But the same is true for any music-based game, and FUSER‘s library is much vaster than most. If you’re a music lover, there’s a lot to love here. FUSER looks great, its track list has something for everyone, and its gameplay is a hell of a lot of fun. I guarantee you will not be able to keep your feet still as you drop your mixes together. Even if your crowd isn’t digging it, I guarantee that you will be.

Even if a better selection of modes would be welcome, Fuser is often a joy to play and potentially the future of rhythm games. Dancing along to a great mix was always going to be great, but Harmonix has developed the Dropmix idea into a game that's deeper, more engaging, and a lot of fun.

Fuser definitely has a few rough patches, like the Battles multiplayer and the slow rate of XP growth. Plus, let's face it, we can't all be as good as Marc Rebillet, so there are some features that players won't be able to take full advantage of without sounding ridiculous. But, for pure musical fun, there are few games in 2020 better than Fuser.

Do you remember The Outdoors? It was something that existed in the not-too-distant past, before we argued over whether we should wear masks or sentence our grandparents to death. Fuser reminds me of what The Outdoors was like — specifically, the variation of The Outdoors that I avoided. The giant crowds, the face paint, the people who say they like house music when they actually like MDMA. As a DJ, it is your responsibility in Fuser to please these swathes of people with big beats and bigger drops, spinning plates behind your deck until those plates sound like an actual song.

Chasing after the ultimate musical high is what makes Harmonix's DJ simulator electrifying.