Wait, ‘Fortnite’ has a whole concert mode now?
Yes, it’s called Fortnite Festival, and it’s awesome.
But how would that work? Isn’t ‘Fortnite’ a battle-royale game?

True, the popular video-game Fortnite, by Epic Games, is primarily a battle-royale; it’s a cartoony, light-hearted third person shooter game in which one hundred players fight until only one remains. But on December 9th, 2023, directly following the brief, yet stellar stint of “OG” Fortnite, Epic Games introduced Fortnite Festival as an optional gamemode for users.

When you load into Fortnite Festival with your friends, the first thing you’ll do is choose your setlist— the songs that you’ll perform onstage. The game has 34 songs out right now, some of which you have to buy with VBucks, Fortnite’s digital currency, and some of which are free to play. It’s a little unfortunate that you have to pay for songs, but enough are available for free that it’s alright. A couple of my favorites are “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, “Dog Days are Over” by Florence + The Machine, and “Gangnam Style” by PSY.

After selecting your songs you’ll teleport to the stage, and at that point it’s time for the actual gameplay. Fortnite Festival is similar to Guitar Hero, except with any Xbox or PlayStation controller, or keyboard. As the song plays, musical notes will pop up on the screen and you have to hit or hold down buttons to “play” them. If you misclick a button and miss a note, then that corresponding note in the song won’t sound right. You get points for hitting the notes on time, and at the end of each song you’ll see your whole score along with the scores of any friends you’re playing with. Personally, I really enjoy that end part where you get to see all the scores because that aspect retains the competitive nature of normal Fortnite, especially Fortnite Creative Mode where you can play against friends. You might not think so at first glance, but a concert in Fortnite Festival can become just as intense as anything in the rest of the game!

Initially, I didn’t much like Fortnite Festival at all because, to be completely honest, it’s super difficult! Then, I noticed another nice feature of the game: the ability to choose each song’s difficulty from easy, medium, hard, and expert. A song played on easy mode gives the player fewer notes to hit than one on expert level, and those notes come at a much slower speed. Until I got better I played songs on easy mode, then medium, and now I’m onto the hard level.

Generally speaking, I barely ever play video-games, but Fortnite Festival has been the exception. I think it’s the fact that I can see so easily how much I improve – by increasing my points and upping my difficulty level – that makes me want to keep playing and getting better.

Overall, even though you might not enjoy it at first, give Fortnite Festival a try! It’s totally different from the normal battle-royale game mode, but different isn’t always bad. Sometimes different can be fun!