Search results
Welcome to FUSER™—a nonstop virtual music festival where you and your friends control the music! Mix elements of the world’s most popular songs like “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa, “Old Town Road (Remix)” by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, and more!
Fuser is a game where players create DJ mixes from licensed musical tracks. It was released in 2020 and had online modes that were shut down in 2022.
ArtistSongGenreYearRap/Hip-Hop2003Pop1984Pop1994Agent 001"Daniel Wiggy"Dance2003Nov 10, 2020 · From the creators of Rock Band™ and Dance Central™ comes FUSER™ - a virtual music festival where you control the music! Combine elements of the world’s most popular songs to create your own sound or partner with friends on epic collaborations.
- Harmonix Music Systems, Inc
- Windows
- Burn fast and burn bright.
- Which game character has the best rave stories?
- Fuser Review Screenshots
- Verdict
By Jarrett Green
Updated: Nov 19, 2020 2:01 am
Posted: Nov 19, 2020 12:39 am
Harmonix made the late 2000s rock. You couldn’t go to a party or bar without seeing four plastic Rock Band instruments in a corner just begging for you and your friends to butcher a classic pop tune with. The music game fad tragically died out in the 2010s, but for a brief while Harmonix’s new DJ simulator, Fuser, rekindles some of its high points and inspires hope that the genre could make a comeback. Fuser does an admirable job of invoking the sensation of being an artist by helping you freely mix tracks like a pro, but score chasers may find that for them, the party is short-lived.
Every set of Fuser begins the same way. First, you fill your digital crate with records that span several eras and genres. The selection feels truly all-encompassing, with over 100 options from back-in-the-day jams like Patti Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade” to new-school hits from the likes of Dua Lipa and Bad Bunny along with plenty of obscure filler songs. Add in some digital noise-makers like drum machines and synths, and you're ready to hit the stage. From the moment you drop your first disc, your job will be to wow the crowd by mixing and matching tracks across different songs; each one comes with up to four components representing vocals and various instruments, and those can be remixed independently. Can the drums from Brad Paisley’s “Mud on the Tires” sound great with the strings from Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It?” Of course they can!
This works seamlessly more often than not, because there is a lot of behind-the-scenes heavy lifting being done by Fuser to make everything mesh and sound like disparate parts were supposed to be together all along. Inevitably, however, there’s a number of mixes where the magic trick feels far less enchanting, including some that just never feel like they would truly be considered as party starters in a scenario like this. Is there anything more cursed than dropping the vocals to “Killing in the Name Of” over any part of Smash Mouth’s “All Star?”
Sully (Uncharted)
Jack (Mass Effect)
Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)
Agent 47 (Hitman)
Other (Tell us in the comments)
When things clicked for me, Fuser felt as cool and challenging as my best times with Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Going back to old stages to try to beat my personal best, armed with new knowledge and songs, was fun and fulfilling. The campaign is also the only mode with nearly this much to do. Frankly, the absence of a dedicated mode that takes the objective-based play of the campaign into a more arcadey setting is a big disappointment. The campaign stages are fun but fixed rather than dynamic, and don't allow you to feel like you’re being fully trusted to keep up with the level’s demands without the tutorial-like guardrails.
In Freestyle mode, you are let loose to do whatever you want with the tools you have available. This is the mode Fuser bridges the gap between rhythm game and actual digital instrument in a way that most in the genre can only hope to. With a little practice, you can create whole performances that feel like real artistic expression as opposed to dressed up karaoke. You can even share them for others to experience. This fits right into the rising demand for musical performances on streaming sites like Twitch (though maybe not into its relationship with playing licensed music on its platform). There’s a co-op mode as well, and here a pair of people can pass the mix back and forth to one another in collaborative set-slamming. The mileage you'll get from Freestyle is user specific, of course; I got my feet wet with it a few times but didn’t find much there for me without a score to chase but a real musical creative type could spend ages with it.
None of the multiplayer modes are local, which feels like a sin for what is a game tailored for social settings. Sure, nobody is going to parties these days, but in a hopeful future where people can see each other in person again it’s odd that playing Fuser together is off the table. That two people can stand at the same table and mix together, or that you can't watch up close as a rival sees you hit a huge drop combo in the head-to-head mode, is a huge miss.
At its best, Fuser feels like the most promising attempt yet to bring back the glory days of social music gaming. The tutorial-like campaign scratches the itch for fast-paced rhythm-based score chasing, while the Freestyle mode could be turned into a true platform for content creation in the right hands. But a dearth of replayable game modes, lack ...
- Jarrett Green
Fuser is a rhythm game released on November 10th, 2020, developed by Harmonix and published by NCSoft for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Similar to it's predecessor DropMix and later successor Fortnite Festival Jam Stage, it allows players to create various mashups using stems...
Jun 30, 2021 · From the creators of Rock Band™ & Dance Central™, FUSER is a nonstop virtual music festival where you and your friends control the music! Combine elements of the world’s most popular songs ...
People also ask
What is Fuser and how does it function?
Is Fuser a rhythm game?
Is Fuser a good game?
Learn about FUSER, a video game where you perform as a mashup DJ for a festival crowd. Find out the gameplay modes, songs, platforms, price, and more in this FAQ thread.
