The brand new Rock Band 4 guitar’s analog stick may very well be an enormous deal for speedrunners

The brand new PDP Riffmaster appears like a median guitar controller at a passing look. In some ways, the $129.99 controller popping out in April is precisely what you count on. However apart from its acquainted strum bar, whammy bar, and clusters of coloured frets, it has a {hardware} function that would make it wanted by a crowd that has no real interest in taking part in music video games.

PDP snuck a Pleasure-Con-like analog stick close to the highest of the controller’s neck, proper subsequent to the place your thumb naturally rests as you maintain the guitar. Whereas its marketed function is generally for mundane stuff, like navigating menus in Rock Band 4, it opens up a field of prospects for speedrunners and problem runners who get pleasure from utilizing guitar controllers for non-music video games.

For over a decade, many have used guitar controllers to play (and typically, unbelievably, end) video games, notably ones which might be tough even with customary controllers, like Darkish Souls. The finesse that some exude throughout play is exceptional, contemplating they’re shifting the character with out an analog stick whereas additionally controlling the digital camera lock-on perform, attacking, and doing a variety of different instructions with a really unintuitive button structure. Benjamin “Bearzly” Gwin’s management scheme for beating Darkish Souls again in 2014 with a guitar controller is one thing to behold.

Picture: PDP/Turtle Seashore

Famous non-traditional controller aficionado, modder, and engineer Louis Hamilton (AKA SuperLouis64 on YouTube) informed Polygon that the place he expects the Riffmaster to shine is by aiding the participant with digital camera lock-on and normal motion. Wanting again at his time with earlier guitar controllers, he mentioned “At any time when the lock-on system would untarget a boss mid-fight, I just about would inform my chat ‘GG’ as I scrambled to press the digital camera reset/lock-on button on my guitar in hopes I can see the boss once more.”

Hamilton can be enthusiastic about how the Riffmaster’s analog stick might make it potential to challenge-run “different genres that virtually require two joysticks,” like first- and third-person shooters. He beforehand completed Halo 3 on Legendary issue utilizing a unique guitar controller, however with a customized management scheme that’s so punishing I wouldn’t want this problem on my enemies. He used the orange fret to shift between button assignments, with most buttons having twin functions. “I just about needed to line up my pictures with the guitar, then transfer, so it felt like I used to be taking part in a pseudo turn-based sport whereas my enemies weren’t,” Hamilton informed me. Whereas he doesn’t count on the Riffmaster to make non-music video games simpler to play on a technical stage, he hopes that there might be much less work required to adapt its controls.

To handle Hamilton’s hope, the Riffmaster is seemingly simpler to adapt. Upon plugging it into my PC and enabling Steam Enter for all supported controllers, it “labored” with none tweaks on my half in Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil 4. Anybody trying a problem run of the sport would doubtless need to refine the controls to their preferences with control-mapping software program (the analog stick didn’t transfer Leon because it does natively on a conventional controller), nevertheless it was an encouraging signal that getting use out of the Riffmaster’s analog stick isn’t restricted to the video games it was designed for.

It’s laborious to say if the Riffmaster will result in a reemergence of guitar controller-based speedruns and problem runs. However its existence alone is an efficient factor. At $129.99, it isn’t low-cost, nevertheless it’s far cheaper than many of the second-hand guitar controllers listed on Amazon and eBay. Maybe the lower cost will entice extra gamers to hitch the neighborhood. If nothing else, I’d like to see among the outdated guard put the Riffmaster by its paces on Twitch.