This new video game allows you to destroy your enemies using Epiphone guitars

Hi-Fi Rush
(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

In many ways, the launch of Guitar Hero in 2005 set the precedent for the intersection of the worlds of guitar and video games, and those worlds have continued to collide ever since. 

And while Guitar Hero was a straight-up pick-up-a-guitar-shaped-controller-and-play-along type deal, guitar-centric video games have, naturally, evolved over the years. Take Hi-Fi Rush, for example, a new title developed by Tango Gameworks, which sees the player wield an arsenal of Epiphone electric guitars to bludgeon enemies to death. Yes, really.

The game, which arrived last month, published by Bethesda Softworks, tells the story of Chai, a 25-year-old aspiring rocker with a disabled right arm who undergoes experimental surgery to set him up with a cybernetic limb.

This, of course, goes wrong when, somehow, his beloved music player falls into his chest, fusing with him, and enabling him to feel a musical connection with his surroundings.

Chai, accompanied by a “ragtag team of allies”, proceed to take on a massive evil robotics enhancement mega-corporation by syncing up attacks with nonstop music, including tracks by Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, The Prodigy and The Joy Formidable.

These attacks include, but are not limited to, taking swings at NPCs using an array of Epiphone six-strings, including a Flying V, ES-335, Explorer and an SG.

“Labeled ‘defective’ after a shady corporate experiment mistakenly fuses a music player to his heart, Chai must now fight for his freedom in a slick animated world where everything – platforming puzzles, enemy attacks and even the colorful gags & banter – are synced to the beat,” Bethesda writes in the game’s description.

To be honest, we haven’t actually played Hi-Fi Rush yet, but based on the imaginative premise, we just might give it a go. 

If you've ever wanted to break some skulls and smash some Epiphone guitars in the process, you can download it yourself on Steam for $29.99.

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year 

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.