The new Rock Band 4 guitar has enormous potential for challenge runners

polygon.com:

The new PDP Riffmaster looks like an average guitar controller at a passing glance. In many ways, the $129.99 controller coming out in April is exactly what you expect. But aside from its familiar strum bar, whammy bar, and clusters of colored frets, it has a hardware feature that could make it sought after by a crowd that has no interest in playing music games.

PDP snuck a Joy-Con-like analog stick near the top of the controller’s neck, right next to where your thumb naturally rests as you hold the guitar. While its advertised purpose is mostly for mundane stuff, like navigating menus in Rock Band 4, it opens up a box of possibilities for speedrunners and challenge runners who enjoy using guitar controllers for non-music games.

For over a decade, many have used guitar controllers to play (and sometimes, unbelievably, finish) games, notably ones that are difficult even with standard controllers, like Dark Souls. The finesse that some exude during play is remarkable, considering they’re moving the character without an analog stick while also controlling the camera lock-on function, attacking, and doing a range of other commands with a very unintuitive button layout. Benjamin “Bearzly” Gwin’s control scheme for beating Dark Souls back in 2014 with a guitar controller is something to behold.

Noted non-traditional controller aficionado, modder, and engineer Louis Hamilton (AKA SuperLouis64 on YouTube) told Polygon that where he expects the Riffmaster to shine is by aiding the player with camera lock-on and general movement. Looking back at his time with previous guitar controllers, he said “Whenever the lock-on system would untarget a boss mid-fight, I pretty much would tell my chat ‘GG’ as I scrambled to press the camera reset/lock-on button on my guitar in hopes I can see the boss again.”

Hamilton is also excited about how the Riffmaster’s analog stick could make it possible to challenge-run “other genres that practically require two joysticks,” like first- and