If you haven't played Fortnite, you should

and here's why...

Do you remember the days of collecting action figures as a child? I do. And while I still browse the toy section at Target, and buy the occasional Pop Vinyl, I don’t play with them. And if I bought an action figure (I’ve been eyeing this Mighty Thor figure at Target), I would probably leave it in the box. So as a young adult with an increasingly nomadic way of life, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to collect a bunch of action figures.

However, in this digital age of NFTs and streamable IMAX movies, maybe it makes sense to collect your toys, or any collectable memorabilia, in a similar fashion.

I present to you Fortnite, the most expansive multiverse to exist in media.

First and foremost, Fortnite, developed by Epic Games, is a Battle Royale, a type of game or fictional competition where characters are pitted against each other and the last one standing wins. Think cartoon Hunger Games with 100 players pitted against each other, except instead of Katniss, Peta, and Rue, you’ll see characters like Naruto, Master Chief, Thanos, and Naomi Osaka. HUH??

That’s right, if you’re willing to put down some hard cash every now and then, you can unlock these playable characters (and people?) and hundreds more from celebrity athletes to the most popular characters in media.

Fortnite can be played on mobile, desktop, or game console, and you can play solo or as a team of two, three, or four. When the game starts, you and everyone else in the match take off in the Battle Bus, and you must jump out, glide to somewhere on the island, and search for weapons, health, and probably some form of transportation.

Right now, when you launch a game of Fortnite, the Dragon Ball Z theme is playing, and you can hear and watch Darth Vader’s ship take off. You can choose to land where Vader does, fight him, and if you survive take his lightsaber. You could take one of the Storm Trooper’s Blasters for good measure, then you could find a Nimbus Cloud to fly around on and a Kamehameha to blast other players with.

If you aren’t familiar with Star Wars or Dragon Ball Z, that might’ve been hard to follow, but there’s plenty of fun to be had still. You’d want to land, search for some guns and shield, and then you might want to look for a nice sports car, sedan, or pick-up truck, throw some big off-road tires on it, and take off toward the eye of the storm.

A few minutes into each game, a giant magenta storm forms around the map and if you get caught in it, it damages you and can even kill you, so the goal is to stay in the eye of the storm as it shrinks and pushes the players closer and closer together.

And anyone can survive to the end and even win. You don’t have to be good at shooters to enjoy Fortnite, because there’s a lot more to it than shooting and winning. You and your friends could have a boat race at the beach and then dance with each other until someone starts shooting at you. Then you could flee and hide as the storm shrinks and more and more players get eliminated.

There was one match I played in recent memory where I had 15 elims and it was just me and one other player left, I was looking for them and they were hiding but saw me first and killed me with a giant buzz saw gun. So, they got first place, the Victory Royale, and I was actually their only kill in that match. Literally anything can happen.

Now, you might be thinking “but Riley, isn’t there like this crazy building mechanic that makes Fortnite kinda inaccessible to amateur gamers?”

And you would be right, that is in the game. However, I didn’t start playing Fortnite heavily until the last year because Epic released a Zero Build mode, which means you can play without having to build or fight around skilled builders, making the game much more accessible to mobile and console players alike. And there are also hundreds of player-made game types that don't require any combat, and even music events with some of the biggest artists in the world.

And sense Fortnite is so accessible and fun, kids are playing it all the time, including in the classroom. I substitute teach sometimes, and I’ve learned that playing Fortnite is a great way to connect with kids. One time I played a game with my adult friend and his 6-year-old cousin, and since then I’ve played more games with my friend’s cousin than my actual friend.

Fortnite feels like a giant shared toy box where you can play as anyone and encounter anyone.

Some of the faves in my collection :)

Very sad that I wasn't playing Fortnite when the Travis Scott event happened because I am stricken with envy every time I see a player with that skin