Audiosurf - Near infinite fun for music lovers

What is this neon blur? Read on to find out.

In short, if you have a reasonable sized music collection, a PC and £2.99 and you don't have this game you're doing yourself a diservice. In the most basic terms Audiosurf is the greatest music visualisation ever created, but to leave it at that makes it sound like nothing when in fact this game offers up not only a whole load of value for next to nothing but might actually get you to listen to and think about your music differently.

The concept is simple - pick a music track, throw it into Audiosurf and and within seconds you'll have a full blown rollercoaster to ride based on the tempo, volume and notes of the music. Pick a nice relaxing tune like Me and Mrs Jones and you'll be gliding down a calm blue and green highway, alternatively pick Through The Fire and Flames and get ready for a high speed slide into hell. The track you ride is divided into three lanes and two shoulders and depending on the gametype you pick you might not have the shoulders to hide in and the lanes will be full of brightly coloured bricks for you to fly into, falling onto a grid underneath your vehicle as you do. Get three or more matching colours next to each other on the grid and score points, bigger sets of blocks for bigger points. Simple as that.

Before playing the game generates the track and gives you a look at what's to come. A fast song speeds downhill whilst a slow one crawls up.

Now what truly blew me out of the water was the visual aspect of it all as to be honest the gameplay isn't particularly mind blowing, solid and enjoyable as it is. By god is Audiosurf a vivid and intense trip. Graphics options allow for some super glossy high speed visuals that are incredibly intense during fast songs, to the point that the game actually issues an epilepsy warning before things kick off, something I've not seen since the 16-bit era. Default graphics options populate the tracks with bright primary colours, flashes of stars and other assorted shapes fly from the corners of the screen as you hit blocks, abstract shapes loom on the horizon as the track hurtles towards and around them. Intense is definitely the word.

Through the Fire and Flames, the "black" graphics setting.

And really, that's the long and short of it. The real beauty of the game is to mess around and try unusual songs. Finding out that one of my favorite tunes (Monkey Magic by obscure 70's Japanese group Godeigo btw) works so beautifully almost choked a tear from my silly sentimental eye, moving from slow paced build up till the singer screams "Monkey!" and the plummet into a synth pop rollercoaster ride begins.

See those glowing rings around the track? That's MONKEY!!!

I wont expect to hear anyone to come back to me saying they've had even close to as silly a moment of sentimentality triggered by this game but for a meer £5.99 it can't hurt to give it a try, certainly given how little that'll buy these days. You can find Audiosurf on Steam or alternatively get it directly from the developers at http://www.audio-surf.com/ where exchange rates might save you a few pennies.