Audiosurf: Ride Your Music
 

Think Klax + Amplitude. Audiosurf is an independent game by Invisible Handlebar that generates its levels entirely from music on your computer. You load the game up, select one of the 14 game modes (Three major game modes, eleven variations of them to make them more challenging), select a song and start playing.

The object of the game is to control your vehicle as it rides along a multi-laned track while colliding with colored blocks to form chains of at least three of the same color. The speed and shape of the stage, the amount of blocks in it, and their positioning is all determined by the music file you specify. Of course, the background music for the level is also the specified track.

You accumulate points by racking up huge chains of the same color (Some colors are worth more than others) or hitting special blocks that, when dropped to the bottom of your playing area, instantly give you points. Completing other tasks, such as avoiding any grey blocks in one type of game mode or getting almost all of a certain color in another, will net you bonuses at the end of the song. The game then uploads your scores and people who play the same song can match their best runs against yours.

Here's a couple of videos to show what the gameplay's like:


The game runs for $10 on Steam. I strongly recommend dropping the money on it as it's an incredibly awesome use of a few minutes if you've got the free time every now and then.

Definitely. I'm having a blast with the Killer7 OST.

Current pro high score on Fury of the Storm. OH YEAH.

I spent the better part of last night trying to get the Ninja Mono achievements. It started with me getting Ninja Adept on ELO's Mr. Blue Sky (first try, too!,) then getting Ninja Legend on Shake Ya Body from Lumines. I finally managed to find a few 7 minute songs that weren't by Dragonforce and got Ninja Master while playing Muse's Citizen Erased.

All in all, good times and much frustration to be had, especially since I could have had Ninja Maser earlier while playing Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Fanfare for the Common Man, but ended up catching a gray block with about less than a minute left.

This tells me that they changed the traffic placement a lot since the beta, considering I was never able to get Ninja Mono stealth in the beta.

I only happened to grab this game due to the unavoidable adverts Steam likes to place in my way when I want some good old Team Fortress 2 action. However, I love music games and the idea of a dollar off only sweetened the deal.

I didn't hear of the game at all before hand, but I'm definitely having fun times playing to some of my favorite tunes. I still have a long way to go to figure out the actual game mechanics...I'm just thankful there isn't a system in place to make you fail if you overfill too many columns/hit too many greys >_> Needless to say, I haven't hit too many high score boards just yet.

But definitely worth the $10!

/v/ was raving about it, so I picked it up while it was $9. I suck pretty bad at it so far, but it's definitely worth the money. Best Music visualization ever.

I might have to get this. I have so many songs I could be amused for a long time.

If you want to make the game a bit different (at the risk of hardcorefags yelling at you for making the game "EASY MODE," but who cares about them,) I strongly would recommend playing with an Xbox360 game pad.

It does make the Mono a little bit easier, but I'm so used to playing with the game pad now that I wouldn't play Audiosurf any other way.

I didn't realize there was gamepad support. I'll definitely have to try it out with a 360 pad now.

Damn you people.

With this thread, you forced me to go and buy this incredible game that wouldn't let me SLEEP. WHY MUST IT BE SO ADDICTIVE?!

On the plus side, I'm glad I passed over Pulse (iPod) and Beats (PSP) because Audiosurf is the first procedurally-generated music game that I am seriously impressed with. Songs that change tempo often are the most fun, I just love when a dive+speed-up comes out of nowhere.

9/10 A+++ MUCH FUN YES. I hope they have some updates in the coming weeks to streamline the interface a little more.

I concur with everything you just said. This game is so RAD I might die from it.

(I forget which song it was, but even some "uphill" songs were pretty intense. If I have any reservations about this game it may be the lack of interest in using a different "character". The pusher just seems to be perfect for me.)

I'm going to go and fish around some more a bit later, but does anyone know anything about the science of the game? Basically, how do they turn all that music into such amazingly good track renditions? That's what really impressed me when I was playing the game at first.

Time limited demo. :(

I will now have to purchase it. I'm hooked.

I downloaded the demo of this last night just to see what it was all about and found that I simply had to buy it today. This game is so great! Wonderfully simple yet horribly addictive. I know I shouldn't be playing it the way I have been (like, all night), but I just can't seem to contain myself.

While most songs work great with the game, it feel like some of my music was really made for this game. Wow. I think anyone that likes music should buy this game, plain and simple.

Another user here who picked up the demo... and had to purchase the full version shortly after. I'm really loving this game.

The only problem I see with it is the 'score comparison' thing. It seems that a song isn't the 'same' if it's not named/tagged the same. With so many rips of the same songs out there, it's not really 'exact', you know?

Yeah, they're planning on adding MusicBrainz support in the future to be able to identify similar songs that are just tagged differently.

Anyone else having a problem where you're in fullscreen mode and shift+tab to chat and the mouse dissapears? I know SimDaddyGT and myself have been struck by this curse. It's rather annoying to not have a curser.

Yeah, it happens to everyone.

If you minimize the game and then bring it back up, your mouse should come back. That's what I've done to fix it.

All I'm gonna say about this game is:

Through the Fire and Flames ain't got NOTHIN' on Mega Man 2: Dr. Wily First Stage in terms of difficulty.

On another note, about the Xbox 360 gamepad-ness.

How'd you get it to work? I have mine hooked up, and it doesn't seem to do anything in the game. Is there some kind of option to enable gamepad support?

It just worked for me as I plugged it in and after Windows installed the proper drivers. I didn't have to change any settings, as I didn't see any in the game anyway. Your controller work for other things on the PC?

Requesting a friends list for the OP.

The66thDopefish if you bother, Taco.

Yeah, works fine everywhere else.

Maybe it's cause I have the XBCD drivers installed, rather than the default Windows ones... Blah.

[edit] If you're making up a friends list for the OP, add me as well: Yggdrasill.

What can I say? Instead of getting the demo, I ended up paying for the full price. It's damn amazing. Loving it already.

Bought this last week only to forget about it completely, until I remembered last night and had a go at it. By golly, best 10 bucks I ever spent. It's trippy, challenging, and hella addictive, even if some songs don't work as well as others.

One of my fav songs to use so far: Music Instructor - Hymn

Can you actually buy this game without having Steam? I don't feel like installing a whole content delivery system just to buy one game; I really don't.

Even the Audiosurf website links over to the Audiosurf Steam page when you click the 'buy now' link, so it doesn't look like it. The only way [that I can see] of running the game sans Steam is to download one of those 'Steam-free' rips. But if you do that, there's not really a point in buying it, is there?

I used to think I'd never need Steam. Man was I wrong.

Anyways, for anyone who would like to see what kinds of insane crap I have been generating levels out of, my Audiosurf nick is chanic.

My stingy friend was able to pirate it without Steam, I believe. I'll have to get back with you on that one, since he's in class right now.

Le sigh for not even forking over 10 bucks for a damn good game. This isn't some movie ticket we're talking about here!

But understandable that you don't want Steam just for one tiny game. I only caved in once I found out Orange Box was coming out. That was enough to sign me up >_>

Damn those ninja mono stages...I always seem to hit a gray right at the last part of every song I play. I'll never get those achievements! (One of them is clocking in at 11 minutes also? Yeah, that'll be the day.)

Just as Sousuke wondered I was thinking about how differently tagged songs would be handled.

More importantly, I'm curious about the effect of audio channels/instrumentation in songs. I tried Magical Trick Society - Ground from the Best Doujin Contest and it was a lot harder and seemed to churn out at a ratio of 1 note = 1 block in comparison to most other OST songs which seemed to pick up mostly every half beat and every major beat instead of every note (eg. Auto Modelista - Feasible).

Lost Horizon - Highlander (The One) - 11:55, solves that problem right there, but only if you're a power metal fan, really.

Frankly, I don't think I'll bother with the achievements on this game, though it'd be nice to get them. This is one game I'm just addicted to because it's fun.

Audiosurf for me would be easy had I not listened to too much Melodic Death Metal as well as other types of metal.

Ninja-mono on every thing, sometimes Pointer on casual. Also using Vegas recently. Damn, too many grey blocks but still damn fun.

I can usually avoid getting addicted to games, but not this time. It's just that awesome. Vegas FTW.

Also, why am I the only one with a Frog's Theme score? :(

That is an incredibly good question. I'll have to remedy this injustice at once!

And yes, I am still horribly addicted to this game.

EDIT: Ouch, that was harder than I thought it would be.

I just gave it a run on Mono Pro, and damn, that song is pretty tough.

damnit valve. for the love of god, please, OS X support.

Well, considering the game isn't made by Vavle, I think they're the wrong people to ask.

Secondly, the game uses only DirectX, so a direct port is very unlikely.

I believe during the beta, Linux users were reporting some success playing it in Cedega/WINE, so that might be the way to go.

If Audiosurf can run in DX8 (I don't know if it can. Can it?), then it should work with CrossOver/Parallels.

Just a small comment: Xbox 360 controller support is built right into the game, one of the tips says that you just need to have it plugged in when you start the game and it will automatically work (it even supports rumble). One thing I found out from the tip is that to get to the shoulder, you push BOTH sticks in the direction of the shoulder you want to go. I didn't know that until I saw it.

But yes, you need to use the official drivers for it to detect the Xbox 360 controller properly. I don't think it has any support for other controllers, including the XBCD drivers.

Blah. I'll try that out, cause I don't think I have anything that absolutely requires the XBCD version of the drivers. Thanks for the tip.

As for running in Parallels, the Audiosurf website says you need a video card with DX9 support. :/

Anyone tried Lost Painting from Castlevania: SoTN?
That is not what the track it generates should be like.

Anyway, my username on Audiosurf is Bodomi, if someone feels like adding me.

Mine's ness151. I played the beta awhile back, and am now going to start it once I get home from work.

Oy if you want to play some really insane stuff, try some Le Tigre on Pro or Expert. I don't think the ship can even fit in those gaps!

BUMP!

I think we should have a GFF Audiosurf Challenge. Say a playlist comprised of one track from every person participating.

Wouldn't that be cool? =D

Funny you should mention them. TKO was the first song I tried out. Intense stuff! This game is virtual heroine!

The instrumental of YKZ's opening for R.O.D TV is crazy. I don't think my laptop keys can keep up...