Audiosurf

Developer: Dylan Fitterer Platform: Windows, Zune HD Release Date: February, 2008 RPVP: 9.99€ (Steam) Size: ~ 375MB (PC) Genre: Rhythm, music, puzzle.

Overview

Created by Invisible Handlebar, a company composed created by Dylan Fitterer, Audiosurf is a mix of a rhythm and puzzle experience. After choosing a song offered by the game or imputing one of your own personal collection, the game analyzes it and creates a space track where in an F-Zero –like ship you struggle to collect (or evade) blocks.

Gameplay

Of course, there's a bit more to it. the shape, and orientation of the road depends on the rhythm of the music (on easier tracks the road will be something like a diagonal line pointing upwards. If the music has a faster rhythm, the opposite occurs. The traffic indicator serves as a difficulty indicator for most game modes, giving you an idea how how hard the track is (the highest the traffic, the more blocks you get). Also, the speed at which you navigate the very track depends on the speed of the music. If you use a calm, classic music for example, the speed will remain more or less constant. However if you use a song with lots of drumming, the speed will vary a lot (making it harder on several game modes) and the bumps in the road will be more frequent. There are several game modes, the most common being the Mono mode, where your objective is to simply clear the track getting as many colored blocks as possible while at the same time avoiding all the grey blocks. They will disappear a couple of seconds after each time you match 3 or more together, thus, giving you a little extra time to add a couple more to the combo. The more blocks matched, the more points you get. You also get a set of points for each block collected up to a maximum of 200 per block. however, if you get a grey one the score count will reset to 1, posteriorly increasing to 2 and to every other even number until it reached 200 again or until you get another grey block. you can clear the grey blocks from time to time using your score as your payment and you can get extra bonus points by fulfilling certain requirements, such as matching 11 blocks at once, dodging all grey blocks or finishing the song with your block storage empty. Your score will then determine which medals you will receive, if any (point requirements for each medal are shown before you start).there are other game modes such as the Pointman, the Eraser and even a two-player mode, where one player uses the keyboard and other the mouse to move his ship.

Different game modes include having to to grab match blocks of various different colors at the same time, while being careful not to overfill you block storage space. There are no grey blocks in these modes, but here certain colors are worth more points than others. Consequently, they are also less common. Some of these modes count with special tools to aid with your mission, such as the option to shuffle your blocks or “Paint” found during the track to change the color of all your blocks or even a simple block boost you can get that gives you some blocks of a specific color easily identifiable by looking at the item. There is also a Visualizer mode, in case you need a fancy Ambience for your parties (heh). There are also three categories for the game modes, each being more difficult than the previous one. Some game modes are exclusive to some categories. If you create an account and keep yourself logged in you can compare scores to your friends and receive emails in case they beat yours (some achievements involve doing just that).

Opinion

There’s not much to say here, basically it’s a good game to pass the time, and as long as you have new music, it has an infinite replay value. The only downsides are graphic-related but the game has low system requirements any normal computer nowadays can run it. I think it should include another game mode like the Mono mode but without grey blocks and more colored blocks. Here the challenge would simply be to get as many colored blocks as possible. Oh and by the way: I picked it up while it was on sale….for 1,36€.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good	The Bad	The Ugly
As long as you have music files, it has an infinite replay value; Various game modes; Achievements and e-mail notices.	Needs more visualization options, you cant change the resolution on window mode;  Full-screen imput lag, not good in this kind of game.	The Achievements are all pretty easy to get as long as you “cheat”. A couple more achievements wouldn’t hurt.

My Final Gameplay Stats

Time Played:	13 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	19 / 19 (100%)
Game mode played the most:	Ninja Mono
Longest Music Played:	~15 mins

Screenshots taken at 1920x1080. Title image taken from Steam grid view. I do not own it etc.