For a poor gamer, it can be hard not to become jealous of financially better-off friends, especially with music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band costing upwards of $250. What’s a budget gamer to do to stay in the rhythm game loop?
Luckily, Audiosurf, a PC game downloadable through the Steam client, lets gamers sail through a rollercoaster ride of all their favorite music tracks for the low price of $10. No overpriced expansion packs or downloadable content required, folks. If you’ve got a music library on your PC, you’ve got a game.
Audiosurf combines the trills of a virtual, neon rollercoaster ride with a color-based puzzle game. As gamers fly through a bright, uniquely designed track of their favorite song, they collect blocks with their ship for a 3X8 grid. Match three or more in a row and, like Tetris, the blocks disappear. But if you let a column overfill, your ship is forced to take a breather and respawn, costing you valuable points.
Audiosurf features 14 different modes from Mono (collect a single color for points) to Pusher Elite (nudge multiple colored blocks left or right). Iron Mode is an option for any of the 14 regular modes, making the ride faster and allowing no overfills.
I’m not usually one that’s driven to attain a game’s high score (it just seems 1980s-arcade-esque, so two and a half decades ago), but Audiosurf gets me motivated to beat the best out there. Local and global score boards are available, as well as scores from your friends, so you can see how well you and your friends stack up against the new Weezer single and where you stand in the Florida vs. worldwide scores.
Never the best at anything? Play a song from an obscure band you like; I bet you’ll have at least the local high-score. Ever heard of Stemage? Didn’t think so. But I’m practically the king of the world on the local leader board with their music. On a side note, I’d totally be fine with that changing. Go check out Stemage on iTunes and beat my score if you like what you hear.
Meta-gaming fans rejoice; there are plenty of achievements and medals to unlock through the game, as well.
The system requirements to run the game aren’t a problem either. Heck, my netbook can run it on the lowest settings. If you have a computer from the last few years, you should have no problem rocking out to Audiosurf.
You don’t need a giant plastic guitar or hundreds of dollars worth of equipment to enjoy a music game. Though it may not be as popular as Rock Band or Guitar Hero, Audiosurf holds its own. And for its $10 price tag and an unlimited library of songs, it more than gives those other two games a run for their money.
Is it possible to chat with other players in this game? Would be fun to make contact with other people who are enjoying the same music as me 🙂