With the success of titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the rhythm genre has been at the forefront of gaming for these past few months. Given its current popularity, it was only a matter of time before a developer would take this formula and turn it into something radically different. Enter Audiosurf, a unique music game created by Dylan Fitterer. This game takes the simple premise of rhythm-based gameplay and integrates it with your own music to form an experience unlike anything else currently available. It does have a few rough edges, but as whole, this is a very fun title that is only limited by the size of your digital music collection.

The best way to describe Audiosurf's core gameplay is a combination between the classic NES title Klax and the more recent Amplitude for the PlayStation 2. You'll drive your hover vehicle on a vertically scrolling course populated with blocks known as "cars," and the general objective is to match three or more of these blocks to clear them out and score points. The more cars you match, the larger your overall bonus will be. Scoring is further multiplied by the color of said blocks, with red being worth the most and magenta equating to the least. The frequency in which you see these colors varies depending on the speed of a song, as well as other factors like the character you can choose to play as.

Audiosurf's gameplay is quite addicting.

In fact, there are quite a few selectable characters, and most of them have subtle differences that change up the gameplay. You have Pointman who can acquire blocks and save them for use later, Vegas who uses the shoulder to randomize placement of whatever blocks you're holding, Double Vision which entails a wider track and two cars that can be individually controlled, Eraser who can remove all of the currently held blocks of a same color, Pusher who can impact cars to shift them left or right, and Mono who can transform all blocks into two main categories: gray or colored. The ultimate goal of the mono character is to avoid the gray cars while acquiring colored ones, and while this may seem like a relatively simple (and boring) concept, it's actually some of the most fun you can have in the game. Most of the characters in Audiosurf are duplicated across three difficulty levels, and while the basic mechanics of each class remains the same, harder difficulties often remove features for the sake of challenge, like the shoulder or the ability to jump. There's a surprising amount of variety here though, and you'll likely gravitate toward a character that closely matches your preferred play style.

What will ultimately keep you coming back for more is Audiosurf's ability to analyze your digital music and generate custom courses that are unique to each song. All of the basic formats are supported, including MP3, iTunes M4A, WMA, OGG, and compact disc. Depending on the speed, pitch and volume of a chosen song, courses will continually increase and decrease in block count, form curves, and accelerate and decelerate in speed. This dynamic nature of the music means that no track will be ever the same, and can provide virtually unlimited gameplay for as long as you can tolerate the basic mechanics. And since the core of the experience is fun and addictive, you get a lot of lasting value for your dollar.

Despite the fun factor, there are a few issues that may slightly impact your enjoyment of Audiosurf. First, the interface can be a bit cumbersome, especially when it relates to opening and selecting songs. You are offered the option of using the awkward built-in file browser or an external windows pop-up. The window generally works better, but the game doesn't always remember the location of your music folder, which annoyingly forces you to navigate through your hard drive to find what you're looking for. In addition, there are some problems with the online leaderboards. Outside of some persistent downtime, there is seemingly little verification that takes place before a score is uploaded. Due to the nature of digital music, not every track will have the exact internal structure, and as a result, radically different courses can be generated from what technically could be (and often is) the same song. This introduces an imbalance where one version of a song may simply have more options for points than another, and thus taints the accuracy of the online rankings. There are means to report songs that may be fake or incorrectly scored, but a better screening system would have been a much more viable solution. As they are, the leaderboards are best used for competition between friends with the same music files.

For some visual variety, the game sports a toggleable light-colored theme.

In terms of visuals, Audiosurf has a distinct, if not slightly rough appearance. The courses themselves have a simple but colorful style that react accordingly to the music, but they lack any real graphical fidelity and come across looking a bit bland at times. Fortunately, you'll be too busy staring at the blocks on the track to notice the minimalist graphics that are scattered outside your field of view. The interface is a bit worse though, and consists of some really ugly neon-colored buttons and menus. Given the independent development of the game, this is understandable, but is a nagging issue nevertheless. As a whole, the graphics aren't bad, but they certainly won't blow you away.

The audio aspect of the game is pretty much what you would expect from a title that revolves around your own music. It does include the entire Orange Box soundtrack, which is a nice addition, but you'll mainly play through your current selection of digital music. Outside of that, there are subtle sound cues that you can choose between for a few of the game's scoring events, but that's about it. Ultimately, the quality of the audio experience entirely depends on your taste in music.

Audiosurf is an experience unlike any other, and at very least deserves kudos for that. It does have a few problems like the inaccurate online leaderboards and clunky interface, but the core gameplay is extremely fun and only limited by the size of your music collection. The best part is the game is only $10, and that's a great value for what you get. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to combine your own music with engaging rhythm and puzzle-based gameplay, Audiosurf is the definitive answer.