Luna
29-03-2008, 08:47 PM
AudioSurf
The latest in the recent surge in games built around music (primarily the Guitar Hero series and Rock Band), AudioSurf’s main selling point is the fact gamers can input and use their own music in the game, but is this just a cheap gimmick?
The basic gameplay of AudioSurf is very simple; the game creates a “track” from your song of choice and then fills it with coloured blocks, which (depending on the “character” you pick) you collect into clusters at the bottom of the screen by hitting them. The “character’s” provide you with three difficulty levels to provide a relatively forgiving difficulty curve, and each has a unique trait; some just have one colour of block that you are to hit while attempting to dodge the grey blocks littered around the track, some allow you to dictate where each colour goes in order to create the biggest clusters possible, and some just encourage you to go on a rampage of block-collecting and worry about the consequences later by allowing you to randomize them.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6969/soundgardenaudiodm9.jpg
Now the good stuff; the game is generally very good at reproducing the music on the tracks, putting blocks on beats and riffs accurately, barring the occasional anomaly and of course, the ability to use any track provides unlimited replay value, as the game has leaderboards for every song, and you’ll be surprised at just how many tracks and artists already have very competitive scores on them (still very quiet on the Woody Guthrie leaderboards I hasten to add). The game is remarkably addictive, mostly down to its simplistic yet varied gameplay. The truly remarkable thing about AudioSurf is the price; just $10, or around £7.
However, the game isn’t without its faults. Most of the characters require you to use either one or both mouse buttons to varying degrees of complexity, with some self-explanatory and some requiring seemingly super human ninja reactions, and although this can only be a good thing as it adds another layer of replay value, if like me you are running the game on a laptop, you may find yourself having to use the mouse buttons with the directional keys which puts an inevitable strain on your hands, and the process would I’m sure feel much easier if you were able to steer and press the mouse buttons on the same hand. There's no way to effectively stop the game putting your scores up on the leaderboards, which some may want, and unlike the block creation on beats, the intensity of songs which dictates whether the track goes up or down is much more hit and miss. I’ve also found the game occasionally freezes and ruins your run, but these problems are relatively minor and the game does only cost $10.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4715/guthrieaudiosurfcq0.jpg
All quiet on the Woody Guthrie front
Overall, this game really is something special. Beside a couple of minor faults, for which the endless replay value, the addictive gameplay, and the exhilaration you feel when you pick up every block while managing to dodge all the grey blocks easily make up for, and at $10, you may as well give it a go. I promise it will be the best $10 you spend on gaming for a long, long time.
The latest in the recent surge in games built around music (primarily the Guitar Hero series and Rock Band), AudioSurf’s main selling point is the fact gamers can input and use their own music in the game, but is this just a cheap gimmick?
The basic gameplay of AudioSurf is very simple; the game creates a “track” from your song of choice and then fills it with coloured blocks, which (depending on the “character” you pick) you collect into clusters at the bottom of the screen by hitting them. The “character’s” provide you with three difficulty levels to provide a relatively forgiving difficulty curve, and each has a unique trait; some just have one colour of block that you are to hit while attempting to dodge the grey blocks littered around the track, some allow you to dictate where each colour goes in order to create the biggest clusters possible, and some just encourage you to go on a rampage of block-collecting and worry about the consequences later by allowing you to randomize them.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6969/soundgardenaudiodm9.jpg
Now the good stuff; the game is generally very good at reproducing the music on the tracks, putting blocks on beats and riffs accurately, barring the occasional anomaly and of course, the ability to use any track provides unlimited replay value, as the game has leaderboards for every song, and you’ll be surprised at just how many tracks and artists already have very competitive scores on them (still very quiet on the Woody Guthrie leaderboards I hasten to add). The game is remarkably addictive, mostly down to its simplistic yet varied gameplay. The truly remarkable thing about AudioSurf is the price; just $10, or around £7.
However, the game isn’t without its faults. Most of the characters require you to use either one or both mouse buttons to varying degrees of complexity, with some self-explanatory and some requiring seemingly super human ninja reactions, and although this can only be a good thing as it adds another layer of replay value, if like me you are running the game on a laptop, you may find yourself having to use the mouse buttons with the directional keys which puts an inevitable strain on your hands, and the process would I’m sure feel much easier if you were able to steer and press the mouse buttons on the same hand. There's no way to effectively stop the game putting your scores up on the leaderboards, which some may want, and unlike the block creation on beats, the intensity of songs which dictates whether the track goes up or down is much more hit and miss. I’ve also found the game occasionally freezes and ruins your run, but these problems are relatively minor and the game does only cost $10.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4715/guthrieaudiosurfcq0.jpg
All quiet on the Woody Guthrie front
Overall, this game really is something special. Beside a couple of minor faults, for which the endless replay value, the addictive gameplay, and the exhilaration you feel when you pick up every block while managing to dodge all the grey blocks easily make up for, and at $10, you may as well give it a go. I promise it will be the best $10 you spend on gaming for a long, long time.