In Pursuit of Frivolity
Valve’s proprietary game-distribution platform Steam has forever changed the way I will acquire and play games. Being a child of the eighties, and someone to whom video games represent not only the apex of entertainment but a genuine cultural artifact at this point, this is a big deal.
In a nutshell, Steam is an elegant and densely populated market for purchasing games on ones computer. The process is streamlined that I swear I will never resort to brick and mortar money traps again where I have the option. It is that fast and easy – not unlike your mom.
Once purchased, Steam becomes something like an online inbox of all your games: you never have to remember keys or keep track of cd’s again, and the games are available everywhere you have an internet connection. That is incredible convenience, and it’s a godsend for gamers to be able to let go of the tedium and frustration of trucking all their unwieldy discs and papers around from place to place. I don’t have to worry about disc or serial loss equating to game loss anymore, and that’s a sound investment.
Anyway, yesterday this gorgeous platform delivered what I can say without hyperbole is the best thing ever. It is called Audiosurf.
Let’s get the most glaring contention out of the way: it’s sort of like Guitar Hero, insofar as you “play a song” by catching oncoming multi-coloured bricks which correspond to the rhythmic of the music being played. On the other hand, it is nothing like Guitar Hero past this superficial resemblance.
A more rousing description has been put forth by a friend of mine, positing that the experience is like “Guitar Hero meets Tron meets Tetris” to which I’d like to append the qualifier “on rollercoaster, in space.” The results are fantastic.
Down to brass tacks, Audiosurf essentially turns any mp3, m4a, ogg, flac, or music cd you have on hand into a psychedelic race track, something which can be exciting or soothing depending on the tone and tempo of the music. You control a little space ship car thing on said track and attempt to catch different coloured blocks in such a way that three or more of the same colour touch one another on your grid, giving you points. Quiet portions of songs make you crawl up hill while more exhilarating moments plunge you down, complete with power ups and intense special effects light shows and of course, the most difficult combinations of blocks yield the most points.
It sounds overwhelming and it is, the learning curve takes a few games to get a hold of and after about two dozens songs I’m still not cracking any high scores by a long shot. But it does make sense once one sits down with it, and the game’s three difficulty modes and fifteen “avatars” (space ship things granting different play styles and special abilities) ease the process of getting the hang of things.
I love it. Punching up a favourite song of mine and careening around its spectacularly rendered curves and drops is mind-bending, and I can’t stop thinking of more tracks that would make incredible… tracks! (har har har) Audiosurf makes all comparable music and rhythm games look cheap and it only costs $9.99 to buy and about sixty seconds to download and install via steam.
Take a chance on the free Demo, sans Steam, here; it only allows you to play 5 songs but that’s enough to get a taste of it. If you’ll excuse me, I have twelve thousand or so levels to complete.
BIT PART 