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AudioSurf Air Exists, Has a Beta

The follow-up to one of the best damned music games you probably never played is on the horizon.

Uh, yes please.
Uh, yes please.

In my personal hierarchy of "music games that sucked up way more of my free time than is reasonable by any conceivable definition," Rock Band and Guitar Hero perhaps unsurprisingly sit atop the heap. However, surprisingly not far behind them is AudioSurf, the independently developed PC music game that let you "ride" your own music. Just load up any mp3 file from your hard drive, and the game would generate a dynamic level to "surf," creating collectible objects and obstacles around specific beats and notes within the music.

It was a sincerely amazing game, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned just now of AudioSurf Air, a sequel currently in the works courtesy of creator Dylan Fitterer. The just-launched website for the game only shows a few teasing screenshots, but also has the benefit of a beta sign-up form for those who might want to try the game ahead of release.

The beta currently doesn't have a launch date, but signing up will get you considered for when it does launch. Presumably it won't be too far off, as the site lists a 2012 release date for the final game.

Okay, so this is maybe a slightly self-indulgent post given my absurd love of the original, but come on, I can't possibly be the only one stoked about this, can I?

Alex Navarro on Google+

138 Comments

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Clinkz

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Edited By Clinkz

Never understood why Audiosurf was so revered.

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Mabui

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Edited By Mabui

Played the heck out of audiosurf, mono mostly. I hope mono continues! Also would be neat to be able to hook into streaming music services.

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mortigitempo

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Edited By mortigitempo

Fuck yes. Signed up immediately.

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mandrewgora

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Edited By mandrewgora

Now this I can get into.

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unsolvedparadox

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Edited By unsolvedparadox

Jeff must be losing his mind!

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vodsel

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Edited By vodsel

Got to game test this a few months back with the developer. It was interesting...

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Noisician

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Edited By Noisician

Audiosurf is on my all-time top 10 list.

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HaltIamReptar

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Edited By HaltIamReptar

Video games are over, we have finally got what we have been aiming for for so long

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newfire

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Edited By newfire

Alex, definitely not the only one stoked. Signed up.

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tristenkw5

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Edited By tristenkw5

Not to be contrary, but I honestly didn't "get" Audiosurf. I love all music games, and the concept of playing with my own music thrills me to no end.....but I never felt like my music mattered to this game. Maybe it was the songs I chose, but I never felt a connection between the music and gameplay. I understand it, tempo for speed, other musical stats for level layout and block layout and such, but it never felt right to me. It may also be because I prefer a hard fail condition in my music games rather than going for high scores on leaderboards I'll never get past place 500000 on.

I think it's a similar reason why I didn't really get the music connection in Lumines. It was just a puzzle game to me with extremely loose music ties thanks to the line that scrolls by.

I'm still happy to see Audiosurf doing well though, and hope it continues to do so.

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Vegetable_Side_Dish

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Fuck yeh Audiosurf. 

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1337W422102

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Edited By 1337W422102

Fucking love Audiosurf.

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MaddogExplosive

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Edited By MaddogExplosive

Just like somebody else said, the whole reason I got Steam in the first place was for AudioSurf. Since then, the only additional games that I have bought are The Orange Box (for Portal specifically) and The Last Remnant. So basically, Steam is my AudioSurf player.

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raidingkvatch

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Edited By raidingkvatch

Definitely not the only one stoked Alex. Audiosurf has sucked up a massive amount of my lIfe and is a great way to listen to music. Super excited to hear about a sequel.

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forkboy

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Edited By forkboy

Oh, this is exciting. I love Audiosurf, even if I'm kind of pants at everything but the most basic mode. I just find it kinda zen, even if the song I'm playing is Converge or some similar sort of not-zen music.

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mbkish

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Edited By mbkish

Can't play much beyond the Mono stuff, but the original is amazing good fun. Has great Co-op as well.

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mscupcakes

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Edited By mscupcakes

It looks great! Just signed up for the beta this minute.

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sirdesmond

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Edited By sirdesmond

This looks awesome. I really like the first person Tron cycle thing this has going on. I'll buy it.

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Ben_H

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Edited By Ben_H

As long as it has Ninja Mono mode I will play it a ton. I love Audiosurf.

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ProjektGill

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Edited By ProjektGill

When that game comes out, I will still only play variations of Mono.

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RedDeathZero

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Edited By RedDeathZero

I can't wait for this. My first impression of this game was beyond what i imagined, and truly this one will be eyegasm after eargasm.

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MysteriousBob

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Edited By MysteriousBob

I could never see the point in music games. Just seems like a boring game of Simon Says set to a beat.

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Zeg

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Edited By Zeg

As the (current, probably until several minutes after this post) Elite top scorer of the Community song and the Bombstep, I feel I should be here to say: Hell yeah.

Hopefully with a new game will come improved algorithms for the course generation, not just a graphics update. Not too sure about the 'first person' view of those initial screenshots either. But I'm sure it won't be too much different from the winning formula of simple and fun for a quick blast.

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EricNStuff

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Edited By EricNStuff

Thanks Navarro. I put hours into Audiosurf, but I wouldn't have found the beta without you :)

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winsord

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Edited By winsord

Signed up for the beta the day with website went up. Loved Audiosurf (big rhythm gamer, from Rock Band to O2Mania), and really hope I get in. I was actually in the original Audiosurf beta and remember just how cool it was to me at the time; I hope this sparks some magic.

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Echo

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Edited By Echo

Alex, I think everyone played the original.

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Zaphers

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Edited By Zaphers

Going to play hours and hours of the original to celebrate.

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csl316

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Edited By csl316

Dude, I played so much god damn Audiosurf. For a while there, each of my new albums got a runthrough.

Once I tried to do a Bombcast, but a lengthy Wutchew Been Playin' was too big of a hurdle to pass.

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iWonder

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Edited By iWonder

Psyched!

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Rhombus_Of_Terror

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I've always wanted to do a Bombcast run with Audiosurf...

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ClairvoyantVibrations

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Confirmed my beta position!  I can't wait!

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Allison

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Edited By Allison

Audiosurf was great when it was the first and only "dynamic music game" on the market.

Then a lot of better and less janky and more interesting ones came up. Like, it took Audiosurf a few years to finally let you play songs with other non-English typesets. That and the scoring system was really dumb and was easily breakable with a few of the ships, such as Ninja Mono would only give you a minimum if you didn't touch anything at all the whole time whereas any other ship could easily double or triple its maximum score.

Personally I had a lot more fun with Beat Hazard than Audiosurf but these things happen. I mean, which one of them got the big Potato Portal 2 bucks? :(

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Phished0ne

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Edited By Phished0ne

Lets hope this version has sorting by Album not just Track and Title. You could really scam your way to the top of some of the leaderboards by using extremely long live versions of songs. As someone who has a vastly larger collection of live music than studio recordings, it was pretty annoying sometimes.

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Slow_pC

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Edited By Slow_pC

Loading up audiosurf and tossing some headphones on... I'll be back by TNT...

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nidzumi

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Edited By nidzumi

@SlashDance said:

No Caption Provided

Pretty Much

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Svampson

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Edited By Svampson

@Roomrunner: Since it's running on Unity3D there will most likley be a OSX version! (Don't be shocked if it comes out on iPhone/iPad/Android aswell)

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Roomrunner

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Edited By Roomrunner

@HT101 said:

I just hope it gets released on Mac since the first one never came out on Mac( I know you could do some workarounds to get it to work on a Mac but I'm too lazy for that.)

I hope so too. I did do the workaround for OSX, and it's very janky. I'd pay full price for a working full featured version for sure.

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Edited By SlashDance
No Caption Provided
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retrovirus

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Edited By retrovirus

Oh man, I love Audiosurf! Now I've got to see what this is.

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zoozilla

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Edited By zoozilla

I love some Audiosurf, even if I can't figure out anything other than Mono.

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mrcraggle

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Edited By mrcraggle

I may only play Audiosurf on simpleton mode (mono) but it's still so much fun. More Audiosurf is always a good thing in my book.

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NakAttack

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Edited By NakAttack

@Drebin_893 said:

FUCK ME GUYS

YOU CLEAN, CAUSE I DONT STICK MY SAUSAGE INTO ANY RUFFLED TURKEY, CAPISH.

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RagingLion

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Edited By RagingLion

I'm only surprised you think a small number of people played Audiosurf. They were all over it at RPS at the time and everyone in my house bought it when it came out pretty much. I understand that might not reflect the slightly more mainstream gaming market though.

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LeeroyPinkerton

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Edited By LeeroyPinkerton

HELL YES. I need to play Audiosurf more. *goes to play Audiosurf*

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NostalgicShakedown

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@Cubic said:

Audiosurf was why I originally got into Steam. I'd heard so many good things about it I signed up for an account just so I could buy it (I think it was only ever available on Steam? One of the first games with Steam achievements as well, if I recall).

Same here!

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DockJaw

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Edited By DockJaw

Doesn't everybody own this? What are you talking about Alex

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saddlebrown

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Edited By saddlebrown

"...you probably never played..."

You kidding me, Alex? They've given that game away for free or at a discount almost as much as TF2 or Portal. It practically just comes with Steam at this point.

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Mumrik

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Edited By Mumrik

I own Audiosurf and have done so for years. It bores the snot out of me and sadly always did. If I want to play a game that is based on the music of my choice, I'd much rather pick something like Beat Hazard

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Red

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Edited By Red

I loved the original, but I really can't see what a sequel would bring. An iPhone/iPad version could be cool, though.