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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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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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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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nidzumi

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Edited By nidzumi

@SlashDance said:

No Caption Provided

Pretty Much

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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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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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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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ClairvoyantVibrations

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Confirmed my beta position!  I can't wait!

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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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iWonder

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Edited By iWonder

Psyched!

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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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Zaphers

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Edited By Zaphers

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

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Echo

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Edited By Echo

Alex, I think everyone played the original.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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mscupcakes

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Edited By mscupcakes

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

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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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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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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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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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1337W422102

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Edited By 1337W422102

Fucking love Audiosurf.

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Vegetable_Side_Dish

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Fuck yeh Audiosurf. 

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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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newfire

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Edited By newfire

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

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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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Noisician

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Edited By Noisician

Audiosurf is on my all-time top 10 list.

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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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unsolvedparadox

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Edited By unsolvedparadox

Jeff must be losing his mind!

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mandrewgora

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Edited By mandrewgora

Now this I can get into.

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mortigitempo

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Edited By mortigitempo

Fuck yes. Signed up immediately.

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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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Clinkz

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Edited By Clinkz

Never understood why Audiosurf was so revered.

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citizenjp

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Edited By citizenjp

Yes please.

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GinjaAssassin

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Edited By GinjaAssassin

Yay!!!!!

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Shindiggah

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Edited By Shindiggah

I adored audiosurf, although after a few months of playing it, it would crash my computer for some odd reason. I can't wait for this!

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dark_quota

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Edited By dark_quota

Audiosurf is one of only two games I've ever purchased on steam. I've definitely heard of it and I can't wait to play this one.

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Bruce

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Edited By Bruce

The best part about Audiosurf was playing an obscure song and finding out that like three hundred people played it, too.

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kennybaese

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Edited By kennybaese

I loved Audiosurf to pieces, but when I switched to Mac for my music making stuff, Audiosurf couldn't come with. I hope that this one gets a Mac release.

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MachoFantastico

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Edited By MachoFantastico

Oh hell yes! Love me some Audiosurf. Sorely missed on iOS to.

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Shaymarx

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Edited By Shaymarx

I have a UK disc version. But Steam is required to play the game. It is an awesome piece so long as you do not have your music collection full of DRM' iTunes tracks.

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Branthog

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Edited By Branthog

What do you mean "probably never played"? Audiosurf was hugely popular and I'm pretty sure most people played it at some point.

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Vexxan

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Edited By Vexxan

Looks more like Audiosurf: Tron!

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Uberdubie

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Edited By Uberdubie

Had fun with Audiosurf, but I've found other titles dynamically 'translate music into a game' much more efficiently. Games like Space Invaders Infinity Gene are a lot more fun seeing what sort of unique level comes out of custom music IMO.

Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what gets improved upon.