What do you get if you cross Klax with Rez and Wipeout?

The answer is Audio-Surf, an independently-developed combination of music visualisation and puzzle game. The aim of the game is to race down a track matching up blocks of the same colour to score points. The visuals pulse and react in time to the music, tracks peak and dip with the track’s intensity, you lurch forward in time to the tempo and blocks are laid out depending on different elements of the music.

However, Audio-Surf’s unique selling point is that you use your own collection to make the levels instead of being limited to in-game music. When you start a new game it analyses the mp3/ogg/CD you’re using and creates a track out of it. The analysis is surprisingly good too and I’ve yet to see any tracks have an incorrect tempo, a problem I’ve often had while trying to play stuff like drum and bass through programs such as MixMeister, Native Instruments’ Traktor and occasionally Ableton Live. Tracks are very different from one another and the gameplay varies depending on what you’re listening too - Utah Saints creates easy levels as the arpeggios lay out blocks in simple patterns, Boxcutter and Autechre make levels that twist over on themselves and stutter in-time to the glitchy beats, while Bong-Ra is an all-out audio-visual assault. Trying to find out the effects of different tracks is as much a part of the game as playing it.

As with Rez, screenshots don’t really do the game justice, so check out this video. Sadly the quality of YouTube videos detracts from the visuals but it should at least give an idea of how the game plays and looks.

The game is currently in beta and is only available during limited trials, although as the release date is still a few months away, a hacked version is spreading quickly through torrents. I’ll definitely be buying a copy as soon as it’s available.