AudioSurf

This game is a classic gem for those who "ride" their music. You can upload any song, literally any song, you can also ride to sound bits and audio files of all sorts, literally doesn't have to be music. Overall there are different ways to play via the ship you pick, there's also leader boards for most songs!

Way too laggy and audio files didn't play in game even though the audio files played fine outside in separate applications.

What you see here is the short version of my article about Audiosurf. Down below the article, there's a free download for you of a little piece of music that I specifically produced for this game, so just download it and play some Audiosurf again!
https://www.videospielgeschichten.de/audiosurf-als-inspirationsquelle-meine-vision-eines-perfekten-musikspiels/

Music games have undergone a remarkable evolution over the past decades, establishing themselves as a fascinating genre. In 1978, the Milton Bradley Company (MB) launched an electronic toy called Simon, which was based solely on color patterns and sounds. This simple concept laid an essential foundation for the rhythmic mechanics that would later appear in video games.

In 2008, a game with a simple yet creative concept was released and quickly gained popularity. It hit just the right "green wave" that could turn an indie game into a timeless classic. Among those who picked up Audiosurf right at launch was a good friend of mine, who played in a punk band and asked me to record their next EP. And every free moment or break, surrounded by beer bottles and musical instruments, was spent playing this game.

I could clearly see why it excited so many players. The game was compatible with almost every music genre, which made it accessible to a broad audience. It combined engaging puzzle mechanics with fast-paced racing elements, and global leaderboards encouraged friendly competition among players. However, what fascinated me the most was the music-based track generation and the visual synchronization.

Music and sound are almost indispensable for video games. They create atmosphere, tell stories, and draw us into the virtual world. Music games have hardly any boundaries or rules, almost anything is possible as long as the focus remains on audio. They offer incredible diversity, combining creative freedom and musical experience in various ways. Whether through colorful platform adventures with electronic beats, rhythm-based first-person shooters with heavy metal sounds, or classic rhythm games in an EDM or K-pop style, each game opens up its own world, brought to life by the power of music.

Audiosurf is a rhythm game with a selling point AA studios have failed to tap into for some reason: use your own music. Levels are made through procedural generation. There are limits, but process accurate enough to not take you out of the moment.

To begin, I'd like to get singular gripe out of the way. For some reason, after being in game for a set amount of time, the graphics start flickering and flashing and the game inevitably freezes and closes down. I have not experienced this with any other game of its like, and I've been unable to figure out what is causing this. I have tried lowering the graphics (more on this later); I have tried playing in windowed mode (also, more on this later), and I have tried playing with many of the other settings. Nothing worked. The game keeps closing prematurely, and I don't know why.

I used three albums for what is essentially my first playthrough: The Essentials — Journey, Ark Soundtrack, and Ancestors: The Human KInd Odyssey soundtrack. These were all played in mono mode on easy. What I noticed while playing each album is that appearances can be deceiving. You know what I mean, right? Don't judge a book by its cover and all that? Well, the tracks that always managed to surprise me the most were ambient music. They generated levels that were a one way trip to Hell. My gosh. I was expecting these tracks to be either a plateau or a rising slope, but nope. It shook what little understanding of music I have at the core.

As for the visuals, they are great! Too bad I couldn't enjoy them for most of my playthrough. Unfortunately, believing it might help with the crashes, I played on the lowest graphic settings, and let me tell you, it was boring... I wasn't able to fully appreciate the visuals until I said, "Screw it!" and just turned the graphics up to medium. Truly, honestly, sincerely, I DID NOT realize what I was missing out on. There are extra visuals, large stalks with pulsing caps that vibed with the music, structures, spikey, smooth, conical, christmas tree-like, doing their thing in the background, more colored blocks coming at you, and grays as well. Of course my game still crashed after spending enough time in it. Only this time, it lasted longer, much longer than when I was playing on minimal graphics??? Not sure how that works, and it's certainly a first for me that raising the graphics settings inhibits crashing. Because of my belief that playing on minimum graphics would halt said crashing, I was only able to experience these visuals for the tail end of the Ark Soundtrack and the Ancestros: The Humankind Odyssey soundtrack.

It cannot be stressed enough and I cannot glaze anymore than I already have the graphics of this game. Beautiful, stylish, and stunning. For real. Even in windowed mode. Speaking of which, as stated earlier before, I had to play the game in windowed mode to delay crashes. Because if I played in full screen mode, the game would crash in just a few minutes. Now, I don't actually mind playing in windowed mode, so it's not too much of a problem for me. The problem only arises from when I forget to turn on windowed mode and the game crashes while I'm in the middle of a song (this especially sucks for longer songs; all that progress lost). Super annoying.

Aside from the one con, this game is perfect. It offers what it advertises, no bull crap, no sugar coating; it is a rhythm game in which you can use your own music, and levels are generated by your music. It's the selling point, and the game sticks by it. It is loads of fun. And if you're like me and you have not even a modicum of insight into music theory, this game will point your attention to buried melodies in your songs that you've had yet to notice or time signatures (beats???) that flew right over your head.

You should know, if you're looking into this game and are undecided on whether you want to buy it, there are two Audiosurf games. This one and its sequel, Audiosurf 2. While Audiosurf 2 is indeed more polished (and I haven't experienced any crashes in it as I have in its predecessor), the first one has a certain charm to it that is all its own. And not that Audiosurf 2 doesn't have charm. It certainly does. But the first game has a certain something that is not present in the second game. I cannot for the life of me figure out what that something is, but its nonetheless *something*. A magic or an aura or maybe even a subliminal message. Heck, I dunno. If not for the frequent crashes, Audiosurf would have been that game I'd look forward to jumping back into after I finished up some other back logged games. Instead, I probably won't touch this game again until after I've upgraded my laptop some five or ten years from now in hopes that it might not crash on the new device. One can only hope.

I give this game an overall score of 7/10 — it would be higher if not for the crashes

I give the graphics/visuals/style a score of 9/10 — because it still looks nice in lower settings, just really boring and bare, and it is so visually stimulating on higher settings

I give the gameplay a 9/10 — totally slipped my mind to mention this, but for some reason the generated tracks can fail to give you enough colored blocks near the end of the level, leading to you failing to meet the clean finish requirement and there are moments when you're going up a hump or a hill and you're unable to see and therefore grab an oncoming colored blocks

I give the plot a 10/10 — I essentially created my own plot for the game, regarding the eldritch digitalized horror at the end of each track; basically the in-game vehicle is the vessel we use to send human sacrifices to appease the Beast. Basically, the player is tasked with sending sacrifices to this creature and the music that we play pacifies it so that we can get the ship close enough without having our souls being eaten. Imagination is great. The Beast's name is "Anaxu," derivative of Anunnaki.

I give the characters a 5/10 — we really are awful characters for making human sacrifices to ensure our own protection...

I give the soundtrack a 10/10 — Journey was great. My favorite song is Chain Reaction, tying with Faithfully. The Ark Soundtrack was great too; however, it does beat you over the head with its motiff, which gets annoying after awhile. The Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey was the best experience EVER. The percussion really generated some interested tracks and some crazy up and down up and downs.

Recommendation: Buy this game only if you think you won't be annoyed or disappointed by the constant crashing. Maybe your PC is different and your game won't crash. It is a gamble only if you're willing to make it. But Steam has a great return policy. So, if you find your game crashing after every 15 to 30 minutes, you can get a refund and buy something else.

Sometimes I'll be listening to a song IRL and remember what a great time I had playing it on Audiosurf.

this game is great.can you fix the main menu problem please. it's white.

This game lets me experience my CD collection i a whole different way, I have gotten so many adrenaline rushes playing this game. Buy it, buy a CD drive (if you have a CD collection) and experience your music.

Might not be as good as it was when it originally released, but it's a great way to enjoy your music.

AudioSurf: Guitar Hero meets TRON

Holy cow!!! The best rhythm game I've ever seen!!! This game is worth buying even for those who don't know what a rhythm game is! I liked the idea of ​​music with a set of points and any ADHD person (even if I'm not one) will want to continue to complete the level to their own song. Those who don't agree with my opinion are already dead

Not sure how well this game will play in The Year Of Our Lord 2025 when local mp3s were rampant.

Played a huge amount of this (over the 6.7h on record) on other PCs with friends in multiplayer co-op mode. Recommend if you find yourself in 2009 and you remember this review.

Cool game with weird comments. As usual!

All-time favorite music based puzzle game.

you can play most of your computer's audio files on it. it's a fantastic experience in any mode

heehoo

I don't think there are any games that are more zen than this one. If you want to play a very casual game that interacts with the music you're listening to, this is probably your best bet outside of more demanding VR titles.

AudioSurf allows you to experience your own music in a new way. You upload your own audio files and the game creates notes from the audio file for you to "surf" through, and obstacles to avoid.

It is a bit cumbersome to get your own audio files on the Steam Deck. Nevertheless, I found it worth the hassle. This game creates a good opportunity to use the well neglected "Steam Soundtracks". AudioSurf is perfect for video game soundtracks like that of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. The game is great at putting my brain into a flow state, where I can zen out and play my favorite tracks.

My only complaints with AudioSurf is that the UI works, but is a bit clunky. Some genres like electric or rap worked fairly flawlessly. However, I found Rock tracks worked, but we're a bit muddier with the note layouts. Lastly, AudioSurf leans so much into you playing your own music, that it only has one track of its own - essentially just for the tutorial. It would have been awesome for this game to have more music or to partner up with some musicians for the base game.

Overall, it's a lot of fun and worth the $9.99. The game is often on sale for a couple bucks - obviously it's even a sweeter deal at that price.

Over 17 years after its release, this still is one of the best rythm games on Steam-

I played an entire episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Audiosurf. 5 stars. 10/10 game.

Just a simple music game for when you just want to zone out!

Revolutionary when it released. I wouldn't recommend it in 2025 unless you have nostalgia for it but it's a great game.

If you're a music enthusiast with severe ADHD like me, I think you'll enjoy this.

Game's pretty good it is pretty cool

Great fun game, unique experience

it just isn't fun

I finally bit the bullet and bought it and it is 100% worth it.
probably the only rhythm game I will ever enjoy lol

Candy crush and Beat saber but better

I played Audiosurf 1, then I played Audiosurf 2... then I preferred Audiosurf 1... then I played more Audiosurf 2... then I preferred Audiosurf 2.

Good game btw.

QuestViewer issue. Can't enter the game

"You wish to play, so let us play. I shall tell you a riddle. Solve it, and both you and Olgierd will be free."

"And if I don't?"

*laughing* "Then we'll all three go for a wild ride! It's what you proposed, is it not?"

"im gonna leave a negative review because this game that game out in 2008 doesnt support a music file format not officially released until 2012" -some dude from uruguay

Great game, but opus is superior to mp3 (less size, same quality), and it's not supported in this game. I'm not converting all my music library to mp3s for this game.

For now I'll refund it. If Dylan ever implements support for opus, I'll buy it again and change my review to positive.

This game still slaps in 2025..rewind selecta :)

Fun, when it works. Crashes a ton, which I assume is because the game was designed with older hardware in mind. The only way I can play it without it crashing is to set the game to run on integrated graphics.

Holy shit this game is addicting

I think games like AudioSurf deserve an award simply for existing for us exclusively PC gamers.

Allow me to clarify; I recently visited a vintage arcade hall and I have never played any music-based arcade games apart from those machines where you dance and stomp on the arrows showing on the screen.

Long story short, I got instructed to try a few different games with different playing methods and while this is getting awfully off-topic now, I felt genuine joy and a bit of nostalgia despite not being familiar with many of the games there. Which is when I realized:

The nostalgia was because I got transported back to my teens playing AudioSurf after school, blasting my favourite music and trying to miss the grey blocks despite often failing to do so.

So yeah. That’s the review. AudioSurf may be old as rocks (like me), but it was my jam. And I recommend it wholeheartedly, not only because of the nostalgia but because the core gameplay just works; You hit a block, you hit a block. No surprise ”how on earth did that count?” etc. It just works.

played the demo a fuck ton on my old laptop, and this game was one of the first games I ever bought on Steam

slow songs aren't the best on this, made for EDM and adjacent music and it shows
but damn did it feel good to play Casiopea (especially Sailing Alone!!) Still Alive, and a song by Midori that nearly broke my speakers on this thing

I wish the leaderboards were still up, but those seem to have been down for a while?
Leaderboards or no, this game is still fun. PLAY IT!!!

It's an older game, sir. But it checks out.

i first found this game when i was young and got my own laptop. played this for many many hours. now maybe once every few months i see this in my library and play a round. its like coming back to an old friend. its exactly as it used to be. the only thing changed now is that theres barely any audio files to play left lol

i have had no errors so far, really cant complain.

frutiger aero game like visualizer hybrid. I know that seems like a mouthful, but I highly recommend this blast from the past!

This game is such an evergreen concept of importing songs to create rhythm game tracks. I played this religiously as a teen on another account. This is the millennial's version of beat saber on the heels of Guitar Hero popularity at the time. An OG rhythm game that holds up today and is still being updated! Absolutely amazing. It's still as visually mesmerizing and gets you into a flow state so fast.

And for those who might find this game but were born into a generation where media ownership doesn't exist anymore and nobody has local files - If you happen to "find" some local files but have the issue of Audiosurf not recognizing the song; On Windows right click the song file > Properties, go to the Details tab and edit the file's metadata by changing the "Title" section to the song name and "Contributing Artist" to the Band/Singer name. That will help with seeing leaderboards properly.

I got here by going through my list of games to see what I have/have not reviewed and ended up spending a few hours on it. Playing Megalovania by Toby Fox now is just as good as Through Fire And Flames by Dragon Force in ye yesteryear.

Compared to other posts I had 0 bugs during my time playing on Windows 11. No crashes or glitches.

Old as heck game, will run on most modern PCs nowadays.
Lets you combine ADHD Gaming with Podcasts.

It's an innovative music game resembling a fancy visualizer. Initially fun, but sudden interface crashes make long-term play unreliable.

peak game

Yeah whatever.

Can't help thinking it's just like someone paying for a fancy Winamp visualisation. But if that's your bag.

As someone who doesn't use spotify or whatever, and has always had a folder of all my music on my secondary drive since the 1990's even, I have no issues with lack of features.

when you dont wanna drink and drive this game fits the shoe

It's just fun

Does not work with win11 pro. QuestViewer issue.

It is good for a few days until suddenly you find everything in the menu is all white and can't play the game whatsoever

very fun and addicting