Sea Slugs! Anime Blog

I’m actually kind of surprised that no one in the anime blogosphere has mentioned Audiosurf, an uber-cool game that takes media player visualizations to the next level.

For those who haven’t heard of it, Audiosurf is an independent-developer game that combines rhythm sensibilities (reminiscent of Amplitude/Frequency) with puzzle game mechanics (Kirby’s Avalanche, Puzzle Fighter) and racers with unique abilities into a slick package. However, the key feature that distinguishes it from the rest of the crowd is that the dynamic generation of the racetrack trajectory (energetic sections are steeper, slower sections tend to be uphill, I don’t quite know what causes the corkscrews…), block color patterns, and block placement based on the beats and notes of a song that you provide out of your mp3/wma/etc collection. You can also see who else in the online rankings has played that particular song before, and compare your scores with theirs. It’s also only $10, which is ridiculously cheap.

There’s quite a few Audiosurf Youtube videos out there, but not many anime-inspired tracks. Most of the players seem to use the Mono type racer, which is the most boring one, as it converts all blocks to the same color, and then turns most of the notes into bricks that you have to dodge. This eliminates the core puzzle mechanic, and also detracts from the rhythm, since you end up dodging most of the notes. Out of the anime videos that do exist, here are a few that I found interesting:

Gundam 00’s OP2 -Ash Like Snow: I picked this one because it’s a recent song, and the player uses the interesting Pusher type racer (can shove incoming blocks into an adjacent channel). The path is mostly a straightforward descent, though there is a twist somewhere in the middle.

Nodame Cantabile OP1 - Allegro Cantabile: Not only do I love this song, but the player uses the Pointman style racer to pick up and drop powerups in a timely manner to score some big points.

CaramellDansen - Speedycake mix: Just because it’s annoyingly catchy. It’s also *ridiculously* fast; this player was quite good, but couldn’t avoid all the bricks at the end, and lost the potential 30% bonus for perfect dodging.

It’s always interesting to see what kind of tracks your songs will generate; I find that a lot of anime OPs tend to be strictly fast paced affairs, so the entire path is just a steep roller coaster straight down, but I did find some songs that made for interesting tracks (ha!):

Gunslinger Girl OP - The Light Before We Land: Has some surprisingly quick sections that caught me off guard, since I was expecting this one to be a leisurely walk in the park.

Utawarerumono ED - Madoromi no Rinne: Seriously bumpy ride, with low forward visibility due to the plethora of slope changes.

Gunbuster 2 OP - Groovin’ Magic: Hills and valleys, hills and valleys….

Mai Hime - Mezane: BGM’s, especially Yuki Kajiura battle themes, tend to work very well because of their strong beats and ultra-dramatic phrases. Mezane’s tense buildup to the techno is totally awesome, like the slow ride up a huge rollercoaster. BGM-fanatic Stripey should give this a try with his vast collection! However, Slice of Life-maniacs like Jeff may find those ARIA BGMs to be a little too leisurely paced in terms of gameplay.

Audiosurf definitely revived my interest in the ol’ anime mp3 archives, if only to see what Do You Remember Love looks like in Audiosurf form. It’s a hypnotic game that can be casually played on the easiest difficulties just to enjoy the visualizations and music, or min-maxed endlessly for the ultra-competitive rhythm gamers. I’d be interested in seeing what anime songs you all think would make for unusual racetracks and patterns!

Addendum: My player name is Kiratomato (and Kabitzin plays as… Kabitzin); unfortunately I think the friend-list functionality is gimped atm, but I hope to see some of you out there on the Audiosurf high-scores boards!

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