"Fuck ridin’ the beat, nigga, I parallel park on the track."

Released commercially about a month ago, AudioSurf is a rhythm based puzzle game that has become the darling of the gaming scene. In the game, you ride on a track and accumulate and arrange colored blocks to get the highest score possible. While there’s a lot more to the game’s mechanics than that, that’s the fundamental concept. The fun part? Each track is unique to a song of your choice. The speed, shape and overall arrangement of each track is generated based on the tempo, rhythm and sound of the song. Hence the game’s tagline, “Ride your music.”

There’s a wide variety of different modes to keep things interesting and there’s even online scoreboards for each song. I had the high score on 93 ’til Infinity until some punk topped me. But half the fun is finding songs (any CD, mp3, m4a, wma, ogg or flac file will do) that make for good tracks, especially for those of us with daunting music collections. Big, loud beats and blaring vocals work the best while weirder stuff will give you tracks that feel broken. Saigon’s Come on Baby works like a charm, but Careful (Click, Click) feels clunky and awkward.

AudioSurf is a great distraction, but the novelty wears off after you’ve run out of songs to put in it. There’s a free demo and the full version is $10.

More dope tracks: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell on You, J Dilla – Nothing Like This, Johnny “Guitar” Watson – Lovin’ You, Styles P – U Ain’t Ready (feat. Beanie Sigel)