Recipe for success: one part Pole Position, one part Bejeweled , one part Dance Dance Revolution, your MP3/CD collection then mix well and release on Steam as Audiosurf. I’ve been playing it constantly for about almost a week and have to say that I have not played a simple game that is quite this addictive in a long time.

The game play really is a mash-up of all of the influences I mentioned. You start by selecting a “Character” from a selection of 14 of widely varying types, then select a music track (MP3, AAC (unprotected), WMA (unprotected), OGG, Flac, or Audio CD) to generate the “track” that you will be playing on. The game analyzes the music file that you selected and the track that is built is based on the instrumentation, tempo, and volume of the music. Then you use the character selected to play the track in a way that is strongly reminiscent of Pole Position except in three dimensions with some pretty trippy graphics. The Bejeweled like aspects are a bit more difficult to describe accurately and you’re better off downloading the free demo and taking a few rides to see how you like it.

At $10 it’s well worth the purchase especially since it also includes the Orange Box soundtrack which will set you back about the same amount from most legal sources. To support such inventive game design it’s worth a whole lot more.