By John Walker on February 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am.
We’ve all obviously bought our copies of Audiosurf from Steam now, so what we want to know from you is which songs make the best tracks?
It’s quickly becoming apparent that the cheesier your music taste, the more elaborate and interesting the racing results. Hey emo kids, where’s your complicated hair getting you now, eh?
For instance, I’ve just tried it with Steeleye Span‘s All Around My Hat. A very bumpy course, but despite my best hopes, possibly not the most exciting. But then! Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler! This song has EXPLOSIONS IN IT. An epic track.
So come on – only the best. Nerd up, and confess which songs you’ve tried. We’ll create the ultimate Audiosurf playlist. Right, more Steinman then… MEATLOAF!
I’ve been challenged by Hobbes to get into Bat out of Hell, but only after I thrashed him at Wuthering Heights.
KG
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essential listening is stan bush – the touch (from the original transformers soundtrack)
oh and ac/dc – riff raff
power of love was pretty epic as well
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Ah yes, Bat out of Hell was pretty good, did the live version :D
Noticed that live versions of tracks can vary wildly to the original tracks.
Bleeding Me by Metallica (S&M version) is damn good too.
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Biology – Girls Aloud – PURE AUDIOSURF WIN.
Wheeeeeeee.
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Also, National Express – The Divine Comedy has a lumpy charm to it, kinesynaesthically.
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Well I don’t have the game, but when I played the beta, the katamari damanci theme was amazing.
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Knocked Up by The Kings of Leon was awesome, as was Throwing Shapes by Dirty Vegas.
Tonight Matthew, I anticipate a journey through my ELO back catalogue.
Fast dance tracks are a downhill blast slower music seems to be the most complex fun.
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Anything from the Erotic Lounge Series.. honestly Porn music + Audiosurf = winner
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Mostly songs by Machinae Supremacy or Propellerheads works great for me. Fast beats, explosions, not a lot of talking ^^
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@Kieron:
I haven’t experimented with exposing Audiosurf to Kate Bush yet. Tonight, oh yes.
EAT MY DREAMING.
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Right Said Fred’s “Deeply Dippy”. Perfection.
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“Fell in Love With a Girl”, “Party” by the D4 and “Ace of Spades” are all one way trips to Audiosurf hell! In a fun way.
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I only played the demo,
but playing on the track based on Broken Social Scene’s – “KC Accidental” will be an experience that will remain with me for a while.
Guys, i don’t care how you do it, get that song, load it up, and have your balls ripped off wipeout style.
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On the recommendation of Trioptimum I tried Yo’ Pumkin Head off the Cowboy Bebop Movie OST, and I must say it worked rather well. Also tried Hardest Button to Button, and was much easier than expected. Black Math, however, prooved far more interesting.
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Though I haven’t had my chance to grab a copy yet, I have to wonder how “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen would look. I suspect that Audiosurf might be heaven for a guy who’s music collection is full of ridiculous 80′s rock.
Of course, I mean ridiculous in the *awesome* way.
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Most songs by Queens of the Stone Age (I like Go With The Flow the best) and The White Stripes (Fell In Love With A Girl especially) are pretty great.
Fortunate Son by CCR, More Than A Feeling by Boston and Hush by Deep Purple are some of my favorites, although I’m not sure if my love for those songs clouds my judgement of their suitability.
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@ Meat Circus:
Dayum! Never thought of playing National Express, mighty fine fun that level was!
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Desert Planet’s Return of the Ninja Droids (downloadable here from the DP site) makes a nice intense level (and 8-bit nostalgia music and Audiosurf are two tastes that go great together).
Sen already mentioned Yo Pumpkin Head, which makes a track so bouncy I thought I was going to fly off it, but also from the CB soundtrack Space Lion is a long, mellow ride.
Also every Fantastic Plastic Machine track I’ve thrown at it works great.
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By far the most fun so far are:
A View to a Kill – Duran Duran
Bim Bim Smash – John Powell
The Buffalo Hunt – John Barry
The last two are taken from the Bourne Supremacy and Dances with Wolves OSTs respectively. Orchestral music works suprisingly well, in fact, some of it can really gather pace.
If anyone of you have seen the Bourne Supremacy, Bim Bim Smash is the 6 minute long mental accompaniment to the car chase at the end, and playing Ninja Mono along to it is pretty much like being in a car chase.
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I got the most insane runs with Moby’s Feeling So Real and Aphex Twin’s Heliosphan – I broke the 100 000 point border with the latter (come on, that’s big for me considering I’ve only played the game for a day :(). Also loved the ride with R.E.M.’s It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).
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@Meat Circus:
I think ‘The Big Sky’ worked fairly well.
A lot of us have been having fun with ‘Tank!’ (off the Bebop OST again). Tenacious D’s ‘Explosivo’ has become the focus of some competitive attention.
Today I’m going to take Tom Waits for a spin and, oh, it’s just occured that ‘African Mailman’ by Nina Simone could be interesting!
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I need to unleash my Sultans of Ping collection. I dread to think what kind of track “Where’s Me Jumper” will create.
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Verdi – Dies Irae
& The Private Psychedelic Reel by The Chemical Brothers (although a slow start)
and I second Finncognito on QOTSA
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someone really needs to try some System of a Down!
i’d imagine that being a healthy dose of madness…
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Led Zeppelin’s Dazed & Confused was pretty mental – great fun but not exactly a relaxing ride even with the mono character – huge downhill sections.
Other than that, I’ve found classical music to be the most fun. Mozart’s Allegro (no I don’t know which one) was awesome, skipping along merrily with loads of peaks and troughs.
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When I played the last beta, my absolute favourite (although not very cheesy) was the track I got with TV On The Radio’s “Province”.
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Soad is not very hard at all. Try a round at ‘Muse – Hysteria’ on Mono Elite (or w/e it’s called) and you’re in for some fun!
And since it’s apparently okey to brag here, it’s totaly possible to collect 100% of bricks and get 0 grays. :D
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I don’t know if anyone here caught Funtwo’s youtube video of Pachabel’s cannon performed on the electric guitar. However it makes a fantastic audiosurf track, and surprisingly has had several people playing it.
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Strangely, I find Bohemian Rhapsody pretty boring. Right, here’s the tracks you need:
Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
OK GO – Get Over It
Jet – Rollover DJ
Frank Sinatra – Theme From New York, New York (Big bands come out really well in AudioSurf)
The Divine Comedy – I’ve Been To A Marvellous Party
And if you’ve got it, Steriogram’s Walkie Talkie Man is as awesome as you’d expect it to be.
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For short and fast tracks, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 soundtrack works very well.
I think the best I’ve discovered so far, though, have been Weird Al’s various polkas. It’s the best in cheesy music, doubled in speed!
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They Might Be Giants’ Birdhouse in Your Soul is good if you want to give yourself motion sickness.
I also tried East Hastings by Godspeed You! in an attempt to get the ‘Stealth Legend’ achievement, but it kind of gets boring waiting for the crescendo to build (not helped by Audiosurf not picking up on the quieter notes) and then wipes me out when it does arrive.
The most enjoyable track I’ve tried so far is probably All My Life by Foo Fighters though.
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I just did Birdhouse actually – works well.
KG
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I should very much like to recommend Lacrosse’s Go Ego Go.
And Detachable Penis by King Missile, which I’m delighted to notice I’m not the first to try (three others).
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Not very cheesey (I think) but my best experiences so far are the last two Beck albums. New Round in particular had a great bouncy track. The best thing about them though is how much they lull you into a feeling of safety. Flat, flat, uphill, peak, flat, flat, flaaaat- free fall! Playing mono ninja I actually screamed on a few tracks.
I’m tempted to buy some thrash metal or industrial metal just for this. Psalm 69 by Ministry might be unfathomably deadly.
But aren’t we all forgetting to praise the inclusion of the Half Life soundtrack. There’s some seriously good techno in there, I could listen to the TF2 theme all day.
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They need to integrate it with Last.fm (i.e. scrobbling). Then it would be awesome.
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Pink Floyd’s Pigs (Three Different Ones) is pretty good. Demons & Wizards’ Terror Train is bloody impossible. And awesome.
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While cheesy rock is always going to be the popular choice, there must be so much more on offer. How about modern jazz like Portico Quartet, or something like Bollywood soundtracks? Come on now, people! Think outside the box, push the envelope, etc, etc.
Personally, I think Flint has the right idea with Electronica. Seeing how both the game and I can cope with Aphex Twin’s repertoire should be interesting, provided it doesn’t melt my brain…
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I just tried Laurie Anderson’s O Superman. Now that’s a weird track.
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I dont really find rock very fun, this game is better with some speedcore or really fast dnb, or with some really mellow chill-out music.
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Skillian : indeed. For now there’s a last.fm Audiosurf group, at least. A good place to look for recommendations (after RPS, of course ;) )
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VNV Nation seems to work well, but my favourite track so far has been Dandy Warhols’ Bohemian Like You.
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OMG! I haven’t played it yet, but will someone please tell me if this video is how the game normally goes?
Dragon Force – Through the fire and the Flames
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-z6YK92otg
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Any music with violin + high tempo for the win.
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It’s dependant on the track you use, ofcourse, but there are plenty of tracks that will make something like that happen, yes. It’s a great little game – at the moment I’m stone broke, otherwise I’d be getting it myself.
Has the time limit for the tracks changed, btw? One of the things myself and many, many others asked for after playing the beta was to make it possible to play 10+ minute songs (10 minutes was more or less the limit). I hope they found a way to implement that.
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I think I recall reading the limit is 25mins for a song
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Tch, stupid bloody thing still tells me my demo’s expired after I bought it! Oh well, redownload time.
TRY!
Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix) – The Prodigy
Erotic Nightmares – Steve Vai
Refuse/Resist – Sepultura
Got That Feeling – Faith No More
Immigrant Song – The Zep
50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up) – Kyuss (also, ‘Green Machine’)
Born in ’69 – Rocket From The Crypt
And of course,
Ace of Spa– oh, someone got that. Okay then, Sexual Healing – Motorh– er, Marvin Gaye.
“Gee, is that who did ‘Sexual Healing’? Thanks James…”
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I tested The News, Dead Ringers, Zero Punctuation, the PCG Podcast and the Shipping Forecast in my quest to find the ultimate Auidosurf track.
They were all rubbish. Don’t use them.
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Tch, stupid bloody thing still tells me my demo’s expired after I bought it!
It did that for me too. Just restart Steam, that sorted it for me. I’m sure you worked that out by now though.
And Yhancik – thanks, for the link, I joined the Last.fm group.
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That Voodoo People remix is completely insane. I saw a thread on the Audiosurf forums where a guy uploaded a 1 kHz test sound. That was the most ridicolous thing ever.
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ZOMG at that Youtube video.
Whoever made that IS NOT HUMAN AND MUST BURN.
Thanks, Ben Abraham, for making me feel insignificant.
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Glad you liked it ;) (er, the Voodoo People mix)
Oo, the ‘Your Love’ remix from ‘The Prodigy Experience’ is probably a goer too…
Thanks skillian, I wish I had realised it before redownloading — would’ve saved me a bit of my download limit… Oh well!
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I tried Prince Ali from the Disney soundtrack. Rubbish. Last time I listen to the wife.
Guns n Roses’ Paradise City was fun – starts very slow and then builds up wonderfully.
Loved Knights of Cydonia too
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I wanted to try Moby – Thousand because it is reputedly one of the fastest bpm. I did find a video of it on youtube of it it looks quite crazy, though fewer blocks than I expected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE_Yx-N-vg8
The most difficult track I have played so far is Amon Tobin – Rhino Jockey from the Supermodified album.
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99 Luftbalons by Lena – AWESOME!
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2112 – Rush. Surprisingly un-challenging, except for the quiet sense of accomplishment at ghosting a 22-minute track.
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Fish ~ Silent Cruise by Yoko Kanno is amazing. The “Fish” part is sort of meh, but Silent Cruise is a unadulterated stream of rapture and color. It’s brilliant.
Ben
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Through A Long And Sleepless Night by The Divine Comedy is incredible on Mono Pro. As is The Engine Room by Runrig.
I’m still getting to grips with other modes.
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It doesn’t make for a great circuit (well, the chorus is pretty nuts), but it feels delightfully appropriate to play the theme to National Lampoon’s Vacation.
Holiday ro-O-o-o-o-o-oad…
Oh, wait, hold the phone. Of course.
TARZAN BOY.
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Aerosmith – Crash
Led Zeppelin – Communication Breakdown
Led Zeppelin – Moby Dick (from How The West Was Won. 19 minutes total, 17 minutes of drumming)
Incubus – Pistola
Muse – Assassin
Those five I would recommend a lot for fast tracks.
For slow…
Saitone – autumnloop
Mono – Beyond Cold Mountain
Metallica – Enter Sandman
Guns ‘N’ Roses – Civil War
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Feotus Interruptus – A Prayer for My Death is quite fun. Next up: William Shatner’s Common People cover!
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Shy FX – Wolf
Rammstein – Bang Bang
Within Temptation – Running Up That Hill
Led Zeplin – Heartbreaker
First two are pretty much balls to the wall, second two have nice changes of pace
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Hot Chip – Out at the Pictures
Black Sabbath – Into the Void
Prodigy – Funky S**t
Pendulum – Masochist
Xploding Plastix – Sports, not Heavy Crimes
Those are my favourite to play so far, but there many, many others.
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Try the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack. That “shit” is “whack”.
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All Blues by Miles Davis, as found on the Kind of Blue album, is great to get the 11 minute stealth achievement.
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Woo just played B52s Rock Lobster (the long version), just total fun!
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The song I’ve been use to demo Audio Surf to my friends in college has been Gz and Hustlas by Snoop Dogg, the backbeat is perfect for showing off how well the game can link song layout and track design.
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Fugees – Ready Or Not (DJ Zinc Remix) is at least on Ninja Mono one of the best tracks I’ve ridden. The first go I had was just so surprising and then just mind-numbing …. Not so good after the 1. run, but, meh, it’s like that with allof the songs for me. :P
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I bet I’m alone when I say I’ve enjoyed surfing the Samurai Pizza Cats theme!
More traditionally, Run To The Hills by Iron Maiden and Smokin’ by Boston work rather well indeed (as do many other tracks by those two bands).
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I tried ‘The Audience is Listening’ by Steve Vai. Unplayable, except maybe by 12 year olds hopped up on Tatrazine and sugar.
‘Union City Blue’ by Blondie is just lovely.
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I played it again today and it wasn’t as half as bad as I remember it being. I think it was the combination of late night ‘tiredness’ and its bounciness inducing the queasiness. In fact most They Might Be Giants tracks have a nice bounciness to them.
Cotton Eye Joe?
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awesome.
Once again, my international playboy lifestyle has caught up with me. So I played the four pisstakes I could think up before I got busted by Valve. We’ll see if they’ll sell to me.
Anyway, Maggot Brain (Title Track), Marquee Moon (Title Track, again) and BSP’s The Pelican were all pretty good. Just from my limited experience, I’d hazard that those tracks that you can tell are gonna be good, just by looking at the vinyl, are gonna be good on Audiosurf.
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Smile Like You Mean It – The Killers was a great track I just did. Most tracks by Audioslave work really well and Ready for the Floor by HotChip is great.
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I’d like to suggest the soundtrack to Crash Tag Team Racing . (find it somewhere in the internet)
Half-acapella had never been so fun.
On that note, try experimenting with the soundtracks to other music-based games. Synaesthete is a nice place to start.
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Just tried Green Day’s Jesus of Suburbia with Mono. Not sure about the block placement, but the track is a great ride.
Edit: The Decembrists: The Island. Good all-round. Very varied.
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Another vote for Xploding Pastix, but try ‘Treat Me Mean, I Need the Reputation’
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John Coltrane: Blue Train
John Coltrane: Nakatini Seranade
Times New Viking: Faces on Fire
Kanye West: Stronger
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@John Walker: Amazing. You sir, are a genius for suggesting “Detachable Penis”. Now i’m going to try “Martin Scorcese” by King Missile also.
KMFDM’s last album works pretty well, as does “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour, and Ministry’s “N.W.O.”.
But don’t bother with “Da Funk” by Daft Punk; the beat gives a strange stop-starty feel to the pace of the track.
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Has anyone tried “Move It” by Reel 2 Real (Featuring The Mad Stuntman, of course)? I’m gripped by the sudden urge to give that a try. I’m still reeling from the disappointment that was “U Can’t Touch This” (too slow and easy, unfortunately), although 2 Unlimited’s masterwork “No Limit” works well enough.
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The above mentioned Rammstein song (listed as Bang Bang) is actually called “Feuer Frei!”.
My own favorite tracks:
Origa – Inner Universe, off Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex OST 1.
Rise, off Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex OST 2.
Why Won’t You Die?!?, off Novakill’s album Kill Everyone
She’s Like Heroin and also Soldier Side, off System of a Down’s album Hypnotize. Honestly, most of SoaD’s stuff I’ve tried made for pretty crazy rides.
The Device Has Been Modified, by Victims of Science. Yes, the Portal remix song Rock Paper Shotgun linked to a while back.
Skudrinka 2, off Corvus Corax’s album Live auf dem Waescherschloss.
Marching Bands of Manhattan, off Death Cab For Cutie’s album Plans.
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Led Zep – Dazed and Confused
There is a 90 second instumental about half way through which is insane.
Sleepy time now.
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Of what I’ve played, I’d recommend Joe Cam Stole My Bike by Alisean, or Ahead On Our Rave. Nothing I’ve seen compares to that Dragonforce song in combined speed and length, but they’re pretty fun.
Ditto John P, but less so.
(Haven’t gotten the full game yet, just played the beta.)
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Mainly playing Ninja Mono I’ve found that just about any mainstream electronic dance music will work. The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim, Justice etc…
Mesh – Purple Haze is probably the most challenging track I’ve played yet. Moving to another track after it is like taking the difficulty down a notch in GH.
The Beatles – Back in the U.S.S.R.
Ozzy Osbourne – Perry Mason
and The Who – Baba O’Riley are all sources of great old-school fun but the track that’s stuck with me the most is:
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek
Honestly. Even though it might not generate the best gameplay it kind of transcends what I would expect from the game after hours of gameplay. In short it’s like: “Riding on an AI goddess’ (synthesized) voice, performing a song of lamentation.”
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For a ridiculously bumpy ride, AFX (Aphex Twin) — Pwsteal.Ldpinch.D
For a…. uh… pilgrimage-type thing, try XOR — 42
( http://www.sectionz.com/detail.asp?rType=mp3&SZID=7391 )
For overall crazy not unlike Dragonforce songs, try The Black Mages — J.E.N.O.V.A.
And of course, I’m pretty damn sure that all of us will have to try Moby — Thousand sooner or later.
(proof at http://youtube.com/watch?v=QE_Yx-N-vg8 )
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Don’t forget to fiddle around with the color settings. Mono with alternating black/white colors is… interesting.
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Pendulum – Tarantula
Groove Armada – SuperStylin’
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One of the most impressive songs to play, that I’ve found, is “Wake up” by The Arcade Fire, the end of the song is phenomenal on Audiosurf. Also, “Not Quite Sonic” by I Mother Earth is very good as well as “Break and Enter” by the Prodigy.
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Both “Nostalgia” (from Yanni’s Live at the Acropolis album) and “El Tango De Roxanne” (from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack) work extremely well. Though the applause at the end of the Yanni track is sort of odd.
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You all make me feel ashamed for not trying out the billion Ghost in the Shell tracks sitting on my computer :(
I haven’t played around with it much yet, but holy hell Dethklok makes for some awesome Ninja Mono action, worked my way through most of the album and it completely rocked. ALI PROJECT’s stuff also seems to be spectacular.
Now I want to play, but am stuck at work for another 5 hours :(
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Late night trying a few things: Disappointed to that that The Knife’s We Share Our Mothers Health isn’t very interesting, at least on Mono. However, on the brighter side, Dizzee’s I luv U is fucking incredible. The beats will fuck you up completely.
KG
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I just discovered that E Nomine’s Mitternacht makes for a supercool track.
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Also anything by Wolfsheim.
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Tokyo Style Speedcore – m1dy = Most of the song is orange or red and fast.
Emerald Sword – Rhapsody = Okay
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I was expecting The Endless’ “Lullaby For Myself” to be a good track to try and get the first Ninja Stealth achievement on – slow paced and low traffic. Turns out that the strict uphill slope it shows is misleading – every couple of phrases there’d be a hump then a lightning-fast slide for a moment or two. Plus a couple of wild veers to the side. It was rather nerve-wracking.
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“Fortuna Imperatrix” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana was sadly a letdown. Apparently choral works aren’t easily analyzed… :(
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The Imogen Heap track is indeed eerily beautiful. My transcendent moment so far, though, would have to be Air’s Run from Walkie Talkie. It has just enough beat throughout to make it interesting as well as hypnotic and breathtaking, unlike its album sibling, Alone in Kyoto.
I’m finding myself irresistibly drawn to Mono as well, in all its (his?) various forms. I find I can appreciate the music more when I’m not fretting about combos and overfilled columns. Perhaps the choice of character says more about us than we’d care to admit, who knows?
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Late to the party I know but: Here’s my title defence.
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Bought this on Friday and it’s cost me my weekend..6 quid well spent :)
recommended track Dayvan Cowboy by Boards of Canada. Tactical build up followed by frantic rush.
I’m also an advocate of Mono, it’s a purer approach. the colours can get over demanding.
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