Flip Side: Audiosurf 2 Leaving Early Access This Month

Audiosurf 2 [official site] is coming out on May 26th. "Oh," says whatever voice I've created for the purposes of introducing this post (sounds a bit like an old mate of yours, one you don't think about often and smile remembering, but underwater), "I thought it was out. It's not out? It is out, isn't it? No? Really?"

No, it's still on Steam Early Access. The game which turns your songs into courses to race around gathering points launched into Early Access in October 2013 and creator Dylan Fitterer has worked on it since. Now he's almost done, and mercy me I might get pulled back to old friendly rivalries.

A fair amount's still to come, as a list of plans on its site explains. Along with a new user interface, expect more modes, more skins, more leaderboards, and oh god I see it yes it's right there the feature from the first game which kept me coming back every time I stopped playing: e-mail alerts when you're dethroned on the leaderboards.

It's a small but wonderful/horrible thing, receiving an e-mail informing you that you are no longer the best in the word. I fiercely defended by scores on certain songs for ages, and even now receive e-mails every now and then and feel my hands balling up into fists my nails digging into my palms drawing blood as the first bars of the song start inside my head. That's exaggeration for comic effect, that.

Anyway, away from my horrible compulsions, one big addition with the sequel is mod support with a Steam Workshop. That's nice, that. Beyond that, it also brings things like more modes, fancier graphics, and support for playing from SoundCloud.

Here's a look at Audiosurf 2's Wakeboard mode, where you pull sikk trikks when the song goes off: