So, once I got over the “rhythm games are silly” phase of my life - thanks to Guitar Hero 3 - I have opened myself up to a whole new range of gaming.

Unfortunately, most of it is crap, but I have found something quite wonderful. Called Audio Surf, it’s a rhythm-game influenced “puzzle racer” apparently. No, I hadn’t heard of puzzle racers before either, but think a “match 3 colours” game combined with.. racing. yeah. something like that.

The real beauty of the whole thing though, is that you supply your own music - in any of a number of formats - and the game makes the track to suit the music. And make the track to suit the music, it most certainly does.

The speed of movement, the placement of the blocks, the amazing background visuals, everything is perfectly timed to the tempo and intensity of the music.

I tried a number of artists and genres, and the results were all entirely pleasing, in one way or another.

KMFDM and Ultraviolence made for a fast and furious edge-of-your-seat freefall experience, whilst Brian Eno’s more  sedate Music for Airports 1/1 led to a suitably ambient ponderous game.

What really made it though, was playing the entirety of Blur’s Parklife album back to back. The resulting experience was a true rollercoaster of cheeky bouncing, upward meandering wonderment and downhill thrill-riding. Easily the most fun you can have with brit-pop without pills and a bad head in the morning.

All of this made better by the fact that the whole game only costs us$10 and you can download it over Steam. Happy days.