Well well well.... what have we here? A little battle royale between three games that claim to take your own music library and wrap an accurate rhythm game around it? Each make similar claims... Taking the music you own and transforming it into something you can play (a la Frequency or Rock Band).

Today we're going to take a look at Beats for the PSP, Phase for the iPod and Audiosurf for the PC. Three different platforms three different games, but certainly one is better than the rest? So here's the deal, going through my extensive music collection I'm going to run the same list of songs through each game and we'll just see which one is best. To the BBPS labs!

In case you're curious, here's the song I selected:

Surf Wax America - Weezer

Art of Storytelling Part 2 - Outkast

If You're Into It - Flight of the Conchords

Adrenaline - The Roots

Did You Realize - Flaming Lips

Brianstorm - Arctic Monkeys

So how did they stack up?

So each game handles the actual gameplay different but they're all based on the same idea. It analyzes the music track and gives you different patterns to hit as the song progresses. In Phase you use the iPod buttons and is very similar to Rock Band (same developers). Beats gives you different buttons to hit in time with the music and is very similar to Boom Boom Rocket. Audiosurf has you drive along a track (F-Zero) that rises and falls with the tempo and you pick up colored blocks to create combos (like the old school puzzle game Klax).

All of the games allow you to enter your own tracks, and while just about everything goes there are a few snags. Phase requires you to put the songs in an iTunes playlist first (the track is converted for the game on your computer, not the iPod), so no picking a song on the go that you haven't cleared ahead of time. Beats doesn't like the iTunes purchased tracks. Audiosurf pretty took everything with no problem. Phase is the biggest pain here since you have to sit down at your computer and figure out what songs you want to be able to play ahead of time. Beats is in a similar position for me since I don't carry music on my PSP normally, and only copied it there for the game. It's not a deal breaker but needs to be mentioned.

All the games did better with nice clear backbeats of drums. Guitar parts (like in Arctic Monkeys) weren't detected as well. So the Flight of the Conchords song was really more of a joke since it's a guitar and toy piano. Tempo changes (like in the Weezer track) were handled well, though some conveyed the overall effect better. Like most things some work better than others, and with time you figure out which are the best.

Of the three games I got the instant sensation that Beats had the least to do with the music I picked. Sure it followed a few patterns here and there, but for the most part I was playing the game while music played in the background. I'd compare it to watching Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side of the Moon... sure certain parts sync up nicely but unless you're stoned it seems more like a coincidence than anything else. The game does include some generic techno tunes to play, but let's be honest you want your own shit in there.

There's a few different game modes, but they're all pretty much the same. Not that that's a negative, I'm just saying. There are a TON of different background styles the pulse along with the music, so you can change it up constantly to keep it fresh looking. It's hard to argue for $4.99 but in my mind there's better ones out there.

Phase was remarkably accurate, given the iPods retardedly limited controls. This thing WILL NEVER BE a game platform. But that being said it did a fine job giving me consistent patterns that followed along with the music very nicely. It even integrates the scroll wheel in a cool way. It's damn fun and does a great job of assigning buttons to the beats. It sucks not being able to just pick any old song of your iPod on the go, especially when you're listening to a track and can see it in your head. The only thing you can do is add it to the playlist when you get home.

It includes 6 songs that are mostly familar to fans of unlockable songss on Guitar Hero I, II, and Rock Band. It also costs $4.99 and while the playlist thing kinda sucks, it's still an awesome deal and is a ton of fun..

Audiosurf seemed to come out of nowhere, announced seemingly days before it was released on Steam. This one takes the extra step to create a rollercoaster effect with your music. During slow sections you ride slowly upward with less blocks to grab, and when the music picks up go downhill with a ton of blocks in the way. On songs that change tempo (like Surf Wax America) the sensation is awesome, and really makes it feel like the track was custom made for the game. There's a few different styles of play depending on how intense you want it to be, with different characters to play as that give different abilities.

This one is slightly more expensive clocking in at 10 dollars and as an incredible bonus includes "The Orange Box" soundtrack. It is by far the best game out of the 3. Every song I played felt like it was custom made for the game. You don't have to copy any music anywhere of time, the game just pops up a file browser to let you pick songs. It takes less than a minute to prep it and your off and running.

Conclusion

All said and done I don't think you can go wrong with any of these. Even Beats, which impressed me the least. Hell it's only five bucks! But if I were to chose one and only one it's be Audiosurf by a mile. It did a good job handling every type of music I threw at it, and did the best job at creating a fun game with each track.

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