Sometimes I get into a similar flow-state in Audiosurf, finishing with an unexpectedly high score. Afterward, I invariably realize that I was completely ignoring the music. The visual information presented by Audiosurf is mostly random. The patterns that connect to the music are coarse-grained at best and misleading at worst. It is not edifying. By associating itself with games like Amplitude and Rock Band, Audiosurf is a scam.

Sidebar: Impressed by Audiosurf's pattern-detection code? Here, let me ruin the magic for you. Audiosurf looks for three patterns in the audio stream, all trivial to detect from a DSP standpoint:

• Periodicity in the low frequencies. This allows Audiosurf to undulate the “road” at the tempo of the song.
• Transients covering a wide spectrum, such as a distorted guitar stab or a snare drum. This allows Audiosurf to place colored blocks that, more or less, fit the music. Often, it screws up and places a block slightly ahead or behind the stab, asking the user to internalize false patterns.
• The overall loudness of the music, which feeds into the speed of the player's vehicle and the slope of the road.