osu!

Osu! is a popular rhythm game. Its gameplay was inspired by several games released on Nintendo DS, especially Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan from 2005. Osu! gameplayis entirely arcade and offers stages with very different levels of difficulty, so that both newcomers and veterans of this type of games will be able to enjoy it. The game was created by Dean 'peppy' Herbert himself, who developed it for several years to finally make its source code available on the Internet.

Osu! enjoys unflagging popularity. In 2020, the player base is estimated at approx. 17.5 million people and numerous e-sport players, even those not directly involved in the osu!, recommend this game as a warm-up before training in other productions.

Rules

The main gameplay mode in osu! is called osu!standard. As in other rhythm games, it consists in clicking the rhythm of a song played in the background (in the database, there are covers of popular songs performed by Japanese artists). After selecting a track, we switch to its "beatmap". We have three types of buttons to use: circles, sliders and spinners. The circles are pressed when the shrinking color circle around them meets the white circle inside (listening to a song is helpful here, so we can increase our reflexes with the help of auditory impulses). Sliders, on the other hand, are moved along the route marked by a special ball. The last type of buttons, the spinner, is a field where we have to spin the mouse (or other controller) clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on what the game will require from us.

Performed actions are rated according to their compliance with the song. The precision of our actions determines whether you get 0, 50, 100 or 300 points for pressing a button. Further multipliers appear depending on the selected difficulty level. The most difficult tracks are those under Hard Rock, Sudden Death/Perfect, Hidden/Fade In, Double Time/Nightcore and Flashlight. In standard mode there are Easy, Half Time, No-Fail, Spun Out and Auto-Pilot, and in the easiest, non-ranking mode, Relax, Cinema, Auto and ScoreV2. During the game, the level of our health gradually drops - well-executed actions allow us to replenish it and unsuccessful ones accelerate its loss. When we lose it all, we fail.

A very important element of osu! are beatmaps. This is where the game takes place and this is what determines our position in the ranking. They are divided into 6 categories. "Ranking" are distinguished by meeting all the creators' guidelines; "approved" include those that last more than 5 minutes ( marathons), "qualified" are maps currently undergoing a stage of moderation by their creators, and "favorite communities" do not meet all the requirements, but have been approved by many players. In addition, there are "waiting" (for moderation) and " out-of-date" (abandoned by their authors). Some of the beatmaps are equipped with special backgrounds and even video or storyboard.

Multiplayer

The game offers two game modes: single-player and multi-player, where 16 players can compete for the best possible score on a given beatmap. In addition to the classic gameplay in osu!standard mode, the game also offers three other types of gameplay. In the osu!taiko the interface takes on the shape of drums, where we have to press a red or blue button to the rhythm of the song (just like in Taiko no Tatsujin). The second alternative mode is the osu!catch, where by controlling the character holding the plate, we catch the fruit falling to the rhythm of music. The last one, the osu!mania, is similar to playing the piano and can be played with 1 to 9 buttons, with layouts 4 and 7 being the most popular. Our results are then compared with those of other players and ranked accordingly.

Technical aspects

The game has very low hardware requirements, thanks to which basically every modern computer can run it. The developer even described the hardware needed for its launching as "not-a-potato".

Last updated on 06 November 2020