Osu!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Osu!

Developer(s) peppy
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date September 16, 2007
Genre(s) Music
Mode(s) Singleplayer, Multiplayer
System requirements
  • 1 GHz or above CPU
  • Minimum 256 MB of RAM
  • Video card that supports DirectX 9
  • DirectX 9 or higher
Input methods Pointing device

Osu! is a rhythm video game for Microsoft Windows, based on the Nintendo DS titles Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents. The game can be downloaded for free at the game's official site.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

The game is primarily played using a mouse to click 'beats' displayed on-screen in time with the music. This is analogous to tapping the beats on the Nintendo DS screen with a stylus. At the top of the screen, a health bar is present, which is constantly drained. If the player hits or clears a beat, the health meter at the top of the screen fills slightly. If he misses a beat, a large part of the meter is drained, and if it gets completely empty, he fails the song. There are three types of beats in the game: Hit circles, sliders and spinners. Every time the player hits a hit circle or an end circle, touch a slider tick, or clear a spinner, the combo is raised by 1. If he misses any of the above, the combo is reset back to 0.

A hit circle is a circle with a number on it. There is an outer circle that closes in on the hit circle, and when it aligns with the outer edges of the hit circle, the player clicks it. He gets 300, 100 or 50 points, depending on the timing he has, multiplied with his current combo.

Sliders consist of a hit circle, an end circle, and a path connecting these circles. When the player clicks the hit circle, a ball appears, rolling along the path from the hit circle to the end circle, and they must keep the mouse button held down as he follows the ball with his cursor all the way to the end circle. There are tiny circles along the slider path, called Slider Ticks, which increase the player's combo as well.

Spinners are large circles filling up most of the screen. The player must click and hold the spinner , while spinning the cursor in circles around it. For each individual spin, 100 points are gained. A set of bars in the background gradually light up, one by one, as the player spins, and when they have managed to light all the bars, he clears the spinner. For each subsequent spin they make, they get 1000 bonus points.

[edit] Beatmaps

The game uses player designed "beatmaps", which are the files containing the actual gameplay-data, created using an in-game editor, which allows the user to pick any song they like and create beats for it. Beatmaps for specific songs can then be shared through an in-game uploader directly linked to the main site. Moderators then modify and give comments to beatmaps. After the moderators are happy with the beatmap, they approve it for ranking. Statistics for each quality approved beatmap, known as "ranked" beatmaps, are maintained on the Osu! website. Scores for each ranked beatmap are totaled to determine a player's ranked score, which determines a player's ranking in the community.

Since June 11, 1,462 beatmaps have been created, out of which 430 have become ranked status.

[edit] Multiplayer

As of Tuesday June 3rd, multiplayer was added to the public release (b335). Multiplayer consists of a central lobby displaying available rooms, and current online players. You may also create a room with the "New Game" button. A game is started when all players in the room are labeled as "Ready" and the host clicks start. The Multiplayer game is made up of the normal components as a Single Player osu! game, but with the in-game scoreboard displaying the current rankings of the players in the room.

[edit] Community

As of June 8th, there are over 12,000 members in the community. This number grows as more people join.

[edit] External links

[edit] Articles about Osu!