Osu!

There are four official game modes: "osu!standard" (often just called "osu!"), "osu!taiko", "osu!catch" (formerly "osu!ctb"), and "osu!mania".[7][8] These are played with beatmaps. For standard, beatmaps consist of three main items – hit circles, sliders, and spinners. These objects are arranged in different positions on the screen and in different points of time. Catch beatmaps have fruits and spinners, which are arranged in a horizontal manner. Mania beatmaps consist of circles (depicted as one small bar in the default skin) and holds. The beatmap is then played with accompanying music, simulating a sense of rhythm as the player interacts with the objects to the beat of the music.[9][10] Each beatmap is accompanied by a background. The game can be played using various peripherals, but the most common is a graphics tablet or computer mouse, paired with a keyboard.[11][4]

The game offers a subscription-based service, osu!supporter, that allows players to download beatmaps directly from inside the game, without the lengthy process of using browsers, through a service called osu!direct, a heart icon beside the username on the official osu! website, additional pending beatmap slots, faster download speeds, access to multiplayer on cutting edge build, friend and country-specific leaderboards, one free username change, more in-game customization, a yellow username in the in-game chat, and more customization on one's user page (the "me" tab).[13] osu!supporter does not affect ranking whatsoever and all funds are directed to the maintenance of osu!.

osu!lazer[14] is an upcoming free and open-source remake of the original game client that features a graphics framework built from the ground up with rhythm games in mind. This results in improved visuals, performance and more flexibility for future changes. Users are able to create their own game modes using this framework which can then be played in the osu!lazer client. The osu!standard game mode features various gameplay changes such as a new scoring system focused more on rhythm and the addition of more gameplay modifiers. The development of osu!lazer started in 2016 and development versions of osu!lazer are currently available for testing on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Since osu!lazer is written entirely in .NET Core, it is theoretically compatible with any operating environment that can run .NET Core programs.

Music from osu!'s "featured artists" are selected by the community as being suitable for play, and for having a compatible copyright status.[15] Currently there are over 50 featured artists. Some featured artists have created tracks specifically for use in osu!, and some artists are also known for making music for other rhythm games, such as Camellia (Masaya Oya) and Cranky (Hiroshi Watanabe) who are known for their works in Konami's Sound Voltex and Beatmania IIDX series of games.

Jeuxvideo.com reviewed osu! favorably with 18/20 points in 2015.[16] In 2010, MMOGames.com reviewer Daniel Ball said that while the game was very similar to Elite Beat Agents, it was differentiated by its community's large library of high-quality community made content and customization.[17]

osu! has been used and recommended by e-sport players such as Ninja and EFFECT, as a way to warm-up and practice their aim.[6][9]

An audience watches two top players ("idke" and "RyuK") compete at the Osu! TwitchCon Booth in 2018

As of June 2020, osu! has 17,400,851 players worldwide.

osu! contains three main facets of competition between players. In multiplayer lobbies, up to 16 users play a map simultaneously. On individual maps, players compete for high scores on various leaderboards. Players also compete with their ranks, which are calculated by accumulating "performance points" (pp). pp is based on a map's difficulty and the player's accuracy.[18] According to PC Gamer, most competitive osu! players score between 100 and 400 pp on a map, with few ever exceeding 500. In July 2019, a player, Vaxei, exceeded 1,000 pp for the first time, followed by another player, idke, less than twenty-four hours later.[5][19]

Since 2014, there have been five annual "osu! World Cups" (usually abbreviated and referred to as "o!wc" or "owc"), one for each game mode (osu!mania having two for 4 key and 7 key). Teams for World Cups are country-based, with up to eight players per team.[20] There are also many different community-hosted tournaments, differing in rank range, types of maps played, and how the teams are composed.[21] Winners of tournaments typically receive prizes such as cash, merchandise, profile badges and/or osu!supporter subscriptions.

osu! also features different events, such as fanart and beatmapping contests. Unofficial events and conventions are also being held. The biggest unofficial event held in the community is "cavoe's osu! event"[22] (usually referred to as "osu! event" or "COE"), held at The Brabanthallen[23] in 's Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. The event has been arranged three times since 2017 yearly.

• Official website
• osu!lazer GitHub page
• Dean Herbert on Twitch
• Official osu! wiki