Free Rhythm Game - Osu!
I’m a little worried about how much time I might spend on this game based on the insanely fantastic Nintendo DS rhythm game ‘Osu! Tatakae! Ouenden!” which was remixed and rereleased as “Elite Beat Agents” in English speaking countries.
I absolutely the love the original game which is a rhythm game using the DS touch screen to tap and draw to various tunes using the directions on the screen. This was all wrapped up with some crazy Japan type visuals and music but the actual gameplay was very strong in itself.
This PC based remake obviously uses the mouse rather than a touch screen although I imagine it would work very well on a tablet PC too but the move to mouse hasn’t really bothered me as much as I’d thought it would. There are tons of levels/music tracks to download and loads of new ones being made by the community. The software has some great online capabilities which gives it an advantage over the DS with all the usual online stuff you expect these days like chat and leaderboards and even spectator mode to watch other players.
I really can’t recommend this enough, it’s still in beta but appears to be very polished already and seriously addictive. If you have not played Ouenden then head to the website and check out the FAQ for some advice on how to play.
osu! is a rhythm game based on the gameplay of the popular Nintendo DS series Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and its overseas counterpart Elite Beat Agents. While trying to keep an authentic feel gameplay-wise, osu! has a wide range of online features, such as player rankings and replay exchange. Also available is a fully functional in-built editor allowing intuitive creation of your own beatmaps, and a quickly growing library of user-created content.
Whether you end up being a hardcore player, or a well-respected beatmap creator (or some place in-between :), there is something for everybody within the osu! community.
The best way to understand how Osu! works is to see it in action. Below is a collection of gameplay footage.
