osu! song of the week

Week of September 1: Bloody Mary, Kate and Ashley by PUP

Collab Hard, Take and table tennis (3.26)

This is an easier difficulty of one of the current beatmap spotlight songs. Always fun to see a well-made map for something that's not a "typical rhythm game song". When I first played this difficulty I thought the approach circles came in too slowly, but since I've started focusing on getting full-combos rather than just trying to play at the highest difficulty I can, I think it's actually perfect for the song's pace.

Week of August 25: Omoide Note by Umeboshi Chazuke + Chroma

Hard (3.76)

This is one of the beatmaps that's special to me because it was impossible for me to beat when I first downloaded it, but now I'm able to get close to a full combo. That's the energy that the song has, too. I've been having a stressful week so I don't really have anything else to say right now, I just wanted to stay in the habit of updating this and share a nice song with you.

Week of August 18: Altale by sakuzyo

Hyper (3.45)

I found out about this song quite a long time ago and always thought it was beautiful, but never particularly thought of it as rhythm game material until I saw it used in this Geometry Dash level. (I do not play Geometry Dash, but I teach game development to kids and many of the kids at work play it.) This beatmap is really beautiful in a similar way, it's got lots of elegant sliders remniscent of flower petals, plus a handful of really well-placed buzz sliders on rattling/rustling sounds in the song.

Week of August 11: KING by mafumafu feat. nqrse

Ducky-'s Hard (3.25)

I wasn't able to get through the next difficulty up (4.09) today, which I'm blaming on the fact that I recently changed my keybindings. (Last night was the last straw with accidentally hitting the Windows key while playing, so I switched the click buttons from the nearby Z/X to Q/W.) Despite being easier, the map still manages to match the intensity of the song and follow its unique rhythm, which is something I always appreciate.

Week of August 4: Xperanza by aran

Hyper (3.83)

A lot of my favorite songs on osu! are things that I've never heard of but happen to be from Beatmania. (That, or The BMS of Fighters, which is apparently a song competition). The local arcade has a Beatmania cabinet though, it has a lot of these sparkly techno songs and it's a great vibe. Anyway, this map is really well-made. The mapper made great choices of whether to represent certain rhythms with circles or sliders, and most of the slider shapes are subtle but definitely enhance the experience.

Week of July 28: Marble Soda by Shawn Wasabi

Crier's Hyper (3.98)

This was one of the songs I hoped someone had mapped not just because I like the song, but specifically because it would be great for a rhythm game. It's got a lot of little sounds that the mapper did a great job with, I especially like how they switched colors specifically for the four notes of the phone dialing sound. Also this is one of a handful of maps I have that occasionally switches to bright red circles as if those were critical notes, it's always interesting how ideas from other rhythm games have become trends in osu!.

Week of July 21: Echoes in Rain by Enya

Alleluia (3.59)

There are more Enya songs on osu! than I would have expected. Her songs are great for practicing skill though since they're so relaxing. This map in particular makes you focus on precision since most of the difficulty comes from the small circle size. The tempo shift that comes with the piano solo is also quite fun.

Week of July 14: Voice by LOONA

Collab Hard (3.03)

Occasionally I look at the recently ranked beatmaps and listen to a few of the songs to discover new music. This was one of those songs. I don't actively keep up with K-pop so all I know about it is through cultural osmosis. This is a very good song though, and the beatmap is very smooth to match. The one thing I don't really get is how, on four beats equally spaced in time, there are four circles that get increasingly further apart. It's something I'll get used to once I play the map more, but it feels like something that would represent a shift in tempo or intensity that the song doesn't really have.