The Ranking Charts for April 2015 have just been released and can be found here! Along with that, we updated the Spring Season of the Ranking Charts long-term leaderboard! This month Cherry Blossom, Nashmun, Zak and Starry- picked the maps for the Monthly Ranking Charts.
The charts have previously been created by letting four dedicated community members select the most noteworthy maps of this month. We also reward the top beatmap in each category by providing 1 month of supporter status to the mapper.
For osu!, we decided to let Cherry Blossom pick their favourite maps.
This map is just... beautiful, attractive and enjoyable. Let's talk about the storyboard first. The work on new combos is well done, the star that follows the player's cursor is something which was unexpected to me. They are both changing colors according to the atmosphere of each parts and it is really well done. I was really surprised and we haven't finished to get surprised yet. What should I say concerning the map? There is a lot of creative patterns and some sliderart as we can see in all Skystar maps and they play very well and they also reflect the current impact of the song as you can see with the fast objects and patterns in red which mainly follow the most powerful parts and the guitar as well. That's how a Taishi song must be mapped. I just want to say: good job! Not only to Amamiya Yuko, to everyone that was involved in this beatmap.
How to play streams, you said? That's the map you should play! This map shows how rhythm game songs are fun to listen, map and play. Everything is here, streams, different slider velocities and many crazy patterns as well. When they are merged and well made, they made this map fun and challenging! Is MASTER difficulty too hard for you? Don't worry, lower difficulties are pretty cool to play and players can learn how to play streams in order to defeat the last boss, MASTER diff! What an interesting beatmap, don't you think?
Pretty interesting map, because the Extra difficulty contains a lot of jumps and interesting patterns that could be challenging for players. The lower difficulties are interesting too, for those who are not good enough at jumps, you can learn more if you play the lowest difficulties, many lessons, before the final exam, you will be the next challenger! Very fun map, it offers possibilities to improve yourself at something which is important for a player : playing jumps. This beatmap brings more diversity among the maps I've chosen. Poi ~
Probably the last boss, awh what am i saying? It is the last boss! This beatmap is well done, everything looks polished, tidy and not really difficult to read, the flow is smooth and that makes this map more comfortable to play for specialists, but still difficult due to the BPM and the high spacing. Top players have to compete, this is the map for the most complete players. There is everything, like extreme jumps, slow and fast streams and some parts which have to be played with alternating fingers. If you can play everything, you can be the best on this map. What a good map to show how skilled you are.
This Circle Size 5 map is impressive. Everything plays well and the patterns follow perfectly the drums you can hear. There is a lot of streams and ¼ sliders which fit with the atmosphere of the song, and they play smooth and naturally, not forced. The manual stacking on triples is something really nice, it makes this map more "living" even if it's just a few pixels on the screen. Moreover, this mapping style is really suitable for Circle Size 5 I can't really see this map with Circle Size 4. A majority of Circle Size 5 maps can be turned into Circle Size 4 maps and they both look equivalent in term of gameplay, but this is not the case here. That's why this map is interesting!
The easiest beatmap among the maps I've chosen. When you look at the map in editor, patterns look a little messy and not really harmonious. But when you play the map, you see that everything plays naturally and intuitive, patterns follow the song perfectly and you can feel the real beauty of this map. Moreover, I'd like to say that this map can be enjoyable with all mods for an average or experienced player and that's why I've chosen this map. They are really rare to me and they are just... magic.
For Taiko, we asked Nashmun about their favourite maps in April 2015.
A catchy map for a catchy tune! It is often said that when you have the right song, you have made 50% of the road to make a remarkable map, but it seems that a lot of people fail to make the 50% left. Here the job is done, and nicely done. When you have 3 elite mappers collabing in one mapset, you obviously expect something great and could be disappointed, but those streams... those streams are so great! If you are not a pro player yet, don't worry you have 4 great difficulty for you to enjoy. But if you want a great challenge which reveals the full potential of the song don't wait and start playing Inner Oni or Firce's Hell Oni right now!
I hesitated a lot to put this one as my personal favorite. Difficulty spread is perfect, flow is perfect, streams are perfect, hitsounds are perfects, everything is perfect, even easiest difficulties are particularly well mapped which is rare enough to be pointed out. Why not #1 then? Well, it lacks this fantasy, this extravagance, this personality that would make this mapset a classic.
This mapset was the big surprise of this month. I expected something really ordinary especially because of the song, but this is actually a great mapset. The rhythm changes add some variation and play really fine. Special mention to the Inner Oni and especially the kiai parts for being so nicely mapped, I enjoyed playing it again and again.
I'm usually not a fan of TV Size because that kind of song and format doesn't allow a lot of creativity, but I have to say that this map deserve to be in this months ranking chart. I particularly enjoyed the offbeat mapping and 1/6s in the verse part which fits really well the atmosphere of the song.
I swear, no chauvinism here! Jokes asides, breakcore maps tend to be overmapped, especially in taiko because the drums usually goes crazy, but this map was greatly balanced which makes it enjoyable for everyone. No useless 1/6, no unnecessary hard patterns in streams, still difficult but with no artifice, well done OnosakiHito.
Strange song, strange map. You have everything in this map : slow scroll speed, fast scroll speed, vocal mapping, percussion mapping, 1/6 snapped objects, 1/3 snapped objects, tricky streams, monocolored streams... The mapstyle changes as soon as the song changes. It result in a really unique map that you should definitely play at least once to make your own idea. But I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I do!
For Catch the Beat, Zak was the chosen one to declare the winners of the April 2015 beatmaps.
Here's a nice quality collab between Spectator and Xinely with a good consistent difficulty across the entire map. Focusing mostly on jumping but without taking it to a very high level of difficulty, there may not be many CtB maps being ranked lately but this fun map is among the more enjoyable ones for sure.
Personally one of my favorite recent maps song wise, but also a very enjoyable map. It has a large spread providing a playable experience for players of any skill level, and provides a good challenge for those looking for one, with lots of jumps that will keep you on your toes throughout the map.
Probably the absolute best standard map of the month and thankfully it converts to CtB pretty well. It's a very challenging map that will test the abilities of even very skilled players but still flows very well and keeps you entertained throughout the map. There's also a very amazing storyboard that makes it worth watching at least once on standard mode.
For those who like lower Approach Rate maps that still take some skill to do well on, this is a great map to play. Not featuring many jumps but there are plenty of streams going really well with the music, and it also comes with a nice even spread for newer players to enjoy.
Without focusing on all the hype surrounding this song, the map is actually still pretty good, though it's a challenge to play through. Starting off easy enough it certainly picks up later into the song making you jump around, sometimes in the middle of streams, you'll definitely want to pay attention if you want to do well here.
This map shows that even a nice relaxing song can be made into a challenging map without being unenjoyable. The jumps may seem slightly off at first but they fit the song rather well and it's an overall great map.
For osu!mania, Starry- was able to select their personal most noteworthy beatmap from last month.
Everything about this song just screams "Intense", and it's translated extremely well by DE-CADE in this mapset. Featuring 6 difficulties, consideration for all types of players is really clear, ranging from 1.5 stars to 4.8 stars. As you work your way up the higher difficulties, more scroll speed changes are also added to reflect the pace of the song, and it does this extremely well – a perfect mix between playability and aesthetic effects. Also partnered with a really quite powerful storyboard by ExUsagi, it is clear DE-CADE has put a lot of effort into this mapset, and it really has paid off; thus why I think this mapset deserves the number one spot for the April 2015 charts.
Definitely a close contender for the number 1 spot this month, Fullerene- brings us a brilliant collaborative marathon mapset, with iJinjin mapping a whopping 6.5 stars 7 Key difficulty. It's usually extremely hard to make such an entertaining and unique marathon mapset, but Fullerene- really has clearly outdone himself here. Containing tricky chordstreams, 1/8 bursts, polyrhythms and jackhammers, this mapset is far from easy – but this doesn't at all take away from how well mapped this is. Definitely recommended for those who haven't tried playing it yet.
Really unique. Mapped as an 8 Key mapset (as if it was 7 + 1 Key, 8 keys, but the Special key is primarily used for special sounding effects within the song), it has very tricky ¼ scratches as you work your way up the higher difficulties, but definitely something new in osu!mania nonetheless. It has a very nice spread of difficulty – a mapset worth playing for newcomers and advanced players alike!
Another brilliant mapset from [AyanoTatemaya], featuring 6 difficulties that contain both 4 Key and 7 Key keymodes. The main aspect of this mapset is really well-done keysounds, which emulates a scenario where you play an electric guitar in accordance to the music. However, let's not forget how nicely structured all of the patterns are (and in particular how well the patterns flow in the 7 Key MX difficulty.) Really nicely done, and I hope to see more like this from the creator in the future!
RWBY! Fullerene-'s second map here in this month's charts! Here's another mapset featuring both 4 Key and 7 Key difficulties, with very nice structure especially in the 4 Key MX difficulty. Also features really original stuttering scroll speed which goes along with the song really well, alongside well thought out and fun to play patterns. Very impressive.
The full version of the Kantai Collection opening! This mapset is structured extremely well, and despite it being on the rather easier side in terms of difficulty, each pattern is really smooth to play and the entire mapset, especially the hardest difficulty, just flows really well. Coupled with a few fitting SV changes here and there, [ S a k u r a ] clearly knows how to keep players entertained. Recommended for the newer players starting out. Poi!
The April 2015 ranking charts will end on the 15th June 2015. For the next month, we will elect new community members to pick their favourite beatmaps, so stay tuned!
Congratulations to the winners of the March 2015 Ranking Charts. They receive a month of supporter status for their efforts!
Good luck with the new charts! We'd love to hear any and all feedback you have about the new format and selection process for the charts - feel free to leave a comment below!
—Loctav
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