Project Loved: Week of April 21st

Project Loved's cycle continues! The captains have nominated a new batch of maps for the Loved section, but it's only up to you whether or not they'll make it! Come check out the selection and vote for the maps that you'd like to see Loved.

Welcome back to Project Loved! Every two weeks, we pick out a few beatmaps from each game mode that will get their shot at making it into the Loved category. From the maps we selected, you can now vote whether or not you want them to be Loved! Click on each map's header image in this post to be taken to its voting thread.

Our lineup of captains has changed for osu!catch again, this time with Ascendance stepping down to make room for his new responsibilities as an NAT member, and Yumeno Himiko filling their shoes. Say your thanks and welcomes, and wish both of them the best of luck!

In case you don't read to the end of this post, be sure to submit suggestions for beatmaps to be added to Loved using the Google form! All of the nominated beatmaps are chosen from submissions on this form, which you can view in the corresponding Google sheet. For osu!mania, please use this Google form and this Google sheet instead.

Navigation

• osu!
• osu!taiko
• osu!catch
• osu!mania

osu!

osu! Loved candidates were chosen by DigitalHypno, -Roxas, BeasttrollMC, Bubbleman and waywern2012!

Nhato - Gekka by Akali
132 BPM, 4:37 | 7.25★
written by BeasttrollMC

It's been quite a while since we've seen one of Akali's maps featured on Project Loved, but that wait ends now. This week, he returns with an extremely popular map among technical players: Nhato - Gekka. The map features an onslaught of 132 BPM cutstreams and 264 BPM anti-aim jumps. These patterns create an environment where players must be proficient at both flow and snappy aim and be able to constantly switch between the two extremely quickly. Outside of the technical community, this map recieved a bit of public attention from Bubbleman's NoMod FC, and now sits comfortably at over 70 favorites.

ginkiha - EOS by Shiva
175 BPM, 2:26 | 6.19★
written by BeasttrollMC

This map by Shiva was one of the first to popularize this song back in 2012, and since then, there have been four other ranked osu!standard maps of it and its remixes. Being a map that dates back to almost 7 years ago, this is a great opportunity to see a map that players enjoyed back in the day before mapping was as sophisticated as it is now. With almost 200 favorites, the map features many wide-angled jump patterns, doubles, and streams that continue to challenge players to this day. Check out the map, and don't forget to vote for its place in Project Loved!

Hatsuki Yura - Saramandora no Odoriko by Espeon
254 BPM, 3:36 | 7.20★
written by DigitalHypno

Here's a fun map for you "fast aim" enthusiasts—a 254 BPM song with a map over 7 stars that keeps your cursor dancing to the groove of the music. With fluid flow and intuitive bursts throughout the three and a half minutes of drain time, there's hardly time to catch your breath between sections before both the song and map pick back up in intensity. Whether you're looking to train your aim speed, singletap speed, burst speed, or anything in between, this is a clean and enjoyable map for you to use as your personal training field.

Golec uOrkiestra - Slodycze by fartownik and Raikozen
140 BPM, 3:56 | 6.94★
written by DigitalHypno

If you know anything about Polish teams in osu! tournaments, you're probably aware that they're infamous for choosing songs of their own culture—which aren't commonly seen elsewhere in osu!—as warmup maps for their matches (sometimes referred to as "Polish warmups"). Every now and then, they put in the effort to make their own maps of these songs with the intent of picking the map as a warmup for the match. Such maps include this masterpiece of a collab between fartownik and Raikozen, which was used as Poland's warm up in the Grand Finals match of the osu! World Cup 2017, where the team won their first World Cup title.

The map itself rests at 140 BPM and a star rating just under 7. It's mapped in a fairly aim-heavy style in the chorus sections and a more alternating-heavy style in the verses. The difficulty ramps up as the song progressively gets more intense. The background depicts a very classy edit of Rafis, a famous top Polish player, shaking hands with... himself. A man can be seen behind them with an animated mango pasted over his head—this represents mangomizer, one of the organizers of the tournament.

All in all, everything about this map comes together to make one big bundle of joy that captures the character of Polish warmups. If you're one who's fascinated by niche bits of history within the osu! community, or maybe just one who enjoys a fun and enjoyable map, you'll definitely want to add this one to your collections.

Golec uOrkiestra - Slodycze by WubWoofWolf
140 BPM, 4:53 | 5.91★
written by -Roxas

For those of you that followed along with the osu! World Cup 2018, you'll know this map straight away. A version mapped by the famous WubWoofWolf, this map is one to remember down the line; each country that participated in World Cup has their own little section in the song, and it's honestly just a joy to follow along with. The map already hits over 700 favorites and isn't too hard to play, so you can enjoy this map to its full extent!

Various Artists - International Wrestling Festival 2017 -DREAM COME TRUE- by Black fires et al.
180 BPM, 16:14 | 6.15★
written by -Roxas

We had a 2016 Wrestling Festival... now it's about time for a 2017 one! Over 15 minutes of well-known tunes with a little ♂ twist ♂ to it if you know what I mean... With jumps, streams and technical sections spread throughout the map, it really keeps you on your toes. The map hovers around 6 stars, so it isn't too challenging for most players to have a go at this map. Hitting over 120+ favorites, this map is already loved by many, so go and join the fun!

New World Sound & Thomas Newson - Flute (Original Mix) by ohad1881
128 BPM, 4:00 | 7.02★, 7.02★, 7.02★
written by waywern2012

Flute has entered the voting! This map made by ohad1881 will test your cursor's ability to flow around the map whilst listening to a strong beat accented by a flute. The map sits at a comfortable BPM of 128, with the jumps being mapped on 1/3 sounds from the flute melody. The map is not as hard as you might think. The map will provide a big jumping section two times during the song, both of which are very similar. Let's see if you can pass the hard parts not only once, but twice!

dark cat - hot chocolate by Pozy
160 BPM, 3:14 | 5.26★
written by waywern2012

Hot chocolate... sounds great! It's a future bass song mapped by Pozy. The song perfectly syncs with the map. This makes it very enjoyable to play, but also quite tricky at some parts. At times, there are slider streams together with the song's sounds and additions, and at other times it comes at you with tricky dense parts that prove to be quite challenging to hit without a fair amount of aim control and reading. The streams after sliders will catch you off guard in the middle section if you aren't careful! But, the main focus on the map is for you to enjoy the tasty song and click the circles to the beat!

The Black Dahlia Murder - What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse by Xytox
216 BPM, 3:49 | 6.43★
written by Bubbleman

A horrible night indeed, but certainly not a horrible map. Xytox's difficulty of What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse brings a good stamina test to the table, involving a good number of deathstreams at 216 BPM interspersed between older patterns that require good control over your aim to hit. This is a map that many players enjoy warming up on and is a good source of stamina training, so if you haven't done so already, give it a go!

Camellia - Lunatic Rough Party!! (Long Ver.) by AtHeoN
120 BPM, 4:32 | 6.61★
written by Bubbleman

A trip through many different speeds and styles of mapping, AtHeoN's map of Lunatic Rough Party is an absolute treat to play. You'll need a well rounded skill set to be able to give this a good shot, as the map flows through a 120 BPM 1/6 section into 200 BPM drum'n'bass, and finally 150 BPM alternating patterns. The song is an absolute banger to match the map, as the patterns all flow well and match the energy of the song perfectly. A personal favourite of mine, I wholly recommend you give this one a play—and I think you'll agree that it's worth the favourite.

osu!taiko

osu!taiko Loved candidates were chosen by -Kazu-, iceOC, jyake and nyanmi-1828!

weyheyhey !! - Loving The Girl Who Hates Me by Jaye
190 BPM, 3:30 | 1.81★ – 6.86★
written by -Kazu-

Jaye's mapping style is based a lot on giving a great experience to the players through simple, well-executed patterns that shine by themselves without needing the addition of further sugarcoating in the form of SV changes. This time around, we are bringing his Loving The Girl Who Hates Me to the Loved section, a family-sized mapset made all by himself that will for sure give you something to have fun with, regardless of your skill level. We hope you have a lot of fun with one of Jaye's finest creations!

Getty - Pump It by yea and Lno
170 BPM, 1:54 | 5.19★, 8.42★, 8.66★
written by jyake

Pump It is another challenging map by yea, consisting of, well, a lot of 1/6. Everything is normal until you get to the last half of the song, where yea decided to bombard you with crazy technical streams. The patterns are sure to offer a challenge to even the best of players, but fear not, as there's a nerfed difficulty for the normal people who can't hit this level of craziness. As a bonus, the mapset also includes Lno's guest difficulty, which is also a 1/6 map with its own taste.

RoughSketch feat. aikapin - Grimm (tpz Despair Remix) by glalucard
85 BPM, 4:07 | 7.35★
written by iceOC

Grimm truly feels like one of those maps that can measure how players have grown their skill level as time passed. Back in the day, even getting a pass on this map would mean total insanity, due to its sheer speed and stamina draining patterns, but have we as a community reached the point where this is but a mere warm up? Let's find out together!

UNDEAD CORPORATION - and Say Good Bye... by tasuke912
260 BPM, 3:53 | 7.06★
written by nyanmi-1828

tasuke912's "TAIKO-HOLiC" map series is famous for being challenging and high-quality. Starting with Ultrasonic Anthem, which is osu!taiko's hardest ranked map, there have been four Ranked maps and one Loved map from the series, proving the quality of the maps. The patterns in the map may be rather simple, but long streams attack the player with few breaks. If you can hit these streams, I—nyanmi-1828—will guarantee you have the right to call your self "a true stamina player"!

osu!catch

osu!catch Loved candidates were chosen by Sartan, Tenshichan, Wesley and Yumeno Himiko!

Afilia Saga - S.M.L* by [_-Kukkai-_]
200 BPM, 4:41 | 11.94★
written by Tenshichan

Do you like maps with a lot of gimmicks? If so, S.M.L* by Kukkai will be right up your alley, as it was heavily inspired by the osu!catch Aspire contest, hence why the difficulty itself is called "Aspire". Since Aspire maps use unrankable patterns (with this one being no exception), it's a good contender for the Loved category!

But it is not only the fact that it uses a lot of gimmicks which makes it a suitable pick; it is the high quality this map has which makes it shine as a hidden gem standing out among most of the other maps in the graveyard. The map has gimmick sections like stacked fruits and hyperwalks, but also has a few sections which play like a normal map, making it not feel overdone. The transition between the various sections throughout the map is done in a way such that it highlights the gimmicky sections very nicely while also giving the player room to relax in between. Also, contrary to other Aspire-type maps, all the droplets are catchable, making an SS possible albeit very difficult to achieve.

All in all, this great map definitely deserves to be nominated and deserves more exposure than it currently has.

An - Saigo by Rocma, Spectator, [224]Hyperw7 and mjj741
200 BPM, 3:43 | 1.75★ – 7.09★
written by Yumeno Himiko

If you simply seek a nice song paired with a challenging map, Saigo must be one of your choices. Rocma, along with the top Korean osu!catch players, [224]Hyperw7, Spectator and mjj741, brought us a huge creative set. With the struggling streams and technical jumps, the map is pretty hard to handle. Also, since the mapper made the backups of the old difficulties, you can discover the pattern changes and enjoy different mapping styles from each of these mappers!

osu!mania

osu!mania Loved candidates were chosen by Shoegazer, Lenfried-, Pope Gadget and Toaph Daddy!

DJKurara - Japanese Transformation by XeoStyle et al.
260 BPM, 3:44 | 4K, 1.05★ – 6.34★

Try to find someone who doesn't know what Japanese Transformation is. You won't. After years of this mapset hovering between the Graveyard and the Pending section, we are finally nominating Japanese Transformation for the Loved section.

Regardless of skill level, there is at least one difficulty in this mapset for you to enjoy. From leisurely Beginner to Hard charts for newer players, to endless bombardments of 260 BPM dense jumpstreams and handgluts in the Extra and Fullerene's Shift difficulties, there's something for everyone. There's even a stream-only difficulty for index players (players who only use 2 fingers on the arrow keys to play) if you're into that kind of thing.

The highest difficulty has been praised by the playing community the most, and it's easy to see why: it's relentless, straight-forward (jumpstream-oriented), and, most importantly, feels like a chart that fits wonderfully with the song. The lower difficulties have also been praised, and the fact that the entire mapset has something for everyone makes this an easy pick for the Loved section.

Igorrr - Pavor Nocturnus by Janko, Another Lie and AnatOWJIya
174 BPM, 4:12 | 4K 1.42★, 4K 2.26★, 4K 3.41★, 4K 4.35★, 4K 4.79★

We're a bit overdue for an Igorrr pick, aren't we? Janko gets his first ever nominated mapset with his rendition of Pavor Nocturnus—a mapset that nicely captures the whimsicality and aggression of one of Igorrr's more well-known tracks.

The highest difficulty of the mapset, Parasomnia, is a decently layered chart that utilises bursts, minijacks, jumpgluts, and split jumptrills to accentuate more aggressive percussion. It also utilises short LNs to emphasise buzz sounds. The climax of the chart contains an extended handstream with difficult jumpgluts, minijacks and bursts—which fits the track nicely. His pattern usage can be considered "basic", but what he does gets the job done quite well. Add on to the fact that the song is very technical and unpredictable, and you get a chart that is exciting and effective in what it tries to convey.

For lower-level players, there are four other difficulties for you to try out. While the other difficulties don't quite capture the aggression of the track as well as Parasomnia, they do a nice job in accentuating the listening experience.

supercell - Sayonara Memories by eZmmR, upan and Yuichie
80 BPM, 5:55 | 4K 5.76★

Sayonara Memories, yet another LN chart that draws on the intrigues that come with O2Jam-inspired charting, features exciting gameplay, commonly smooth patterns, and all-out nature that makes for an ultimately satisfying experience. eZmmR joins forces with upan (better known as TimBergling) and Yuichie for this marathon of LNs, and like many other previously-seen LN charts of this nature, has an exaggerated and noticeable difficulty curve, relying mostly on the shifts in and out of inverse to mark changes in intensity for the first two choruses, and then changing up the formula for the last. There, the players are met with rolly patterns with the release lengths being the largest variable used to represent the intensity of the sounds, making for a finale sure to draw interest. Sayonara Memories proves to be a notable successor to other LN charts made by mappers like shuniki and Skochan, and has the popularity to help back it up as one of our nominations for the Loved section.

osu!mania 7K Dan Courses - LN Dan Phase II by Jinjin et al.
138 BPM, 8:43 | 7K 5.32★, 7K 5.63★, 7K 6.68★, 7K 7.42★, 7K 8.62★

The time has come once again for another 7K Dan course to go up in Project Loved! This time, it is the second phase of the LN Courses. You know the drill, the charts go in the order of regular LNs, technical LNs, inverse LNs, and release LNs. This phase covers Dans 4 through 8, challenging mid- to high-tier LN players. Don't feel too bad if you don't immediately clear your target skill level; practice is key!

Haywyre - Dichotomy (Soft Mix) by BilliumMoto
160 BPM, 3:10 | 9K 1.74★, 9K 2.81★, 9K 3.59★, 9K 5.41★

It's been ages since we had an anti-meta pick for Project Loved, let alone a 9K pick. This set has a lot of unique things to offer, ranging across full keysounds, an extensive spread, and proper SV usages.

The set overall is particularly technical, as the keysounds do in fact match very well with the note placements. The top diff in particular is something to look out for, as it presents varying patterns that keep the chart very interesting. It has large chords, minijacks, bursts, and some amounts of LN usage. It's about time 9K had more exposure in Project Loved, and this mapset is something that everyone should try out!

From everyone on the Project Loved team, we hope you enjoyed this week's selection, and are looking forward to the next! The winning beatmaps will hit the Loved beatmap listing sometime next week and will be announced via @osugame on Twitter.

In addition to all of the Loved captains that choose the maps and write the descriptions, make sure to thank Toy, Noffy, ThatsNotAName, huu and Ephemeral for their miscellaneous help in managing Project Loved.

If you have any suggestions for beatmaps to be added to the Loved category, please submit them using the Google form! You can view the current submissions on the corresponding Google sheet. For osu!mania, please use this Google form and this Google sheet instead.

—clayton