New Featured Artist: Kobaryo

We're proud to welcome speedcore sensation Kobaryo aboard as our latest Featured Artist!

A big name in the speedcore scene for many years, Kobaryo is a superbly talented Japanese producer who also leads the HiTNEX TRAX music label and is a member of the highly respected HARDCORE TANO*C label, who are similarly renowned for their contribution to rhythm game music as a whole.

His work has been incredibly popular all throughout the game since his first unofficial debut in osu! during late 2015, with a track appearing in the Finals pool for the osu!taiko World Cup 2016 and a whole league of other maps in the years since, too many to list in one article alone.

We're excited to announce a sizable collection of 24 new tracks from Kobaryo are now available, including many well-loved classics from yesteryear, and some new ones to boot. If you're fond of high energy and high speed changes, you're gonna love this latest pick.

Give them a listen below:

Cartoon Candy

Check out this popular hybrid set hosted by Charlotte!

Sulyvahn [feat. USAO]

Check out this collaborative osu! set hosted by Testo, and this osu!mania set by Eon!

Tool-Assisted Speedcore (TQBF Frame Advance RMX)

Check out this Loved challenge difficulty from Mismagius!

Kumo No Kireme [feat. kourin]

Check out this Loved osu!mania set by Quick Draw!

New Game Plus

Check out this osu!taiko set by Nepuri!

As usual, all of the above plus a whole bunch more (19 more, in fact) are available right now over at Kobaryo's Featured Artist listing, pre-timed and politely awaiting your creative attention.

Breaking the two-week streak, this week's hint was successfully (if tentatively) unraveled by none other than @Junihuhn from former World Cup recap fame. Luck manipulation refers to a common speedrunning tactic often seen in "TAS" (or Tool-Assisted Speedruns) to help intrepid gamers bend things to their favor, a direct homage in title to Tool-Assisted Speedcore (TQBF Frame Advance RMX). Well done! Oh, and on the topic of fun facts, did you know that Kobaryo often illustrates his own track covers? Talent can be incredibly intimidating sometimes.

Some might be wondering if we really can keep doing this whole "release a new crazy talented artist every week" thing for a whole year, and if you haven't been following along, the answer is firmly yes. New week, new artist, and if you want to keep on top of everything as it happens, make sure to follow the @osugame Twitter for all the juicy details.

Until then, rhythm is just a click away! Or a key, if that's your thing.

—Ephemeral