History YMMV / Osu

** The questionable legality of all the beatmaps[[note]]Theoretically, it's possible that permission was granted to use all of these anime OP and ED songs and music game tracks for the game, but that would require ''extreme'' kindness on behalf of copyright holders and beatmap makers to be rich enough to pay the necessary royalties, especially when several Japanese record labels are notorious for saying "no" to any sort of export and routinely block [=YouTube=] users outside of Japan from viewing any videos with songs they own the rights to. Furthermore, since osu! servers are run in the United States, they usually obey DMCA letters from copyright owners. A notorious example is in 2015, when osu! received their first DMCA letter. For nobody's surprise, it was the Recording Industry Association of Japan which demanded several songs to be removed. They have also received DMCA letters of visual novel developers asking songs to be removed from osu! servers (keep in mind that many visual novel developers shuns the overseas market as they don't want their games to be exposed to foreigners).[[/note]], especially when coupled with the game's subscription service[[note]]Which means that the developers are potentially profiting off of piracy given that beatmaps are hosted on infrastructure that they own[[/note]], is a major point of contention. Expanding on this, there's the practice of music artists having their songs removed from the game. Some think it's a fair move on the artists' part and that they have the right to not be comfortable with the way their works are represented by third parties, while others think those musicians are overreacting and another case of copyright law being abused to hurt end-users who just want to play and make charts to songs with no interest in profiting off of them.
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%% Regarding the above: Anything regarding a_hisa's takedowns of their songs from osu! is not allowed until March 25, 2024, or 6 months from the date of this post: https://twitter.com/a_hisa/status/1706322008466710816
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** The questionable legality of all the beatmaps[[note]]Theoretically, it's possible that permission was granted to use all of these anime OP and ED songs and music game tracks for the game, but that would require ''extreme'' kindness on behalf of copyright holders and beatmap makers to be rich enough to pay the necessary royalties, especially when several Japanese record labels are notorious for saying "no" to any sort of export and routinely block [=YouTube=] users outside of Japan from viewing any videos with songs they own the rights to. Furthermore, since osu! servers are run in the United States, they usually obey DMCA letters from copyright owners. A notorious example is in 2015, when osu! received their first DMCA letter. For nobody's surprise, it was the Recording Industry Association of Japan which demanded several songs to be removed. They have also received DMCA letters of visual novel developers asking songs to be removed from osu! servers (keep in mind that many visual novel developers shuns the overseas market as they don't want their games to be exposed to foreigners).[[/note]], especially when coupled with the game's subscription service[[note]]Which means that the developers are potentially profiting off of piracy given that beatmaps are hosted on infrastructure that they own[[/note]], is a major point of contention. Expanding on this, there's the practice of music artists having their songs removed from the game. Some think it's a fair move on the artists' part and that they have the right to not be comfortable with the way their works are represented by third parties, while others think those musicians are overreacting and another case of copyright law being abused to hurt end-users.

** The questionable legality of all the beatmaps[[note]]Theoretically, it's possible that permission was granted to use all of these anime OP and ED songs and music game tracks for the game, but that would require ''extreme'' kindness on behalf of copyright holders and beatmap makers to be rich enough to pay the necessary royalties, especially when several Japanese record labels are notorious for saying "no" to any sort of export and routinely block [=YouTube=] users outside of Japan from viewing any videos with songs they own the rights to. Furthermore, since osu! servers are run in the United States, they usually obey DMCA letters from copyright owners. A notorious example is in 2015, when osu! received their first DMCA letter. For nobody's surprise, it was the Recording Industry Association of Japan which demanded several songs to be removed. They have also received DMCA letters of visual novel developers asking songs to be removed from osu! servers (keep in mind that many visual novel developers shuns the overseas market as they don't want their games to be exposed to foreigners).[[/note]], especially when coupled with the game's subscription service[[note]]Which means that the developers are potentially profiting off of piracy given that beatmaps are hosted on infrastructure that they own[[/note]], is a major point of contention.

** Playing with a mouse is this for some players, particularly those who can't afford a tablet or a touchscreen, due to not only being uncomfortable but also a faster way to give a player carpal tunnel syndrome.

** It's on the receiving end of this trope from fans of other rhythm games -- claiming another rhythm game is inspired by ''osu!'' is a good way to generate animosity from players of that game.

** It's on the receiving end of this trope from fans of other rhythm games -- claiming another rhythm game is inspired by ''osu!'' or an outright ripoff thereof is a good way to generate animosity from players of that game.

* FandomEnragingMisconception: The game is called ''[[AllLowercaseLetters osu!]]'', not ''Osu!'' nor ''OSU!'' [[https://www.reddit.com/r/osugame/comments/4s7u0z/what_is_the_most_satisfying_thing_about_osu_for/d57mlzw Not even the main developer likes that]].

* BetterThanCanon: Is far more popular and better-received than the games it simulates.

** The Overall Difficulty ("OD") parameter on a map is what scales most heavily with pp, which makes sense, as it controls how difficult it is to get good accuracy. Higher OD values used to be reserved for difficult beatmaps, and the general rule was that the numeric value for OD should not exceed that of the Approach Rate, or "AR" (how fast circles appear on screen). However, on maps with simpler rhythms (such as the aforementioned "pp maps"), the increased difficulty in timing [[FakeBalance hardly matters to experienced players]].

* FandomRivalry: With various other RhythmGame series. Fans of other series scoff at the excessive number of {{Anime Theme Song}}s, scoring that is based excessively on combo and modifiers, and lack of original content (as opposed to, say, the BMS community, where many artists produce original songs for play in ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}}'' simulators). Players of ''osu!'' defend the user content-based gameplay and the fact that the game is "free" (insofar that the game doesn't cost money, never mind the sheer degree of copyright infringement regarding the beatmaps), and the odd review here and there for other, for-profit rhythm games are often complaints that they have to ''pay'' for the game content.

* FandomRivalry: With various other RhythmGame series. Fans of other series scoff at the excessive number of {{Anime Theme Song}}s, scoring that is based excessively on combo and modifiers, and lack of original content. Players of ''osu!'' defend the user content-based gameplay and the fact that the game is "free" (insofar that the game doesn't cost money, never mind the sheer degree of copyright infringement regarding the beatmaps), and the odd review here and there for other, for-profit rhythm games are often complaints that they have to ''pay'' for the game content.

** ''osu!'' is meant to simulate ''Ouendan'' and EBA. Unfortunately, this includes whatever Scrappy Mechanics the source games have, including spinners (which beatmap creators seem to be a little obsessed with, especially when making harder maps) and the very, VERY combo-based scoring system. The scoring system also creates a point of soreness when it comes to the leaderboards, as it's very common for someone with a lower accuracy to beat out another player who has higher accuracy by a large margin, all because the former maintained a full combo while the latter had a couple of misses.

** ''osu!'' is meant to simulate ''Ouendan'' and EBA. Unfortunately, this includes whatever Scrappy Mechanics the source games have, including spinners (which beatmap creators seem to be a little obsessed with, especially when making harder maps) and the very, VERY combo-based scoring system.

** Modifiers multiply your score. One of these modifiers (Double Time, or "DT") multiplies the speed of the song by 1.5x to give a score multiplier of 1.12x. The only modifier that gives as much is the Flashlight mod, which involves ''[[RidiculouslyDifficultRoute memorizing the entire map]]''. So, to get onto the leaderboards of lower difficulties of a mapset, you often ''have'' to use Double Time, which not only [[FakeDifficulty artificially inflates the difficulty of the beatmap]], but also will probably make the song sound terrible.