As a passion project and a FREE game that runs on any computer, with 4 different game modes, a powerful chart editor to create your own beatmaps and an active community; this sure is a great way to get into rhythm games.

For a game genre as elitist, and with very restricted access to truly appreciate due to hardware limitation, location, etc.. I don't think we give enough credit for osu! to exist in the first place.
Easy to skin, many QoL features, well optimized with very few bugs and even an online multiplayer.. we never had any PC rhythm games coming even remotely close to how much osu! achieve (maybe with the exception of Etterna for 4k VSRG), and such since almost 15 years now.

I find osu!STD to be incredibly satisfying to play regardless of the devices used, with such a large skillset to master and a difficulty range that beats most other PC rhythm games, without too unbalanced of a learning curve for me. The many playstyles that developed, the types of beatmaps created by the community over the years etc.. makes it my favorite rhythm game to play alongside pop'n & maybe DDR, but definitely the one I played the most.

It's not to say the game is beneath any criticism, and osu! has been considered as the black sheep of the genre for years so I'd like to address some of the criticism put onto it, especially from other people of the rhythm game community.
Obviously the game is not for everyone, some even argues its very nature as a rhythm game because of how prevalent the "aim" aspect the game has, and how streams and heavily burst oriented maps can feel very different from the typical notion of rhythm within the genre. To that I would respond that's perfectly fair; It's all about feelings and the aim aspect does take over the sense of timing sometimes, although I invite you to try and beat me without typing the keys to the rhythm. At the end of the day, contesting this very aspect of the gameplay as not similar enough to other VSRGs you like, making it "not a rhythm game" tells you more about the fact that maybe it's simply not for you.
We don't question hand placement and such meta mecanics very present within Jubeat or maimai's gameplay as "not rhythm-gamey enough", so I don't think the aim takes away the feeling of music timing that defines the genre for me.
Lastly, I should mention some nerds love to remind people how much better the original osu tatakae ouendan ds games are to this "shitty clone", which is hilarious and insane. I don't think I need to get onto why this is stupid as anyone who played both games at least an hour would not take this comparison seriously, but I would strongly invite you to play both the originals and the PC port, as they're both great albeit fundamentally different experiences.

As for the other game modes, I'm not very experienced in any of them outside a bit of osu!mania 4k & 7k, but :
Spit all you want on the scoring and ranking systems for mania or taiko, but osu! is still the most efficient and accessible way to create and play rhythm game charts on PC currently, which in and of itself should be acclaimed rather than spitted upon. It's something to criticize the game's mecanics fairly and highlights its problems, but It's an other to completely reject the game and it's players. As a community, we should be glad to see a point of entrance for new players to the genre, instead I've met countless bemani players, EVEN keyboard VSRG players belittling osu! players, gatekeeping their games from them (of course I'm talking about the 10% of toxic elitists, they're not representative of their respective game's playerbase); Which I find to be one of the main factors that makes osu! thrive while many other games are slowly losing their community over the years.

To me, osu! absolutely deserves its success; I also hope osu!lazer will manage to become a better version for everyone without alienating it's own players, and will motivate even more people to get into it.

they really did everything right with this game in my opinion, you probably wont find another fighting game that is the whole package like this.
i think it does pretty much everything you could ever ask for in a fighting game in my books; quick casual and competitive matchmaking, super fast rematch times, good netcode, decent tutorials for new universal tools and characters and decent combo trials to dip your feet into, intricate training mode with preset learning tools at your disposal and all the tools you need in a training mode, decently large cast with awesome newcomers that all have slick character designs and playstyles and with dlc just right around the corner; and for the casuals, single player experience worth playing, free form character creation (the game embraces the silliness), a hub area to find games and to socialise/chill, a way to fight other player's single player avatars, fun arcade side modes that prove to be silly fun for newcomers and vets to play around with, modern controls and dynamic controls to allow new players to play to just button mash, single player arcade setups that let you play old capcom titles rotating weekly, clan creation with friends, a super tight aesthetic visually and musically, i could honestly go on and on i haven't even mentioned the competitive scene and it's 1 mil prize pool for FIRST PLACE funded by capcom themselves, even my local scene is popping off with tournaments with 70 people at my last local, what a time to be alive!

i'm no veteran when to comes to fighting games but i have been playing these games for a decent chunk of my life; i think this is the most fun i've had with a fighting game hoenstly. it's complex and unforgiving at times, all of it's tools are not straight forward and seem open ended in design, even neutral and combos are hard because of mostly all timing based, you'll probably have to spend hours and hours just to learn the basics, learning timings and frame data, and just understanding a button or a special's uses. but thats where the brilliance and fun comes in, it's finding answers to these questions in maybe training mode or in games, and applying them in games where it matters and landing them and feeling like a god damn genius when you do.

this game is not easy for new comers upon playing more despite it's push for accessibility, but it makes it easier for new comers to learn and get into while still keeping its complexity which is what i worried the most, it's an incredibly difficult thing to pull off at this level of quality but you've out done yourself capcom.

Dreadful, absolutely dreadful.

It's not just the rubber band mechanic, which makes your partner either constantly slow you down or get in your way by going one hundred miles per hour, making the camera shake as if you were both inside of a blender, nor is it just the fact that the power ups screw you over all the time, to the point where you need to wait for them to wear off until you can proceed with the stage, it's also the level design on its own.

I'm gonna be honest, this is one of the most boring games i have ever played in my life. It's bland, uninspiring; there are barely any enemies; there are no real obstacles that get in your way and the game does absolutely nothing interesting with the rubber band mechanic, you know, the mechanic on which the game is based on?

No interesting puzzles, no challenging platform, no rewarding exploration, no twists, no nothing.
Knuckles Chaotix is basically an abysmal 2D walking simulator that drags for over 2 hours.

Boss battles are ungodly too; making it a requirement to land a series of successful hits on an already difficult-to-control game is just straight up immoral.

The bonus stage is awful too; it's constantly suffering from slowdowns, and the 3D hexagonal tubes have this incredibly jarring clipping effect that makes you feel like you are constantly on the verge of falling off the stage, which, by the way, CAN actually happen.

Yes, music is awesome but that doesn't make the game worth it at all.
Would you like to listen to your favorite album while a herd of dogs bite your balls?
This game is like listening to your favorite album while a herd of dogs bite your balls.