I discovered this cool new rhythm game for the DS called
Elite Beat Agents in Nintendo's Holiday 2006 catalog, and really badly wanted to play it. I ended up not playing it until I picked up a DS flashcart in 2008, which led me to discover that it was a westernized version of this Japanese-only rhythm game called
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. I ended up beating both games, as well as the Japan-only sequel
Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (that name is still fun to say). I got good enough to beat them all on Hard, but still to this day haven't beaten any of the games on Insane (due to the incredibly punishing HP drain).
Then after my DS lite broke in 2009, I still had a craving for that rhythm-based circle-clicking gameplay. I discovered a PC clone of Ouendan in 2009 known as
osu!, and immediately quit after bringing my playcount to about 12 (partially due to the difficulty from playing with a terrible wireless mouse at the time, but also because osu! lacked the fun storyboards that changed depending on how well you were playing. I also came in with the mindset that only the "authentic" maps were good, so I didn't even bother even looking at most of the maps that people made).
I then rediscovered osu! in 2012 after getting back into anime, playing a bit of osu!droid (and complaining about how laggy it was), and realizing that my new laptop was perfectly capable of handling the game. It was then when I realized how much progress has been made with beatmapping since I first discovered the game, and I think it was
this video (or at least a video of this map) that kindled my desire to get good at the game. And after nearly 2 years, after all sorts of osu!-related setup changes, here I still am!
