Doctor GamesRhythm Guru vs osu!, Cytus II and Beat Saber: what's different
If you already know one of these games, here is what to expect from Rhythm Guru — what it borrows, what it does differently, and when one of the others is simply the better choice.
Disclosure: we make Rhythm Guru. osu!, Cytus II and Beat Saber are excellent games made by other studios; we describe them as fairly as we can and point out where they win.
At a glance
| Rhythm Guru | osu! | Cytus II | Beat Saber | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | iOS, Android | Windows, macOS, Linux (osu!lazer also has mobile builds) | iOS, Android | VR headsets |
| Price | Free, ads between songs, optional Premium | Free | Paid, extra packs | Paid, DLC packs |
| Songs | Any song on your phone, a catalogue, community maps | Community beatmaps | Curated catalogue | Curated catalogue (custom songs via PC mods) |
| Make your own map | Generated in about a minute, editable on the phone | By hand in the desktop editor | No | Community tools on PC |
| Input | Taps on three lanes (2 and 4 as mods) | Mouse/tablet + keys; also mania, taiko, catch modes | Taps, holds, drags, flicks | Swinging two sabers |
| Ranking | World, country, friends boards per song; D–SS; pp | Global and country rankings; pp | Per-song scores | Leaderboards per song |
Rhythm Guru vs osu!
osu! is the game Rhythm Guru owes the most to, and we are open about it: the idea of performance points (pp) — a number that rewards your best plays on hard maps rather than how much you grind — comes from osu!. Our letter ranks from D to SS will look familiar too.
The differences are big, though:
- Where you play. osu! is built for a computer, with a mouse or a pen tablet and a keyboard. Rhythm Guru is built for a phone held in your hands.
- Where maps come from. In osu! people chart songs by hand in the desktop editor, setting timing points and placing every circle. It produces wonderful maps, and it takes hours. In Rhythm Guru you pick a song on your phone and get a playable level with five difficulties in about a minute; the editor is there to polish, not to build from scratch.
- How deep it goes. osu! has four game modes, over a decade of community maps, tournaments and a huge ranking scene. Rhythm Guru is one focused mode — three lanes of taps — with a younger community. If mechanical depth is what you want, osu! wins.
- How maps get ranked. In osu! a map is ranked after review by the community's nominators. In Rhythm Guru a community map becomes RANKED automatically once players give it 100 ♥.
Choose osu! if you have a PC and want the deepest competitive game there is. Choose Rhythm Guru if you want an osu!-style chase for pp and rank on your phone, with the songs you already have.
Rhythm Guru vs Cytus II
Cytus II, by Rayark, is a paid game with an outstanding soundtrack, a story told through its characters and a scanning-line mechanic: notes appear all over the screen and a line sweeps up and down to judge them. Every chart is hand-made by the studio, and it shows.
- Music: Cytus II's catalogue is curated and original; Rhythm Guru adds whatever is on your phone. If you want a carefully composed soundtrack, Cytus II is the stronger pick.
- Charts: Cytus II uses taps, holds, drags and flicks across the whole screen — more varied than our three lanes. Our maps are generated and then polished by players, so quality depends on the song and the mapper.
- Price: Cytus II is bought once (with optional character packs); Rhythm Guru is free with ads between screens and an optional Premium that removes ads and the monthly generation limit.
- Competition: Rhythm Guru puts world, country and friends leaderboards on every song and adds a daily song with streaks; that social layer is the main thing it offers that Cytus II does not.
Rhythm Guru vs Beat Saber
Beat Saber is a VR game: you stand up and slice blocks with two sabers on Meta Quest, PC VR or PlayStation VR2. It is a workout as much as a game, and nothing on a phone feels like it. There is no Beat Saber for Android or iPhone.
What the two share is the love of custom songs: Beat Saber's PC players use community mods to play their own music, and that is what Rhythm Guru does on a phone without mods — add a song, get a level, publish it for others.
What only Rhythm Guru does
- Turns any song on your phone (MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, up to 10 minutes) into a five-difficulty level — step-by-step guide.
- Gives every map, including yours, world, country and friends leaderboards.
- Lets you edit on the phone: move notes, fix the beat grid with a metronome.
- Free to play with no energy system; ads never interrupt a song.
- All game art is hand-drawn.
Where Rhythm Guru is weaker
- One play style (taps on lanes); no holds, flicks or slides.
- Generated maps can miss the feel of rap and of instrumental tracks without a clear beat; those need editing.
- A smaller, newer community than osu! — fewer maps, fewer tournaments.
- Generating maps needs an internet connection, and the free tier is 10 generated maps a month.
If those are deal-breakers, the best free rhythm games list has good alternatives. If not, try it for free: