Mine is very simple.
1. StepmaniaArch0wl.com + over 1000 hours of stepmania + competitive active scene for the game....
I could play that fucking game all day every day, and in high school, I did. The way that game was very easy to get into, but had limitless difficulty with user made stages, the only limitation to me was how fast my fingers could move. Always fun trying to best others high scores in the old arch0wl scores thread, and oggling over nima and reach godlike ability to not only beat hard songs, but to utterly crush them.
Copy pasting this from the other thread. But going from being super impressed by
that famous video to while not replicating it, getting respectably close, I came a long way.
2. IIDXIn my honest opinion, IIDX is the greatest rhythm game with no equal. Only reason it's second for me is when I started getting into the game, the community was on the decline, and being "arcade only" with no console releases past ps2 REALLY REALLY REALLY hurts the game. It's the stuff outside the game which hurts it for me personally. The game itself is extremely fun, and the layout with the keys and turntable makes me mangle my hands in ways I never knew I had in myself.
3. N/AI could put DDR which got me into the genre. Pop'n music which I do rather like I never got the huge controller to get the proper experience, and also like IIDX, limited expensive ps2 releases and arcade only...I did enjoy pop'n 10 which is the only version I own, on the mini controller which is servicable, but ehh. Or even ITG which I beleive is superior to DDR in many ways, which died not too long after ITG 2...
I choose to leave this one blank. My rhythm game relationship has been DDR -> stepmania!!! -> stepmania!!! (and a bunch of other stuff like o2jam and pop'n and sucking at IIDX and hating it) -> getting over the learning 100 mile cliff of IIDX to loving the shit out of IIDX! -> IIDX IS GREAT BUT I CANT PLAY MORE BECAUSE NO ARCADE AND THE ARCADE RIP IS TOO LAGGY TO BE PLAYABLE AND WAY TOO COMPLICATED FOR ME TO WANT TO USE D: -> street fighter im a fightan mans now, rhythm games hath died
*editing for importantce*
stepmania is also the one and only reason I am here today, no stepmania, no me on this website