Maimai (video game series)

Maimai (stylized as all lowercase) is an arcade rhythm game series developed and distributed by Sega, in which the player interacts with objects on a touchscreen and executes dance-like movements. The game supports both single-player and multiplayer gameplay with up to 2 players per cab.

The game is mainly available in Japan, later with an English-language version available to overseas regions including Taiwan and Hong Kong and a simplified Chinese version for China.

The Pink Plus version of the game was location tested in the United States at Dave & Buster's in Irvine, California in December 2016, and was also tested at Round 1 in Puente Hills, California in January 2017.

In a livestream on 10 July 2019, Sega announced Maimai DX, a reworked version of the game which featured new, second-generation cabinets. This version subsequently generated several sequel games of its own.

After the phaseout of the older "classic" cabinets, many made their way to Europe and North America running the Finale version as offline-only builds. In the US, several of these cabinets were installed at Round 1 locations in 2021. While in Europe, arcades like Arcade Club began to install them into their locations starting around 2020.

From 24 May 2024 to 14 July 2024, the BUDDiES version of Maimai DX was placed on location test by Sega in the United States at Round 1 in Puente Hills, California, over seven years after the conclusion of its aforementioned Pink Plus test.

Overview
The defining feature of maimai's arcade cabinet is its striking resemblance to a front-loading washing machine. Early advertisements and promotional materials had different joke catchphrases sprinkled in, such as "It's not a washing machine!" and "No water." At its first deployment test, maimai had "NO WASHING" written on its cabinet. Early in development, the original concept was actually a music player, instead of a rhythm game. Up to 2 players can play per cabinet, and up to 4 players can play together with more cabinets. The motherboard can be accessed using the back door on the player 2 side. The original design was made in collaboration with Electronics manufacturer Sharp in Sega's maimai LIVE 2014 Washing Festival event.

To save their personal play data, players can use an "Aime" IC card with the machine to log into their account. From 25 October 2018 onward, other IC cards from other developers such as "Project DIVA" and "BanaPassport" cards will also work with maimai.

Using a computer or smartphone, a player can use maimaiNET (now maimai DX NET) to access detailed information on their account like scores and earned achievements as well as change their account name. Before maimai DX was released, it was possible to link a niconico account to upload a recording of the play from the camera built into the arcade machine. Even without a niconico account, the player could view the recording. However, in the summer of 2019, this integration was removed with the release of maimai DX, and a camera and photo gallery was added instead, where commemorative photos at the end of a song could be saved instead. The recording function was completely removed in favor of the photos.

Since the cabinet uses only one computer for both players, if a player is already playing on a machine, the second player's input will not work at all until the end of the game. The background image during this time states "Please wait until the play is finished" alongside the music video of the currently playing song if there is any.

Basic gameplay
Various kinds of notes will appear at the centre and approach the outer rim of the circular touchscreen. The player must tap, hold or slide on the touchscreen or surrounding buttons in time with the music, depending on the type of note.

There are 5 types of input-timing judgements (ranging from least to most accurate to timing): 'Miss', 'Good', 'Great', 'Perfect' and 'Critical Perfect', as well as showing if they are 'Late' or 'Early'. In-game settings can be toggled to enable different displays to show the different types of judgements based on the player's preference

The types of notes in the game include:
 * Tap: A pink circular ring, requiring a single tap when it reaches the edge of the screen.
 * Hold: A pink hexagonal bar, requiring holding for the entire length. Releasing early, or releasing midway and pressing down again will result in less score/accuracy and a 'Fast/Late Perfect', 'Great' or 'Good' rating for the object.
 * Slide: A star followed by a path. The star counts like a tap, followed by a slide path starting one beat after the star is tapped. The player must trace along the path.
 * Paired: A combination of two (or more) tap, hold or slide notes, now colored yellow in order to signify them being needed to be tapped at the same time.
 * Touch: A blue note (yellow when two or more notes) in the middle area of the screen that requires a single tap when the outside arrows close in.
 * Touch Hold: A multicolored note in the middle area of the screen that requires holding for the entire length.
 * Break: A red-yellow ring/star that requires a single tap and provides extra score/accuracy when tapped, requiring a 'Critical Perfect' for the full score of the note. Breaks can be paired with either a normal Pair note, or another Break note. As of maimai DX FESTiVAL, new songs can also include Hold and Slide paths that are Break notes, carrying extra accuracy.
 * EX: Non-Touch/Slide path notes (including break notes) that glow brighter than other notes. Any non-'miss' judgment is a 'Critical Perfect', unless it is an EX Hold note that has been released early, which results in lower accuracy as per usual.

Like other touch based rhythm games, like Chunithm and Wacca, many players wear gloves during gameplay in order to dampen the impact of hitting buttons and allow for easier sliding on the screen's surface, as well as to minimize injuries caused by friction, especially at higher levels of play.

Songs
Along with officially licensed songs from popular artists, vocaloid songs, Touhou Project arrangements, songs from other Sega video games, and Maimai original songs are also often added to the library. Each song has a unique background image, and in some cases may be the original PV corresponding to the song. Currently, songs in Maimai are sorted into categories based on where they originated from, with the main categories being:


 * POPS&ANIME: J-pop songs and anime soundtracks released under mainstream labels.
 * niconico&VOCALOID: Songs originally uploaded to the site niconico, or using the vocaloid voice synthesizer.
 * 東方Project (Touhou Project): Arrangements of Touhou Project soundtracks.
 * GAME&VARIETY: Songs originating from other games, as well independently released music.
 * maimai: Songs exclusively commissioned for Maimai.
 * ONGEKI&CHUNITHM: Songs originating from Ongeki and Chunithm, rhythm games also developed by Sega.

They may also be found in other categories for reasons like events and new releases.

Each song in the game has four to five playable difficulty levels. The four regular difficulty levels are: Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Master. Master mode is only unlocked upon achieving an S rank (97% and above) on the 'Expert' difficulty of a song. Alternatively, an S rank on the 'Master' chart of the song (if available for selection) will unlock the 'Master' chart itself. A Re:MASTER mode is available for selected songs and will be unlocked after achieving a Rank S score on the 'Expert' or 'Master' difficulty. (S ranks achieved before the addition of Re:MASTER mode on songs will not be counted). An exception to this is songs added before maimai DX, whose Master and Re:MASTER charts are unlocked by default without requiring any other conditions. Some songs are also hidden, and only unlocked when certain conditions are met.

in addition to the above difficulty levels, each song is also assigned a numerical level, on a scale of 1 to 15. With the exception of level 1-6 and 15, there is also a harder "+" equivalent for each level (e.g. 7+, 9+, 11+,...).

Achievement ranking
maimai 's scoring system includes alphabetical ranks and a percentage score up to 101.0000% calculated based on the player's cumulative note judgements.

In order to CLEAR a song, players must score at least 80% on a song. In maimai PiNK, the ranking system changed from D-SS to F-SSS. In maimai MiLK PLUS, 3 new ranks, namely S+, SS+ and SSS+, were added to the ranking system, thus changing the system to F-SSS+. In maimai DX, ranks F and E were removed, and the B rank was split into B, BB and BBB, making the system D-SSS+. Players can also earn the following additional achievements if certain conditions are met:

DX Rating
In addition to individual song achievement rates and ranks, each player account also has a numerical rating attached called 'DX Rating', which serves as an indication of the player's overall skill level.

Song rating
Every play is assigned a rating value, which is calculated using the following formula:

$$song\ rating = level \cdot achievement \cdot rank\ coefficient$$

Within the 1 to 15 difficulty scale, each song is also assigned an internal decimal level number, with x.7 to x.9 being rounded to x+ in-game. This internal level is used for the rating calculation.

While the achievement rate scale goes up to 101.0000%, the rate used for rating calculation is capped to 100.5000%, with all rates above being rounded down to 100.5000%.

The rank coefficients used for rating calculation are as follows:

Total rating
Songs are split into two categories for the total rating calculation: old songs and new songs. Songs released within the current version of the game are considered new songs, while songs released in past versions are considered old songs (an exception is new Re:MASTER charts added for old songs; these are considered new songs if the chart was added in the current version).

The player's total rating is calculated as the sum of the ratings of the top 15 new songs and top 35 old songs. Rating numbers are by default displayed along with the player's username (though this option can be turned off), with unique badges for certain rating ranges, ranging from the default white and blue for 999 and under to rainbow for 15000 and up.

maimai NET
maimai NET(now maimai DX NET) are the names for maimai's player account website. To enable these services, a Sega ID or other IC card with play data has to be linked.

In earlier versions, if the game cabinet had a camera installed, players could record one of their played songs and access them on the website maimaiNET, which could then be downloaded and posted to sites like niconico and YouTube.

Its functions include:


 * Changing account username
 * Editing user profile that friends can see
 * Changing game settings (speed, sound, rating, rank, display rank)
 * Registered friends' account status (high scores, achievements)
 * Check account's highscores
 * Check different rankings (deluxe ranking, friends ranking, prefecture, nationwide)
 * Post score screenshots to twitter

Collectibles
By doing certain achievements and actions in the game, the player can earn various badges for their maimaiNET profile, as well as player icons and titles. Some are hidden achievements found only through playing the game. Some achievements may also unlock songs.

Series

 * maimai - The first generation arcade cabinet of the maimai series, released on 11 July 2012.
 * maimai PLUS, an upgraded version to the original maimai cabinet, released on 13 December 2012.
 * maimai GreeN, released on 11 July 2013.
 * maimai GreeN PLUS, began location tests on 31 January 2014, and officially released on 26 February 2014.
 * maimai ORANGE, released on 18 September 2014.
 * maimai ORANGE PLUS, released on 19 March 2015.
 * maimai PiNK, released on 9 December 2015.
 * maimai PiNK PLUS, released on 30 July 2016.
 * maimai MURASAKi, released on 15 December 2016.
 * maimai MURASAKi PLUS, released on 22 June 2017.
 * maimai MiLK, released on 14 December 2017.
 * maimai MiLK PLUS, released on 21 June 2018.
 * maimai FiNALE, the last version of the first generation cabinet, released on 13 December 2018. Online service has ended since 3 September 2019 in Japan.
 * maimai DX, the first version of the second generation arcade cabinet, released on 11 July 2019.
 * maimai DX PLUS, released on 23 January 2020.
 * maimai DX Splash, released on 17 September 2020.
 * maimai DX Splash PLUS, released on 18 March 2021.
 * maimai DX UNiVERSE, released on 16 September 2021.
 * maimai DX UNiVERSE PLUS, released on 24 March 2022.
 * maimai DX FESTiVAL, released on 15 September 2022.
 * maimai DX FESTiVAL PLUS, released on 23 March 2023.
 * maimai DX BUDDiES, released on 14 September 2023.
 * maimai DX BUDDiES PLUS, released on 21 March 2024.

Characters

 * Milk
 * Born on 25 June (age 10)
 * Voiced by: Asuka Ito
 * Height: 157 cm


 * Shama
 * Born on 19 March (age 18)
 * Voiced by: Atsumi Tanezaki
 * Height: 157 cm


 * Otohime
 * Born on 22 August (age 18)
 * Voiced by: Yu Asakawa
 * Height: 152 cm


 * Ras
 * Born on 7 December (age 15)
 * Voiced by: Ayane Sakura
 * Height: 158 cm


 * Chiffon
 * Born on 4 May (age 17)
 * Voiced by: MAKO
 * Height: 160 cm


 * Salt
 * Born on 23 August (age 12)
 * Voiced by: Hiromi Igarashi
 * Height: 142 cm


 * Kame
 * Born 21 April
 * Height: 178 cm


 * Tai
 * Born 20 March
 * Height: 182 cm