| maimai | |
| Developer: | Sega |
| Publisher: | Sega |
| Series: | Performai |
| Engine: | teaGFX (original to Finale) Unity (DX) |
| Composer: | Hiroshi Kawaguchi |
| Platforms: | Arcade |
| Released: | maimai Plus Green Green Plus Orange Orange Plus Pink Pink Plus Murasaki Murasaki Plus Milk Milk Plus Finale DX DX Plus DX Splash DX Splash Plus DX UniverseDX Universe PlusDX FestivalDX Festival PlusDX Buddies DX Buddies Plus |
| Genre: | Rhythm game |
| Modes: | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Arcade System: | RingEdge 2 (original to Finale); ALLS (DX above) |
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[1] [2] and a simplified Chinese version for China.[3]
The Pink Plus version of the game was location tested in the United States at Dave & Buster's in Irvine, California in December 2016,[4] and was also tested at Round 1 in Puente Hills, California in January 2017.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7]
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.[8]
The defining feature of maimai's arcade cabinet is its striking resemblance to a front-loading washing machine.[9] 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.[10] [11] [12]
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.
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:[13]
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.[14]
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:
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.[15] Master mode is only unlocked upon achieving an S rank (97% and above) on the 'Expert' difficulty of a song.[16] 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).[17] 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+,...).
maimai
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+.
| → | PiNK | → | MiLK PLUS | → | DX | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS | 100% and above | SSS | 100% and above | SSS+ (AP+) | Obtaining an 'All Perfect' and getting the full score of the song | SSS+ | 100.5000% and above | |
| S | 97-99.99% | SS | 99-99.99% | SSS | 100%-(full score of the song - 0.01%) | SSS | 100-100.4999% | |
| AA | 94-96.99% | S | 97-98.99% | SS+ | 99.50-99.99% | A to SS+ rankings remain the same as MiLK PLUS. | ||
| A+ | 90-93.99% | AAA | 94-96.99% | SS | 99-99.49% | |||
| A | 85-89.99% | AA | 90-93.99% | S+ | 98-98.99% | |||
| A- | 80-84.99% | A | 80-89.99% | S | 97-97.99% | |||
| B+ | 75-79.99% | B | 60-79.99% | All other rankings remain the same as PiNK. | BBB | 75-79.9999% | ||
| B | 65-74.99% | C | 40-59.99% | BB | 70-74.9999% | |||
| B- | 55-64.99% | D | 20-39.99% | B | 60-69.9999% | |||
| C | 20-54.99% | E | 10-19.99% | C | 50-59.9999% | |||
| D | 19.99% and below | F | 9.99% and below | D | 49.9999% and below | |||
| Full Combo (FC): | All notes are 'Good' or above | |
| Full Combo+ (FC+) | All notes are 'Great' or above | |
| All Perfect (AP) | All notes are 'Perfect' or above | |
| All Perfect+ (AP+) | All notes are 'Perfect' or above, and all 'Break' notes are 'Critical Perfect' (equivalent to 101.0000% achievement score) | |
| Multiplayer | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full Sync (FS) | At least two players obtain a 'Full Combo' or above, and the player is playing a difficulty level higher than other players | |
| Full Sync+ (FS+) | At least two players obtain a 'Full Combo' or above, and the player is playing a difficulty equal to or lower than other players | |
| Full Sync DX (FDX) | At least two players obtain a 'Full Combo+' or above, and the player is playing a difficulty equal to or lower than other players | |
| Full Sync DX (FDX+) | At least two players obtain an 'All Perfect' or above, and the player is playing a difficulty equal to or lower than other players | |
| In the case that multiple players qualify for 'Full Sync DX' on different difficulty levels, the player(s) on the higher difficulty will obtain a 'Full Sync', while the player(s) on the lower difficulty will obtain a 'Full Sync DX'. | ||
| Legacy achievements | ||
| 100% Sync | 100% score on SYNC PLAY | |
| Max Fever | Two players obtain a Full Combo (regardless of diffiiculty) | |
| Japanese: 理論値 | All notes are Critical Perfect | |
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.
Every play is assigned a rating value, which is calculated using the following formula:
song rating=level ⋅ achievement ⋅ 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:
| Rank | Achievement rate required (%) | Rank coefficient |
|---|---|---|
| SSS+ | 100.5000 | 22.4 |
| SSS | 100.0000 | 21.6 |
| SS+ | 99.5000 | 21.1 |
| SS | 99.0000 | 20.8 |
| S+ | 98.0000 | 20.3 |
| S | 97.0000 | 20.0 |
| AAA | 94.0000 | 16.8 |
| AA | 90.0000 | 13.6 |
| A | 80.0000 | 8.0 |
| BBB | 75.0000 | 7.5 |
| BB | 70.0000 | 7.0 |
| B | 60.0000 | 6.0 |
| C | 50.0000 | 5.0 |
| D | 40.0000 | 4.0 |
| 30.0000 | 3.0 | |
| 20.0000 | 2.0 | |
| 10.0000 | 1.0 | |
| 0.0000 | 0.0 |
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.[19]
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.[20]
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:
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.
.