Video Game / beatmania

A real-time dance music game hard and extreme. That's beatmania!! It's too cool!

I can do it, so do it with me.
You are the DJ. Hit the key.
Do it! Scratch! Bend your brain!
Feel the beat! Let's do it again!

— "Theme of Beatmania", DJ Hiro

beatmania is a popular Rhythm Game developed by Konami as a part of their BEMANI games. Considered by many to be one of the forerunners of the modern music game. Of course when they realized how popular the arcade version was, Konami would milk the genre for all its worth with spin-offs (involving dance, drumming, smacking colored buttons, and slapping a grid of buttons), and an endless assortment of Mission Pack Sequels and reboots.

Originally described as being a "DJ simulator", the basic game is simple; players are armed with a piano-styled keyboard and turntable, and must press keys or scratch the turntable when notes cascade down the screen corresponding to them. This fills up a Groove Gauge; if the gauge finishes above a certain threshold, you pass, it's just that simple. But, when you look at harder songs though, it's also anything but. While earlier versions primarily focused on hip-hop, house, and techno music, the latest installments have featured almost every single genre imaginable, especially hardcore electronica in various forms.

There have been three major incarnations of the game:

• beatmania (or "5-key" beatmania), the original series. First released in 1997, lasting with new versions until "THE FINAL" in 2002, where the aging series (it used the exact same hardware, and presumably the same engine, for its entire lifespan) was finally discontinued in favor of...
• beatmania IIDX, first released in 1999 as a spin-off, but becoming the primary series in 2002. Kept the same basic gameplay, but added two additional keys to the control array (for a total of 7), a fancier cabinet (with more lights, more effectors, a widescreen monitor, turntables on opposite ends, an LED marquee, and a bass platform), and a difficulty curve that keeps on getting worse every year. What'd you expect when it's now on its 31st version?!
• beatmania III, a failed attempt to remake the 5-key series using more modern hardware, with higher quality graphics and sound, more effectors, more speakers, effector pedals (which could also be used in special charts), save data on floppy disks, and more. It didn't last long, however, only a few years (it did get its own "THE FINAL" as well).

beatmania IIDX is still popular in Japan, with releases in select other Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, and still tops charts of highest-grossing arcade games in Japan, with no end to the series in sight.^note Even the infamous Konami scandals of 2015 didn't slow it down much, as IIDX is an arcade game handled by Konami Amusement; most of the sabotaged properties were consumer-software series made by Konami Digital Entertainment). That said, the problems with Konami caught up with BEMANI in 2017 with the "BEMANI Sound Team" controversy, but even that did not affect IIDX game production much, at least from what can be seen. Several North American versions were attempted a couple of times, including a PlayStation 2 release as just beatmania (based on the 9th Style engine, which featured 5-key and 7-key as separate modes rather than just a modifier) and a beta build of an English version of Gold that was location-tested for a brief period of time. An official American release of IIDX finally happened in 2020.

Compare pop'n music (basically a Lighter and Softer spinoff with large buttons), EZ2DJ (very similar concept, to the point where Konami sued the publisher), and DJMAX (another keysounded "DJ sim" game, made mainly for home platforms).

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Game list:

Games in the "5-key" beatmania and beatmania III series:

All entries are arcade releases unless otherwise noted.

• beatmania (1997)
• beatmania 2ndMIX (1998)
• beatmania 3rdMIX (1998)
• beatmania completeMIX (1999)
• beatmania 4thMIX (1999)
• beatmania 5thMIX (1999)
• beatmania ClubMix (2000)
• beatmania CORE REMIX (2000)
• beatmania featuring DREAMS COME TRUE (2000)
• beatmania 6thMIX THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC (2001)
• beatmania 7thMIX keepin' evolution (2002)
• beatmania THE FINAL (2002)

Games in the beatmania IIDX series:

Arcade versions

• beatmania IIDX (1999)
  • Retroactively referred to as 1st Style in in-game interfaces (such as folder names).
• beatmania IIDX substream (1999)
  • First and only version with link capability to DanceDanceRevolution.
• beatmania IIDX 2nd style (1999)
• beatmania IIDX 3rd style (2000; PS2: 2000)
• beatmania IIDX 4th style (2000; PS2: 2001)
• beatmania IIDX 5th style (2001; PS2: 2001, subtitled -new songs collection-)
• beatmania IIDX 6th style (2001; PS2: 2002, also subtitlted -new songs collection-)
• beatmania IIDX 7th style (2002; PS2: 2004)
• beatmania IIDX 8th style (2002; PS2: 2004)
• beatmania IIDX 9th style (2003; PS2: 2005)
  • First IIDX title to run on PC-based hardware. The transition is infamous for various glitches, including timing problems. Also the first game to support Konami's e-Amusement network.
• beatmania IIDX 10th style (2004; PS2: 2005)
• beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED (2004; PS2: 2006)
  • Theme: Cores and the color red.
• beatmania IIDX 12 HAPPY SKY (2005; PS2: 2006)
  • Theme: Skies.
  • First to feature the current difficulty system.
• beatmania (PS2: 2006)
  • First and only beatmania IIDX game to be released outside of Asia.
  • Uses a heavily modified version of the 9th style interface.
  • Features two modes: classic beatmania and beatmania IIDX.
• beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD (2006; PS2: 2007)
• beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD (2007; PS2: 2008)
  • Theme: Luxury nightclubs, precious metals
• beatmania IIDX 15 DJ TROOPERS (2007; PS2: 2008)
  • Theme: Military.
• beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS (2008; PS2: 2009, subtitled + PREMIUM BEST)
  • Theme: Royalty in pink.
  • The PS2 port is the last PS2 IIDX port and the last home port for 6 years, and is on two discs: Disc 1 is the usual set of songs new as of EMPRESS and some revival songs, and Disc 2, PREMIUM BEST, is a collection of revival songs throughout the entire series.
• beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS (2009)
  • Theme: Space
  • First game to have crossover unlocks that require you to play other BEMANI games to unlock them on IIDX.
  • Introduced charge notes (where you hold down a note and release at the end) and backscratch notes (where you turn the table one way and then the other at the end).
• beatmania IIDX 18 Resort Anthem (2010)
  • Theme: Tropical resorts.
• beatmania IIDX 19 Lincle (2011)
  • Introduced "STEP UP" mode, a new mode where you progress through different difficulty tiers.
  • First game to have song previews on the music selection menu.
  • Adds the new, stricter lifebar mode "EX HARD".
• beatmania IIDX 20 tricoro (2012)
  • Theme: The colors red, yellow, and blue.
  • Runs on new hardware, with proper High Definition support.
  • The modifications window was revamped to include more options (accessed by pressing the VEFX button). In addition to the standard modifications, it allowed players to adjust the appearance of note judgments and score, as well as change the timing offset.
  • Allows Hi-Speed mode to be adjusted by 0.01 increments, instead of 0.50.
  • Its soundtrack is the first soundtrack in the series to be released internationally.
  • An Achievement System called Tran Medals was implemented for eAmusement members. It also unlocks songs.
• beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA (2013)
  • Theme: Medieval, Swords.
  • First game to allow switching between single and double play before each stage (rather than just before selecting game mode).
  • Adds a Favorites folder.
  • Adds new harder "Leggendaria" versions of specific songs.
  • To further push Konami's digital currency system PASELI (which itself helps to dodge Japan's consumption tax hikes, and only being able to use 100-yen coin increments in arcade games), SPADA began to restrict certain features to higher-priced 120 yen credits that can only be obtained via PASELI — particularly extra stages (which must be unlocked using "V-Discs", which are accumulated when a player starts a game with a PASELI credit).
• beatmania IIDX 22 PENDUAL (2014)
  • Theme: Time and duality.
  • The game features "present" and "future" phases, depending on the current day of the week. Each phase has its own interface, system music, and exclusive songs.
• beatmania IIDX 23 copula (2015)
  • Theme: Trains.
  • Introduces "Hell Charge" notes, which are like Charge Notes but will decrease your Groove Gauge as long as they are not held down.
• beatmania IIDX 24 SINOBUZ (2016)
  • Theme: Ninjas.
  • Depending on the day of the week, there are different interface color schemes and system music, as well as different bonuses or modes unlocked.
  • There are now "Black Tran Medals" that are intended to be more mysterious.
• beatmania IIDX 25 CANNON BALLERS (2017)
  • Theme: Racing.
  • Runs on new hardware running Windows 7 Embedded.
  • Cameras that can be displayed within the UI for recording the player.
  • The daily bonuses are back, except now there's a "Time Hell" (no lifebar recovery) mode too on one day.
  • New VEFX presets are added.
  • Introduces Arena mode, an online versus multiplayer mode where you play against 3 other players.
• beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage (2018)
  • Theme: Libraries, networks
  • QR codes can now be scanned with the cameras, allowing players to share playlists with other players.
  • Featured a strong focus on the history of the franchise.
• beatmania IIDX 27 HEROIC VERSE (2019)
  • Theme: Toku
  • Adds a graph display akin to DDR's "Groove Radar" to display chart traits.
  • Adds the ability to switch between single and double mode from the music selection screen.
  • Beginner and Leggendaria are now shown on the difficulty menu (although the latter still requires V-Discs to access).
  • User-selected language options on sign-in, including English and Korean.
  • A new "Lightning" cabinet was released in December 2019; they have a new design reminiscent of the SOUND VOLTEX cabinets with "wings" and LED lighting, use new Windows 10 IoT-based hardware, and feature a 120 Hz monitor, lighter keys and a turntable with adjustable resistance, and have a touchscreen in place of the sliders (which also offers features such as the aforementioned turntable settings). There are also songs and features exclusive to these cabinets, such as Eisei Dan (永世段位). In addition, cabinets shipping to Round1 in the United States are loaded with the first-ever U.S.-specific build in series history (defaulting to English and having the extra stage accessible via coin mode like Asian versions).
• beatmania IIDX 28 BISTROVER (2020)
  • Theme: Food, world travel.
  • Redesigned play and result screens for easier reading, i.e.: the total of judgement notes are now displayed in a pie graph.
  • Money score removed; the player's EX score is now displayed where the money score used to be.
• beatmania IIDX 29 CastHour (2021)
  • Theme: Television broadcasting
  • Introduced a new type of backspin scratch, named multi spin scratch (aka MSS).
• beatmania IIDX 30 RESIDENT (2022)
  • Theme: Nightclubs, DNA
  • Engine upgraded to run in 1080p HD; due to file size constraints it was not deployed as an OTA update over e-AMUSEMENT, requiring a USB drive-based installer.
  • The bonuses from SINOBUZ have been replaced by day-specific Time Free, Time Free Plus, Time Hazard, and Time Hell modes.
  • Tran Medals have been largely replaced by unlockable profile badges.
  • Premium Free mode is now available outside of Japan.
• beatmania IIDX 31 EPOLIS (2023) — current arcade version
  • Theme: Late night radio/futuristic cities
  • New song folders: a player customized folder, "Beginner recommended" folder (removes the "All Beginner" folder), and a folder for songs that start with a number (e.g., "20XX")
  • Options H-RANDOM (prevents notes from stacking on top of each other) and EXPAND JUDGE (makes the timing window larger) were removed
  • Redesigned and expanded playfield customization options

Other consumer versions

• beatmania IIDX INFINITAS (PC: 2015)
  • A PC version of IIDX. Uses a monthly subscription model.
• beatmania IIDX ULTIMATE MOBILE (Mobile, 2019)
  • Mobile port of IIDX that notably lacks keysounds. Free-to-play, but requires a subscription for full access.

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The beatmania series provides examples of:

Tropes A-G

• Achievement System: Tricoro introduced Tran Medals, rewards you get for doing certain things. While mostly cosmetic, you do need them to unlock some songs.
• Akashic Records: The "genre" for the song Almagest. It makes some sense, given the the title of the song, but still...
• Allegedly Free Game: ULTIMATE MOBILE is a free-to-play title, but like most other Japanese mobile games runs on a stamina system that replenishes over time. Several features are also locked behind a subscription payment, like infinite stamina, Hyper and Another charts, Training Mode, and access to the full song list.
• Ambiguous Gender: Lincle's Lincle Kingdom brings us Rche, an angel who appears to be female, but sports a male symbol tattoo on their bellybutton. Furthermore, supplementary material censor out references to Rche's gender.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Obviously for Initiation BGA (and even worse with the infamous catchphrase in the BGA FOR EVER)
• Announcer Chatter:
  • In the 5-key series and early IIDX games, a rapper-like voice cheers you on when you insert coins or select a song.
  • Starting with IIDX RED, a voice calls out the folder you open during the song select. Later versions let you choose other announcers, often Bemani vocalists like Kanako Hoshino and SUPER STAR MITSURU.
  • In tricoro, a robotic female voice can be heard in the card entry, mode select, and result screens, instructing you to insert your e-Amusement pass and select a mode, as well as thanking you for playing at the end of every round.
  • SPADA has a very manly Large-Ham Announcer.
  • Cannon Ballers goes further with additional announcer chatter in the menus and results screen. Specifically, it's Icchou Mori, who really hams it up like an on-track announcer.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The usual Assist modifiers (AUTO-SCRATCH, 5-KEYS, and LEGACY NOTE) qualify as this.
  • In the console versions of 8th Style and 9th Style, when applying the Hi-Speed modifier to songs with a very high tempo (most notably "Sakura" (300 and 320 BPM) and "PARANOIA survivor MAX" (290 BPM)), the speed multipliers will be reduced from their usual factors to avoid the issue of "one setting is too slow and the setting right after it is too fast."
  • tricoro added a timing adjust feature. While this may seem like a way for "precise but inaccurate" players to cheat, its main purpose is to allow players to adjust the timing if the screen feels laggy. In addition, an auto-adjustment feature was added, which is intended for a player to set it, play a song they're very familiar with, and the end result should be close to where the input-lag of the system is at.
  • PENDUAL introduced Expand-Judge, which is essentially a solution for people who think IIDX's judgment timing windows are too strict by expanding those by four times, thus making it much easier to get a Perfect Great or Great.
  • The Assisted Easy gauge introduced in copula is also this, since it lowers the passing requirement to 60%.
  • If you don't input anything for about 5 seconds while playing a song, the game will automatically fail that song. There's a warning at a few seconds before this happens to input something to abort this. The reason for this feature is twofold:
    • If someone abandons the machine, it turns it around quicker so the next player can get to it sooner.
    • Unless you're using the Hard gauge which fails the song immediately upon depletion, the song will continue to play out until the end. If the player wants to throw in the towel on a song, this also gets them out of it sooner.
  • If you're adjusting the high speed value in a song with BPM changes, it'll show you the green number range for that song. Otherwise the green number shown is based on the current BPM value, which may not be what the song actually averages at.
• The Artifact:
  • Remember back in the day? When this game actually did primarily have hip-hop, and as such an actual justification for having scratching in its controls? Yet, it remains, even though most of the songs are now either hardcore electronica or pop. The IIDX series did start with mostly J-pop and R&B, but then began to diversify, to the point where on most songs, the turntable is just another trigger for sounds that aren't scratching. However, there are still aversions in the modern versions; Dj MASS Mad Izm* songs are notorious for containing a lot of legitimate scratching.
  • The various versions of the play interface have a six-digit score counter, usually out of 100,000 or 200,000 points. In the early versions of the series, the score shown there is used for high score tables and the like, but later versions, particularly that of IIDX, instead favor using "EX Score", as EX Score is strictly based on accuracy while the larger-scale "money" score system is a bit more complicated than that, with the combo bonuses effectively rendering "money" score worthless from a competitive standpoint. Money score became effectively obsolete when IIDX retired local high score tables in favor of online rankings in Lincle, yet it still appears on the gameplay HUD for the next nine versions, before finally being retired completely for BISTROVER, with EX Score being renamed to simply Score to emphasize that it is the primary measure of performance.
• Artifact Title:
  • Inverted for IIDX: the game was originally produced in two different styles of arcade cabinets, the now rare "standard" cabinet, and a "deluxe" cabinet. On the standard cabinet, the game was known as "beatmania II", but the Deluxe cabinets carried the title "beatmania IIDX" on its artwork and software instead. Later on, the standard cabinet was discontinued, leaving only the deluxe one. At this point, "beatmania IIDX" became the official name of the series. A few of the videos from older versions still contain references to "beatmania II" in them.
  • The Another difficulty was originally a Meaningful Name, as the difficulty indicated that there was another playable version of the song with extra and/or arranged keynotes, making the song sound different from the Light and Normal charts. Most examples of this that are still in the series can be found in the older versions' song folders.
• Ascended Glitch:
  • The song "GAMBOL" was notorious for an infamous bug that gave it unusually small timing windows. It was fixed for the arcade version of Happy Sky; the Normal difficulty was the fixed version, and Hyper contained the glitched one. But then, Konami decided to troll players further on RED CS with a new Another chart... which makes it even worse.
  • Even better, hidden codes on the home versions of DJ Troopers and Empress (spelling out "G-J-H" or "G-J-A" by highlighting songs starting with those letters, and pressing Select on each one) lets the player use those timing windows on any song.
  • In IIDX 10th style, the single player 8th dan course mistakenly used Another7 charts for all of its songs instead of the intended 7Keys, making it much harder — it was on par with, if not harder than, that game's 10th dan course. In SINOBUZ's Classic Class mode, this course returned as the 8th dan, and did indeed retain the Another charts.
• Ascended Meme:
  • Some Beatmania DJs themselves use the term "Nidera (弐寺)" instead of Two-D-X when talking about the IIDX series, and Ryu☆ described himself in the comments for Second Heaven as "That 'Somebody Scream!'guy" as a result of Misheard Lyrics.
  • In the Japanese community, "Somebody Scream!" was misheard as "Sanbai Ice cream!" (three ice creams) so much it became a meme. Konami acknowledged it by having one of the characters greet you with it when you log in with an e-Amusement pass in IIDX 30 RESIDENT
• Audio Adaptation: The ROOTS26S[uite] drama CDs centered around the DJ characters. Now fully integrated into the IIDX series with Rootage.
• The Backwards Я: From IIDX 1st Style to IIDX 5th Style, hitting a note with "GREAT" timing showed "GREДT" instead.
• Beach Episode: Resort Anthem, ironically released shortly before the end of the summer season.
• BFS: A common element in SPADA's interface.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: Sometimes happens with the LED marquee. For example, the Lincle song "Tostugeki! Glass no Kneeso Hime!" ^note Attack! The Princess of Glass knee socks! is displayed on the marquee as "RUSH! PRINCESS GLASS OVER-KNEE"
• Boring, but Practical: On a meta level, the EX Score system: 2 points for getting a Perfect Great, 1 point for a Great, and 0 points for anything below. That's literally the entirety of EX Score rules. It doesn't look as flashy as games where scores end in the millions, and there is no reward for maintaining a huge combo, but it gives a very good picture of the player's skill with a given chart. Converting this to a percentage is simple enough: just divide the EX Score by double the number of notes.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: In Resort Anthem, the song "灼熱Beach-Side Bunny" strangely inverts and then subverts this. While it's the One More Extra Stage song, if one listens to it without knowing that, they'd hear... this. Not too intimidating, is it? Tell that to the 667 scratches. Of course, this is a Dj MASS Mad Izm* song, so it always has a metric ton of scratching.
  • Exaggerated with its sequel in copula, with 灼熱Pt.2 Long Train Running and its 848 scratches!
  • A milder example from the same game: While most Extra Stage songs are fast-paced songs with a sense of "hardcore"-ness, "ANTHEM LANDING", which serves as Resort Anthem's Extra Stage, is a more modestly-paced and somewhat mellow Latin-esque track.
  • Go all the way back to 10th and you'll find the boss song "One More Lovely", it sounds like it came straight out of a DDR game, and even has "HAPPY" as its genre. Yet, it will definitely make an inexperienced player frown, especially at the end (of course)
  • All of Prim's output consists of peppy, Cute, but Cacophonic happy hardcore songs. Every last one of them also has an SPA difficulty of 12, usually intermediate 12s that you could feasibly find in a 10th-dan course.
• Boss Rush:
  • Since the implementation of the extra stage systems (which typically contain the harder bonus songs of a style), there will always end up being an Expert mode course which contains said songs. Class mode also provides the infamous Kaiden course, which usually consists of the 4 hardest songs available on that particular game; since CANNON BALLERS, the SP version contains 嘆きの樹 (Cardinal Gate OMES in DistorteD), 灼熱Beach Side Bunny (Resort Anthem's OMES), 卑弥呼 (Empress's hidden boss in the Empress Palace) and 冥 (Happy Sky's OMES, considered the toughest task in all of rhythm gaming).
  • tricoro's Limit Burst song "Sol Cosine Job 2", requires that you do this to unlock it—specifically, play three songs that were One More Extra Stage songs on previous versions
• Boss Subtitles: When playing "MENDES" as a OMES, the LED marquee scrolls the message "Warning AREA15 Enemy Approrching!!"
  • "Sense 2007" on Gold did this too, but with the much less frightening "WELCOME TO BLACK ROOM... IT'S PARTY TIME!!"
  • "Nageki no Ki" scrolled a whole bunch of words relating to grim subjects (DEATH GRIEVES DESTRUCTION MUTATION COLLAPSES SOLITUDE, etc.)
• Boss Warning Siren: In beatmania IIDX, after unlocking an Extra Stage boss song, the music select BGM will be overriden by a short loop of the boss, or a new BGM altogether in beatmania IIDX 20 tricoro. In some cases, the background will change accordingly. This only applies to bosses that are made available on the standard music select screen, not bosses accessed through a special "boss select" screen (e.g. beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD's Cardinal Gate or beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS's Empress Place).
• Bowdlerise:
  • Bikini result images were removed from the PS2 port of EMPRESS to maintain the game's CERO A rating.
  • In Korean versions of IIDX, "New Decade IIDX Edition" had its video removed because the "kakkoii" shots have backgrounds that bear a striking resemblence to the Rising Sun Flag, a variant of the Japanese flag that is strongly associated with early 20th century Japanese imperialism.
  • The English mode renames Hell Charge Notes to "Special Charge Notes".
• Bullet Hell: It almost feels like that sometimes ... except you have to hit all the bullets.
  • Parodied in the Retraux song "Tranoid", whose video involves a fictitious 1980's arcade game consisting of Tran dodging notes from the song's "Normal" chart.
• Challenge Run:
  • The Hard modifier, which starts your gauge at 100% and removes the requirement of ending with 80% or higher to clear the song, but it makes your gauge drop much faster with each missed note, and it fails you if your gauge hits zero at any point. This can actually make certain songs easier if their difficulty is concentrated at the end of the song. If you're a good enough player to hold your own until the ending massacre, the fact that a Hard gauge removes the 80+% requirement can make songs easier to pass than on the regular bar. The EX-HARD modifier, introduced in IIDX 19: Lincle, makes the gauge drop even harsher.
  • WINDOW HOLD, which keeps the in-song HI-SPEED and SUDDEN+ controls active after hitting Start (instead of requiring you to hold it down). Because the keys and turntable respectively are used to configure those settings, you're supposed to play the song with them constantly changing on every note! See?
• Competitive Multiplayer: After several installments of the series having only Meta Multiplayer, CANNON BALLERS introduced a live multiplayer game mode called "ARENA". Four players battle each other over the course of four songs, selected randomly from the players' selections (excluding those that got their pick already). Unlike most other games with networked multiplayer, ARENA is only available several months after each installment's launch, and only LAN matches with nearby IIDX cabinets is allowed, except during time-limited online multiplayer events.
• The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: If you are playing on Double Play, do not take any chart rating for a song earlier than HAPPY SKY seriously, as Double ratings for such songs reflect non-Battle 2-player^note Battle is a modifier that makes both players use the same chart, rather than each side having its own chart play and not single-person double play. This often leads to weird things like how GOBBLE's (from 4th Style CS) Double Hyper chart was re-rated from being a 5 to a 12 when transplanted to the arcade in copula over a decade later.
• Continuity Nod: Rootage's Extra Stage event, ARC SCORE, contains a selection of new songs referencing the game's older styles, similar to SIRIUS's PARALLEL ROTATION. The current list is as follows:
  • 8th style: XENON II 〜TOMOYUKIの野望〜 / Tomoyuki no yabou (a sequel to the song xenon)
  • GOLD: 金野火織の金色提言 / Konno Hiori no konjiki teigen (the vocals contain several references and inside jokes to IIDX and its legacy, a small portion of GOLD RUSH is heard at the start, and GOLD was also the game where artist DJ TECHNORCH made his IIDX debut)
  • SIRIUS: Red. by Jack Trance (a sequel to the song Red. by Full Metal Jacket)
  • Lincle: 抱きしめてモナムール / Dakishimete mon amour (the first song by Mayumi Morinaga as "Prim" and composed by L.E.D. appeared in Lincle)
  • EMPRESS: & Intelligence (it has samples from many other songs in EMPRESS)
  • SPADA: ONIGOROSHI ("Demon Killer" or "Killing Demons". Has faint hints of its respective style.)
  • 3rd style: COSMIC CYBER (a sequel to the song LEADING CYBER)
  • HAPPY SKY: GENE (samples and references to various songs in HAPPY SKY; like the song Scripted Connection, it is one long mix split into each difficulty.)
  • Rootage: GO OVER WITH GLARE -ROOTAGE 26- (It references all games' poster art in order, including promotional art from tricoro to Rootage, where R∞tAge (the song) left off. It's also the first BGA completely made by GOLI since copula.)
• Copy Protection:
  • Unusually for an arcade game during its introduction, tricoro onwards has always-on DRM; it must be connected to an e-Amusement network or the game will refuse to start. (note the word "an") While unusual by international standards, this type of arrangement (where an arcade game must be connected to its developer's subscription-based online platform, often accompanied by a revenue-sharing and leasing requirement) has been increasingly common in Japan.
  • Subverted with CANNON BALLERS. It originally refused to run when cameras weren't installed, but a later update allows the game to run without them.^note This was probably done due to the fact that Korean releases didn't have cameras.
  • Konami lightened up on the DRM restrictions starting from Rootage, allowing owners to buy an "offline kit" to enable the machine to operate without an e-Amusement network connection. This was especially useful for end-of-life cabinets that had their network support revoked.
• Critical Annoyance:
  • A lot of older songs played special animations in the video on missed notes. This happened more in 5-key and early IIDX though, but a few select songs on recent versions have had miss animations (most noticeably Anisakis). Most either contained Engrish ("WRONG PLAY BAD BOYZ KICK YOUR ASS") or otherwise made little sense (what does a salt shaker have to do with a cover of "Brazilian Rhyme"?^note Apparently it's a reference to artist Satoru Shionoya's SALT series of albums, but that strays into Viewers Are Geniuses territory.)
  • If you're on a "survival" gauge and you drop below 30%, the gauge starts flashing, often distractingly. On HAZARD mode, the gauge starts at 100% but it flashes nonstop.
• Darker and Edgier: Soundtrack-wise, the first IIDX games were mainly house and R&B-oriented, whereas 3rd to 9th Style brought more electronica, eurobeat, and trance. However, as an effect of changes in what's popular in the worldwide EDM scene, hardcore music eventually became a lot more prominent in later styles and the softer music from the 5-key/early IIDX generation has generally been swept aside. That said, lighter music still comprises a sizable chunk of the soundtracks of each new style as well, albeit not the same kind of ligher music.
  • Most styles since RED are usually based around a specific theme, and sometimes that theme ends up resulting in this trope in terms of both soundtrack and aesthetic. Notable examples include RED (high energy music), DJ TROOPERS (military) and especially SPADA (swords and battle), all of which skew towards the darker or at least more aggressive side of the EDM spectrum.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "Spring Rain (lluvia de primavera)", when translated is "Spring Rain (Spring Rain)"
  • Or better yet, SUPER STAR 満-MITSURU- : 満 means Mitsuru.
• Developer's Foresight: If you use Legacy Note on a chart with no Backspin Scratches or Charge Notes, which Legacy Note converts to standard notes, and clear the chart, the game will count your clear as a standard Clear rather than an Assist Clear.
• Difficulty by Region: The US version of beatmania reduced all of the grade requirements by 1/9 of the total possible EX Score. Meaning for example a AAA only takes 7/9 of the maximum EX Score rather than 8/9.
• Distracted by the Sexy:
  • The original music video for "Last Message" in 7th Style has a 3-second cleavage shot, which has caused many players to accidentally slip up at that point. The video was unfortunately removed when it was revived on Gold CS, as Konami was trying to aim for the Japanese equivalent of an E rating (despite the fact that Last Message and its video was on 7th Style's home version already, and it seemed to have no effect on the rating)
  • Exaggerated in "Sense 2007". Remember the cleavage-baring lady who dances and sings in "Last Message"? In "Sense 2007", there are not only one, not two, but three ladies dancing provocatively while wearing form-fitting dress that bares their cleavage and legs. And their presence, unlike "Last Message", is completely unnecessary, as the song is mainly an instrumental. Predictably, the video is removed in the PS2 version.
  • Dai, a male dancer who always appears on HHH songs (and then switched to kors k on Tricoro) is either overly distracting, or flamboyantly awesome.
  • Super Star -Mitsuru- begs to differ in ''She Is My Wife''. It's impossible to not be distracted watching kors k, Ryu☆, Yoshitaka, and Sota Fujimori taking part in it.
  • The song Tostugeki! Glass no Kneeso Hime! shows off a princess, in what amounts to a bunch of see through versions of a maid outfit with cat ears. Makes sense, considering the song is about a princess trying to seduce a prince.
  • The song Expanded in IIDX CANNON BALLERS features belly dancers throughout the whole song. You'll have a really hard time concentrating on the notes.
• Duality Motif: PENDUAL alternates between "present" and "future" phases, each with their own UI tweaks and exclusive songs.
• Dynamic Difficulty: Step Up mode gives you a limited pool of songs from a particular difficulty range. Clearing a stage will give you harder charts to pick from in the next stage, while failing will give you easier charts.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Playing older versions of IIDX can throw one for a loop due to the lower resolution, different charting style, older UI themes, less precise difficulty scale (with ANOTHER charts not having their own difficulty ratings), different kinds of music, and lack of game options (more discreet Hi-Speed options, no Sudden+, no eAMUSEMENT features such as scorekeeping and rivals). If you want to get even weirder, consider the original beatmania series, which employs a more street/hip-hop theme and timing windows comparable to "GAMBOL"'s HYPER charts.
  • Double Play gets a special mention; early beatmania games have a Double Play option but do not tweak the UI to acommodate, resulting in having to look at two different sides of the screen to play. Even though later games, as well as IIDX, have a dedicated DP layout, many early Double Play charts were designed with two-player non-Battle^note Battle being a modifier that makes both players play the same Single Play chart play in mind, resulting in charts that are awkward at best for one player and Unintentionally Unwinnable at worst (such as Cheer Train (DPA)). Later IIDX games actually design Double Play charts with a single player in mind, so while the charts are still Nintendo Hard, they're a lot more fair.
  • Before HAPPY SKY, the difficulty scale was in flux, and Another charts were not given separate ratings from the Hyper charts. Even the difficulty names themselves were in flux. It wasn't until HAPPY SKY that the current 1-12 difficulty scale and Normal/Hyper/Another difficulty names were introduced and have remained to the present day (albeit Black Anothers and LEGGENDARIA have since been added as Harder Than Hard difficulties).
  • Before 6th style, grades were not given out for individual songs - only overall grades for the set were given.
• Easier Than Easy: copula adds the "Assisted Easy" gauge modifier below "Easy", which drops the Groove Gauge requirement for a clear from 80% to 60%.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: Clearing a song with the Easy gauge will mark the clear as an "Easy Clear" unless you've cleared it with more difficult conditions suck as a Normal Clear or Full Combo, and will give you less DJ Points for the song. There's also "Assist Clear" for using Assist modifiers such as Auto-Scratch, Assist Easy, and 5-Key, which awards even less DJ Points; additionally, Assist modifiers other than Assist Easy reduce the number of notes in the chart to play, lowering your potential EX score.^note A particularly extreme example of Assist mods hurting your score is 灼熱Beach Side Bunny on SP Another difficulty. Of its 1719 notes, 667 of them are scratches. If you use Auto-Scratch on this chart, your maximum EX score for it would be reduced from 3438 to 2104, about 62% of the maximum score without assist mods; even if you get all PGREAT hits you wouldn't even have enough points for an A rank!
  • Playing with any ASSIST mods in beatmania IIDX INFINITAS will deny you bits, which allow you to unlock more song charts.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The "Gambol Judgement Another" modifier added in DJ Troopers CS. Its effect is self-explanatory if you know the song it's referring to ^note "Gambol", by Slake, from the first version - a song notorious for its incredibly strict timing windows and will more likely than result in you failing any song you attempt it on.
  • No points for guessing how fast the song "250bpm" is.
• Excuse Plot: IIDX games from Lincle onwards have story events that are generally just there to make unlock mechanisms look fancy.
• Fake Difficulty: You need your life meter to be at 80% or above at the end of a song to pass. Guess how the people who make the notecharts fake the difficulty...
  • Sirius has hold notes and a related note for the turntable where you have to continuously spin it one direction for the duration of the hold note and then snap it back the other way at the very end of the note. Fittingly, True Final Boss "Almagest" used them a lot.
    • And now in copula we have Hell Charge Notes/Backspin Scratches, and if you let go the note/turntable for a little moment, your life meter will decrease fast.
  • In DanceDanceRevolution, "New Decade" relies on BPM gimmicks as one source of its difficulty. The song averts this trope in IIDX, where all of its charts are a constant 200 BPM.
  • A lot of the high speed boss songs (notably, the MAX series) start on a really low BPM. The purpose of this is to screw with the player's green number^note The green number is a value for how long notes are visible for. If the high speed mode is set to basically a non-whole number, the game sets the high speed multiplier so the green number is consistent across songs based on the song's starting BPM. Meaning a player who wasn't paying attention is now treated to , for example, Fascination MAXX at 8x speed
• Fanservice: Getting good grades on songs will also put different character art backgrounds on the result screen. Some of this may indeed qualify. No wonder the console versions have gallery modes.
• Flawless Victory:
  • Clearing a chart with no Bads or Poors (that break combo; Poors that are caused by excessive key presses don't) results in a splash visual effect on the chart lanes with the text "FULL COMBO".
  • If you maintain a full combo up to the last few measures of "Happy Wedding", a special background overlay of Celica getting married will appear.
• The Four Gods: Cardinal Gate, the Extra Stages from DistorteD (IIDX 13).
  • To be specific, the names of the four gods are aliases of popular Bemani artists. They are, as follows...
    • Byakko = Tatsuya Shimizu, AKA Tatsh
    • Suzaku = Yoshitaka Nishimura, AKA DJ YOSHITAKA
    • Genbu = Jun Wakita, AKA wac AKA Shounen Radio
    • Seiryu = Ryutaro Nakahara, AKA Ryu*, who is well known outside of Bemani
    • Finally, there's a new 5th god known as Kinjishi, which means a combination of all 4 beasts. It's Takayuki Ishikawa, aka dj TAKA, one of the most prolific and famous Bemani composers of all time, and was the music director for the Beatmania series itself, just as Naoki Maeda was the director for DDR.
    • Only Suzaku, Seiryu and Genbu have reappeared in further installments so far.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • The abrupt tempo changes in "SOFT LANDING ON THE BODY", which led to the term soflan being used as player jargon for sudden BPM changes and eventually becoming an official term, are due to a bug that occured when the song changes time signature and which was never fixed.
  • 9th Style was the first Bemani game to use PC-based hardware, and it showed. Some songs had timing issues, the One More Extra Stage "Quasar" sometimes crashed the machine, playing "General Relativity" as the first song after a machine is booted triggers a hilarious bug which makes getting anything but POOR impossible (Apparently, said song fell back on the timing windows of the previously played song. Since there wasn't a previously played song yet, it choked.), and Gambol was still broken.
  • 10th Style's Single 8th Dan courses are meant to have Hyper charts for all four stages, but ended up using the Another charts instead, resulting in a particularly gross example of Non-Indicative Difficulty.
• Gameplay Automation: The Auto-Scratch modifier, which automatically hits turntable scratch notes for the player. However, doing so reduces the player's maximum score and marks the chart played with an Assist Clear status, and older versions of the game simply don't count scores achieved with it. For beatmania IIDX in particular, older versions also have mods to automate two of the leftmost or rightmost columns to simulate classic five-key beatmania, which is marked as an Assist Clear as well.
• Gimmick Level:
  • Songs by DJ Mass MAD Izm* are infamous for having extraordinary numbers of scratches; on these songs, how good the turntable is on your controller or arcade machine can mean a whole world of difference. "Shakunetsu Beach Side Bunny"'s Single Another chart is notorious in that over one-third of its notes are scratches, and "Shakunetsu Pt.2 Long Train Running" on Double Another has 848 scratches (out of 1732 notes), the most of any chart in the game! Some non-Izm songs, such as "Checking You Out" and "Plan 8", are also chock full of scratches.
  • Inverted with charts that don't have scratches, especially if it's a higher-level chart. Examples include "THE CUBE" on Single Another and all charts for "Dreamin' Sun" and "Waltz in G Minor No.17 'Valse du grand chien'." Just a stern warning: Just because it has no scratches doesn't mean it will be a walk in the park.
• Gold Fever: GOLD, as the title implies. Its theme song, "GOLD RUSH", has DJ YOSHITAKA introducing himself as "Michael a la Mode" and then singing about "IIDX GOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLDDDDDD!!" and making money.
• Grand Finale: beatmania THE FINAL and beatmania III THE FINAL, the only two Bemani games to explicitly be billed as final installments.
• Gratuitous English: Many songs in English have this.
  • Stage Clear!! WE EXPECT YOU A NICE PLAY AGAIN
  • WRONG PLAY BAD BOYZ KICK YOUR ASS
  • Most of the English text in promotional materials or in-game also ends up like this. And don't even forget about that infamous "GXPERT" typo from RED.
    • They didn't, cause Spada has "BRGINNER◊"
  • Songs sung or rapped by Paula Terry, Aaron G, and other such Western vocalists include fluent English.
  • Anisakis' miss screen reads "He set a foot wrong. However, it nothing but set a foot wrong. You set a foot wrong. It set a foot wrong so like him. The person commits an offense. However, do not set a foot wrong." Whatever that's supposed to mean....
  • Dellar points? And what the hell is a "Lincle" anyway? Same for Tricoro, which also has "Astran lights" as part of its Extra Stage system.
  • On launch, Cannon Ballers' gameplay screen had "SCORE DATA" (the graph display) typoed as "SCORE DATE" (although it's since been patched).
    • And we can't forget about Michael in a boat, now can we? In reality, he was played by an American, Michael Stillwind (from Konami's Hawaii studio), and voiced by DJ Yoshitaka. Stillwind was notably responsible for his work on the DanceDanceRevolution Ultramix and Universe games, and for getting DM Ashura (who won a contest to get onto Universe 2, and then made some later contributions for Universe 3, which later crossed onto X2) a spot on Empress.
• Gratuitous German:
  • "Distress" is sung in German. It helps that the remixing artist, TaQ, was born in Germany.
  • The music production info for "Todestrieb" is written in German rather than Japanese.
  • The song title "Verflucht" means "cursed".
• Gratuitous Italian:
  • "Spada" is Italian for "sword", fittingly enough.
  • "Leggendaria" (as in the Spada✝leggendaria series of Extra Stage songs and the ✝LEGGENDARIA difficulty) means "legendary".
• Guide Dang It!:
  • In versions of IIDX up until HAPPY SKY, Another charts didn't get their own ratings, so you had to be prepared for anything from a mildly more difficult chart than the Hyper/7keys/14keys chart to something you would see on a 10th Dan course, unless you resorted to guides or chart databases; you were effectively risking your credit by playing Another charts, unless it was a console release. From HAPPY SKY onwards, Another charts have their own ratings.
  • How to sign up for the e-Amusement system. To sum up, first you purchase a card, then use the card on any e-Amusement compatible machine. From there you set up your name and PIN. Then if you want to do more than basic stat tracking, you have to go to Konami's website and register there, after a lengthy bit of link following. Which is purely in Japanese.
  • The option "Judgment Timing Adjust" allows you to set the timing via a number, but with no indication of what this number actually means other than a vague "If you see more 'FAST'/'SLOW', adjust the value +/-". It's a scaling value where 1.0 is 16.67ms (or basically 1/60th of a second).

Tropes H-Q

• Hard Mode Perks:
  • Hard Clear and EX Hard Clear will award more DJ Points.
  • Hazard mode will kill your current stage on a combo break; however, it is also the only non-surcharge mode to guarantee four stages.
• Harder Than Hard:
  • Black Anothers. Dear God. The song MENDES (pictured in the lead) completely redefines Nintendo Hard (with 2,626 notes. The average boss has 1800-2000).
    • Black Anothers are slightly Older Than They Think. The final two stages in Gold CS's Kaiden course, Vanessa and Kamaitachi, have special charts then exclusive to that course. When/If you get to these stages, you'll notice that where the difficulty should be shown, there is blank space. Later console installments give them proper Black Another designations.
    • Here's a video of Mendes played on piano.
  • Oh and then there's the Doubles Black Another version at 2603 notes.
  • Mendes Black Another has been FC'd on a Dual Shock controller ... on half speed in training mode
  • Empress adds "Hazard"; One combo break and you're toast. On the plus side, you still get to play all the stages on your credit even if you do fail.
  • Lincle added a new modifier, EX-HARD. This modifier increases the damage taken by the lifebar on misses to 18% at once. But just like the original HARD modifier, it removes the 80% passing requirement, but makes you fail the stage if it hits zero. If this isn't literally Harder than Hard, we don't know what is.
  • Tricoro revives the "LOW-SPEED" modifier dropped after 6th CS, by adding the ability to set HI-SPEED below 1.0x . Suddenly 灼熱Beach-Side Bunny on half-speed looks a lot worse.
  • SPADA introduces the "†LEGGENDARIA" difficulty for the Spada†leggendaria series of boss songs, available in their own folder and only if you are using PASELI^note Konami's digital arcade currency rather than coins to play the game. Comparable to Black Another in CS releases, ✝LEGGENDARIA charts have at least 1,900 notes; "Verflucht✝LEGGENDARIA" on Single Play in particular has 2,401 notes, the highest note count of any chart in the arcade IIDX series. HEROIC VERSE later made the LEGGENDARIA difficulty officially selectable - it shows up after the ANOTHER difficulty for applicable songs, usually in purple text.
• Have a Nice Death: In SPADA onwards, if you fail in mid-song on a "survival"-type gauge, the result screen will have a box labeled "DEAD" that shows the exact note and measure where you died.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels:
  • "BEGINNER". Usually restricted to levels 1-3, added in 9th Style (or 5th style for CS versions). From there up to beatmaniaIIDX 22: PENDUAL, there was a separate mode that only had BEGINNER charts, and you couldn't save scores for those charts (until beatmaniaIIDX 27: HEROIC VERSE, that is).
  • "LIGHT7" (up to beatmaniaIIDX 11: IIDX RED) / "NORMAL" (beatmaniaIIDX 12: HAPPY SKY onwards). For people just exiting from BEGINNER, or people wanting to play the songlist without restrictions. The difficulties range from 1-7 (with some exceptions).
  • "7KEYS" (up to IIDX RED) / "HYPER" (HAPPY SKY onwards). Intended for intermediate players with a difficulty range of 6-10.
  • "ANOTHER". The maximum difficulty, reserved for true experts with a difficulty range of 9-12 (prior to HAPPY SKY, ANOTHER charts were rated the same as its HYPER charts), although in older styles it was another chart for the song to play alongside the HYPER (and there're songs that sound drastically different when playing on ANOTHER). As such, many songs in the older styles did not have an ANOTHER chart.
  • In beatmaniaIIDX 15: DJ TROOPERS (PS2), they introduced "KURO (BLACK) ANOTHER", which make the original ANOTHER charts look like NORMALs by comparison. Some songs that are revived in later games have these charts added as ANOTHER charts (usually with a new set of charts for the previous difficulties of the revival), or as "LEGGENDARIA" charts, see below.
  • beatmaniaIIDX 21: SPADA introduces the "†LEGGENDARIA" difficulty, similar to "KURO ANOTHER". New "harder than ANOTHER" charts from PENDUAL onwards are labeled as '†' (note the lack of "LEGGENDARIA") difficulty.
• In-Universe Game Clock: In PENDUAL, the game alternates between Present and Future phases every few days, and feautres a clock on the song select screen. During Present phases, the actual real-world date and time are displayed. During Future phases, the year instead reads 2222.
• Konami Code: The final crystal for PENDUAL's CHRONO SEEKER event, among other things, requires you to input a variant of the Code on the song select screen: EFFECT → EFFECT → VEFX → VEFX → 1P START → 2P START → 1P START → 2P START → BLACK KEY → WHITE KEY
• Kyu and Dan Ranks: Dan'inintei mode, a.k.a. Class Mode
• Last Note Nightmare: Due to the 80% lifebar requirement for passing, a song with a ridiculous ending is practically a series trope on its own.
  • Although, it can be easier with HARD on.^note The HARD modifier swaps out the 80% life bar for a traditional lifebar where you only fail if you hit 0%. Thus, HARD actually makes songs with hard endings easier to clear as long as you can stay alive.
  • LOVE SO GROOVY ~SLEEP MIX~ fades out the song to complete silence for a good two seconds as a scratch note scrolls down at a slow 90BPM... then suddenly rushes up to 240BPM just before the scratch hits the target. If you don't know this, it's a guaranteed combo break. Also worth noting how there's no real rhythm to play out in your head to time it correctly.
  • "Atomic Age"'s old HYPER chart is a rather infamous offender of this. It only has 362 notes, yet is rated a 7 on the old difficulty scale and an 8 on the post-HS difficulty scale. For most of the song, one might think the song is rated way too high, until the end part comes and shows why the song is rated a 7/8.
• Later-Installment Weirdness:
  • Rootage onwards features more normalized Hi-Speed settings.
  • HEROIC VERSE is the first game that can run at 120 frames per second.
• Level Grinding: One of Lincle's unlock methods. tricoro's Omega Attack event, a post-game board game, takes this to WTF levels; completing the first sector takes at least forty playthroughs. The less said about the second sector, the better.
• Luck-Based Mission: The Random modifier, which rearranges notes on a per-column basis. A good random order can make a chart easier, but sometimes it will just make the chart more difficult. Those trying to get better will use Random in order to learn awkward and difficult patterns. There is also S-Random, which rearranges notes on a per-note basis,
• Marathon Level: Scripted Connection⇒ & Shade, both lasting about 6 minutes long. Both by the same artist to boot. You see, the part of the song you actually play is dependent on the difficulty, and the soundtracks have the full version as all three versions strung together. However, on the console version of Happy Sky (and beginning on Gold AC), all three versions of Scripted Connection have full sets of charts (the N-mix, H-mix, and A-mix respectively). The "long mix" of Scripted Connection is also a hidden track on Happy Sky CS, where it clocks in as the longest single song in the entire series.
  • Resort Anthem's extra stage, ANTHEM LANDING, also counts as this despite having no long version to play.
  • Tricoro has 仮想空間の旅人たち (Kasoukuukan no tabibitotachi) which does the same thing, except between the single and double versions.
  • Infinitas has "3y3s(Long ver.)" as an exclusive.
• Mercy Mode:
  • If you are using a Groove Gauge in which a 0% is instant failure, any damage you take while your Groove Gauge is 30% or less will be halved.
  • In tricoro, the requirements to unlock a LIMIT BURST song, other than playing a 3-stage set of songs from that song's game and qualifying for extra stage^note on your last stage, all-Great combo a level 5 chart or lower, Full Combo a 6, finish a 7 with 100% gauge, or simply clear an 8 or higher, are initially extremely harsh, but relax every week:
    • Phase 1: You need your first three stages' difficulties to add up to 33^note To put it in perspective, this means the average difficulty of your songs must be 11 or higher AND you need a Full Combo! And even then, only the Another chart will be available.
    • Phase 2: You now only need to clear the three stages with an EX-Hard gauge. In addition, the Hyper chart becomes available, and requires a total difficulty of 27^note average difficulty 9 or higher and a Hard gauge.
    • Phase 3: Another only requires a Hard clear, Hyper only requires a standard clear. Normal finally becomes available; you need a total difficulty of at least 18^note average difficulty 6 or higher, and it will unlock as long as you clear your songs at all (even Assist Clear).
    • Phase 4: Just clear all three stages (again, Assist Clear is OK).
  • If you fail a chart that is less than level 6 for your first stage, you'll still be allowed to advance to the next.
  • If you are playing on a machine that is connected to the official e-Amusement network, you can use PASELI (proprietary e-Amusement currency that you purchase with real money) to purchase a DJ Vip Pass, which is a pay-to-use Mercy Mode: you'll be guaranteed three stages even if you fail your first two.
• Minigame Credits: DistorteD's credits roll lets the player spin around the camera angle on the monotonous 3D backdrop soaring through the background with the turntable, it's not a "game" per say but still.
  • SIRIUS's credits roll has a spinning disc in the background that can be manipulated with the turntables.
  • Subverted by Empress and Resort Anthem; while the credits are not a minigame, the ending themes became playable tracks ("THANK YOU FOR PLAYING" and "Everlasting Resort") as part of the final set of timed unlocks, with the credits roll as its background video. Both songs have been revived past their respective versions, and still have their respective credits roll attached to them.
  • The subversion is averted for "Vermillion" (Sirius ending theme, debuting on Resort Anthem) and "The Last Striker" (DJ Troopers ending theme, debuting on the PlayStation 2 version), which got their own dedicated videos when they became playable tracks (although the latter is a Clip Show of generic videos).
• Minimalism: The EX scoring system, used as the de facto standard scoring system of the game (rather than the out-of-100,000/200,000 "money" score displayed in the play interface). You simply get two points for a P-Great, one point for a Great, and zero points for everything else.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: beatmania and beatmania III respectively have 10 and 5 arcade releases each, and IIDX has over 29, each with different art/song themes. Not exactly Capcom Sequel Stagnation though, since every mix has new songs, new features, and often remove or bring back older songs.
• Mythology Gag: The video for "Illegal Function Call" in Tricoro is a tribute to the original 5-key series in abstract CGI sequences.
  • Capacity Gate's unlockable menu music on Resort Anthem is a remix of the DanceDanceRevolution Extreme menu music.
  • The background video of Starlight Dancehall from Copula features elements from the themes from every single IIDX game up to that point, in chronological order.
  • "Beat Juggling Mix", the 4th BUZRA ARTS Extra Stage Unlock in SINOBUZ, references DJ BATTLE from the original 5-key series in its genre, song, and video.
  • "PAYAPAYA BASS" is named after the 5-key song "Payapaya Bossa".
• Musical Gameplay: The Trope Codifier for rhythm games with "keysounds" in which each and every note plays a small slice of the song. It's been a series staple since the original 1997 beatmania, with the only notable exception to date being IIDX ULTIMATE MOBILE.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • In early versions, scores achieved with the "Auto-Scratch" or "5 Keys" (in IIDX only) modifier don't get saved. This was changed starting in GOLD; scores with such "Assist" mods will save, but will be marked with "Assist Clear" status. This is because while Assist mods will make songs easier to clear, they provide no benefit to your score as they deduct playable notes. This backfires on people who use the 5key modifier on classic beatmania songs in the console versions; using the modifier on them will load up the old 5key chart from beatmania, but will still count it as an Assist Clear.
  • Mods to make the game easier but not in the "Assist" category (such as H-RANDOM^note same effect as S-Random, but reduces the likelihood of multiple notes in the same column, REGUL-SPEED^note normalizes scroll speed even across changes in track tempo, and EXPAND-JUDGE^note greatly expands the timing windows) will disqualify scores entirely.
• Non-Indicative Difficulty: It can actually be easier to pass a song with a "Hard" groove gauge than the standard groove gauge in cases where most of the song is manageable but there is a difficulty increase at the end.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: In its earlier form, beatmania was described as being a "DJ simulator" — a description which made since given that all the songs were relatively simple hip-hop, house, and techno tracks with scratching and samples to trigger. Nowadays, besides tracks by a particular artist, the turntable is practically treated as an eighth button and isn't even used to produce scratching sounds, and the soundtrack has become heavilly diverse and electronica-oriented. Just beware if you pick modern IIDX songs by DJ Mass MAD Izm*, as those songs do have scratches like the good ol' days...a metric asston of them.
• Numbered Sequels: IIDX is notable for being the only active BEMANI game to still use numbers in its releases. Though the numbers are actually all lower than they should be by 1, due to substream existing as a non-numbered spinoff followed by 2nd Style. Thus, the current version CastHour is actually the 30th IIDX game.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Xepher, and perhaps any Zektbach song actually.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Hazard mode (or modifier in console releases). Any negative note judgments other than excess-key-induced POORs will result in a Game Over.
• Optional Boss: Beginning on Distorted, versions have featured new extra stage systems integrating with e-Amusement, where meeting certain conditions in-game unlocks additional boss songs in a themed area; usually only accessible on the Extra Stage, and always under themed aliases. Beating all the songs in the area will either lead to the True Final Boss as the One More Extra Stage ... or just lead to yet another tier of boss songs.
  • On Resort Anthem, this changed a bit. There were still optional bosses, but instead of an Extra Stage system, they were now unlocked with "dellar points" earned in World Tour mode.
  • Lincle returns to the previous style with the Lincle Kingdom, the first three bosses involve playing sets with the EX-HARD modifier that are either of the same genre, from the same version, or by the same artist. This time, they were themed around the seven sins.
  • Tricoro has Legend Cross, which involves playing sets of songs from a single version to meet a goal that involves the number 573) to unlock an "Astran light" for that style. Bosses unlock once certain pairs of lights are obtained; each boss so far is a mash-up of other songs from their corresponding mixes (i.e. "SYNC-ANTHEM" is a mash-up of Tatsh songs from RED and Resort Anthem; you need to get both of their lights to unlock it). Clearing one of the bosses nets you a crystal. Get them all and you unlock Thor's Hammer. AAA'ing that song will unlock the OMES for Tricoro, Plan 8. However, playing Plan 8 removes half of your crystals and relocks Thor's Hammer. After an update in December 2012, players can now buy Devil and Angel Cards with points to unlock the songs for standard play; Angel Cards are more expensive, but allow the song to be unlocked even if it wasn't beaten before.
  • And now in Tricoro we have another optional boss system, Omega Attack, a.k.a. Blockbusters: IIDX Edition. Playing the game earns CP, which can be used to buy weapons and upgrades to clear viruses off a map of hexagon tiles. While there are some other new songs and two CS exclusives among them too (i.e. "Tamayura" and "Reflection into the EDEN"), Sector A and Sector B both have one new boss-level song, "トリカゴノ鳳凰" and "Proof of the Existence". Unfortunately, the major flaw is that this system involves lots and lots of Level Grinding.
• Perfect Run Final Boss: One More Extra Stages.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • tricoro's color events have several songs crossovered from console IIDX games, all of which were originally gone permanently if you failed to unlock them during their respective events. This was changed in an update (on August 14, 2013, over 8 months after the first event ended) which allowed players to buy the unlocks using Dellar points, at 5K for Normal, 10K for Hyper, and 15K for Another. It requires tons of Level Grinding, but they can once again be unlocked if you missed them the first time.
  • L.E.D. did this with HELL SCAPER's audio file, which is why it'll never get an updated re-release and why DJ Technorch's remix was transplanted.
• Player Character: Averted up until Lincle, which gives the player a "Q-Pro" avatar that participates in storyline events and can be dressed up.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: Not rampant, but many classics in the series ("V" and "Kakumei" especially) are indeed remixes of other classical pieces ("The Four Seasons: Winter" and the "Revolutionary Etude", respectively).
• Progressive Instrumentation: In IIDX games from 19 to 30, when you start the game and go to the log-in screen, you're presented with a relatively mellow menu theme that adds more instruments upon getting to the mode select menu, and finally mixes the remaining instruments in when you get to the song select.

Tropes R-Z

• Rank Inflation:
  • The timing judgements are, in order of worst to best: Poor, Bad, Good, Great, and Perfect Great / Just Great (the last one being shown as just "GREAT" but in a flashing font).
  • Grades go from F to AAA. Similarly, in Class mode, you have the 7th through 1st kyu grades, then 1st through 10th dan, Chuuden (introduced in copula), and finally, kaiden.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Generally speaking, this is what harder level songs sound like. It helps that the default buttons on arcade cabinets have a very satisfying clack.
  • Played with More Dakka in the SPADA song miracle 5ympho X on Another. There's a section halfway in the song that drops a rapid fire bassline, complete with a visual on the BG movie of a girl shooting a machine gun. Given this section is a string of 1/16th note inputs and the song is at 210 BPM, this makes the trope metaphorically come to life.
• Rated M for Manly: SPADA, which incorporates a medieval theme with lots of Cool Swords, a manly Large-Ham Announcer, and a lot of hardcore songs.
• Recurring Boss: While dan course songs tend to scramble around with each new version, "THE SAFARI" in particular is notorious for consistently being the last stage of single-player 7th Dan, a position it's had since the introduction of the kyu/dan system on 7th Style in 2002. "gigadelic" is also notorious for this in 8th Dan, where it's been the final stage in every version since the song was introduced in IIDX 11: RED, with the sole exception of IIDX 15: DJ Troopers. "冥" has also appeared as the final stage of every single-play Kaiden course since DistorteD.
• Recurring Riff: Every Suzaku song has a distorted guitar screech in it, appropriately dubbed by many fans as the Suzaku Scream.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Songs will often be continually "revived" (remaining alongside new songs on a newer version of the game, or appearing alongside older songs on console versions) quite a few versions, especially if they're fan favorites.
  • "V" is notorious for this. It debuted on 5th Style, and got revived on almost every console version after that until IIDX 10. Fans suspected Konami of "ruining the joke" that "you can't spell 'revival' without 'V'".
  • Then, Empress brought us "V2" ... which was nothing more than a cut of an extended version of V from dj TAKA's album "milestone".
• Regional Bonus: Two arcade versions were released for China; the first was based on Resort Anthem, but the cabinet had some modifications (the equalizer sliders and song title display were removed, and the turntables are on the right for both players, much like the original 5-key games rather than at the ends of the deck), and the Chinese-language versions of songs from Dance Dance Revolution X2 were also incorporated where applicable. There was a second Chinese version; although it is branded as Tricoro and contains most of its soundtrack, it is built on Lincle's engine and interface, and removed the Chinese vocal version songs.
• Required Spinoff Crossover: Throughout practically every Bemani game actually, songs will often cross over from Beatmania to other games, or vice versa. Special mention goes to Kakumei, a collaboration between dj TAKA and Naoki (who were both the producers for their respective franchises at the time), which appeared as the One More Extra Stage on both IIDX 7th Style and DDRMAX2, both of which were the 7th main release in their respective series. At the same time, a version of "MAX 300" (which was the Extra Stage song on DDRMAX, a first for the series) was also the main Extra Stage on 7th Style, it too being the first Extra Stage in the series.
  • A few other DDR boss songs have appeared since, including Sakura (Extreme extra stage, 8th Style extra stage), Paranoia Survivor Max (Extreme extra stage, 9th Style unlock), Fascination Maxx (SuperNOVA extra stage, as Gold OMES), Pluto (SuperNOVA 2 extra stage, unlock on DJ Troopers CS), and Saber Wing (DDR X extra stage, beat unlock on Resort Anthem). While not a boss song, Sakura Storm (DDR Universe 3 and X2) also came up as an unlock on Resort Anthem.
  • The "Nadeshiko Rock" song from Pop'n practically crossed over to every active Bemani franchise, IIDX included, around Empress.
    • And then there's DJ Yoshitaka's "FLOWER", which does the same, though it had to be retooled into a rock arrange for Guitar Freaks & Drummania.
  • Then came the LincleLink and events for Resort Anthem and Lincle, whose point was to allow players to unlock songs from the latest Jubeat versions on IIDX and vice-versa by playing certain combinations of songs on both. Lincle also brought the "Append Travel" event, which brought more promotional Jubeat crossovers to other Bemani titles as well.
  • Tricoro's LIMIT BURST extra stages were (besides "Sol Cosine Job 2") all crossovers of boss songs from other Bemani titles, including "New Decade (DanceDanceRevolution X2), "neu" (from Pop'n Music Adventure), "Hollywood Galaxy" from REFLEC BEAT, "DAY DREAM" and "Timepiece Phase II" (from DrumMania and GuitarFreaks), and "JOMANDA" (from jubeat copious)
• Re-Release Soundtrack: The cover of "Samba de Janeiro" in IIDX 13 DistorteD was not brought over to the PS2 version. Although the covering artist, Lion MUSASHI aka dj TAKA, is an in-house musician at Konami, the original group behind the song, Bellini, isn't.
• Retraux: The Parallel Rotation extra stage system in SIRIUS, which echoes 5 of the previous 6 styles.
• Robot Dog: The mascot for SIRIUS is one.
• Roguelike: The "Qprogue" event in SPADA. After each play session, you play a minigame where you guide your Q-pro through maps to fight monsters and unlock new charts.
• Rule of Fun: It's not really DJ simulation anymore. But does that really matter?
• Season Finale: beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST serves as the final PS2 IIDX game, and the last consumer-soft IIDX game for a good half-decade or so. To send off this line of games, this game features 198 songs spread across two discs.
• Sequel Escalation: The difficulty scale originally went from 1 to 7. Then came the 7+, which were later relabeled as 8. Then there were 8+s. Then Version 12 bumped it up to be out of 12.
  • But, The Computer Is a Lying Bastard. Before Happy Sky introduced 9-12, the 7Keys/Hyper difficulty rating would be exactly the same as the Another difficulty rating. This caused hard songs to be mislabeled. One of the most egregious examples is "Mr. T (Take me higher)", rated a 10 on Another after Happy Sky, to be labeled as a 4. Even worse than that is "5.1.1.", which up to Happy Sky was rated a 1 on Normal and Hyper, but has a pretty brutal Another chart.
• Series Mascot: Tran, the Humanoid Alien, who appears in several background videos. But, this hasn't stopped the individual versions from having their own mascots.
  • There's also the various (mostly female) DJs that go on the promotional art.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Lincle introduces a series of bosses named after the seven sins.
  • Greed: Mamonis, a man apparently made of shadows who attacks using money. AKA kors k
  • Lust: Ashemu, a succubus with knives. AKA Asaki
  • Sloth: Bulluvegola, a set of stained-glass circles. AKA 96
  • Gluttony: Beridzebeth, some sort of pink mech with wings and a scythe. AKA PRASTIK DANCEFLOOR
  • Pride: Rche, an trap angel with four black wings. AKA Tomosuke
  • {{Envy}}: Levaslater, a mech that resembles a blue dragon. AKA Ryu & Starving Trancer
  • Wrath: STN... another mech soldier whose armor falls off in another boss song to reveal the true demon. AKA Tatsh
    
    Additionally, there are two more songs that aren't any 7 sins, but related to them;
  • Apocalypse: Neulakyussra, a four-armed, three-headed being and the true form of STN, infused with the power of the seven sins. AKA L.E.D.-G
  • Rebirth: Cuvelia/Cybele, yet another mech (angel motif). If you're doing good enough in the song, the armor will break to reveal a blue-haired girl with laser-swords floating around her. AKA Taka
• Parlor Games: Speaking of the Lincle bosses, STN's song is unlocked using a shiritori game by the first and last letters of the song titles, playing sets of songs that link together, including the last and first songs.
• Scoring Points:
  • The games had "money score" which is out of 200,000 points. To make a long, complicated story short, it's mostly based on judgement and keeping a high enough combo.
  • "EX score", the standard used for the game's competitive elements, is simple: 2 points for a PGREAT, 1 point for a GREAT, and 0 points for anything below. Most IIDX games with score-based objectives use EX Score as the basis for those objectives, with only older games ever using money score.
  • Money score was done away with entirely in BISTROVER, leaving EX scores as the only scores displayed.
• Sequel Hook: 刃図羅, the final song of Sinobuz, has a nod to Cannon Ballers in its video.
• Sequel Number Snarl: Every numbered arcade game is actually the nth plus one game in the series (n being the number in the title), due to beatmania IIDX substream falling between 1st Style and 2nd Style. As a result, beatmania IIDX 25 CANNON BALLERS' is actually the 26th arcade game.
• Shout-Out:
  • A song in tricoro named Illegal Function Call makes innumerable shout outs to the 5-keys era in its music video.
  • The title of CANNON BALLERS refers to the Cannonball Run, an illegal cross-country motor race held in The '70s in the United States.
  • When the song Souhait Bleu came over from Sound Voltex EXCEED GEAR, it was given the genre "Alchemy Pop." This is likely a subtle nod to the Atelier Series, due to the overall composition sounding very similar to the music in those games.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: "Sasoribi"/"Scorpion Fire"/"Anti-Ares", "Ganymede" and "Bag" to name a few (the latter debuting in DanceDanceRevolution first).
• Spell My Name With An S: A number of songs have multiple ways to read their names; "Shonen A"/"Kid A" (not that one), and "Gattai Sayo! Strong Jaeger!"/"The Strong Jaeger," just to name a few. This is primaraly a result of the cabinet's LED marquee: since it can only display English characters, songs with foreign titles will either be romanized, translated, or show something completely different on the marquee.
• Standard Snippet/Sampling: A sampling-related conspiracy theory occurred in two particular styles: a stock sample of someone yelling "SOMEBODY SCREAM!" appeared in two different songs on Gold (Second Heaven and FIRE FIRE, but more famously in the former), followed by a sample of someone saying "1-2-3-4-5-6 do it!" appearing on three different songs on DJ Troopers ("Be OK", "Icarus", and the aptly titled "Do it!! Do it!!", which consisted almost entirely of that sample). Even more suspiciously was the fact that the last of those two were both Military Splash songs.
  • Sampled Up: (In-Universe) kors k's boss song on Lincle (fittingly, the one representing the sin of Greed) is pretty much a whole bunch of StripE and disconation songs thrown into a blender. No wonder its titled "THE SAMPLING PARADISE"
  • "Schlagwerk" takes a couple lines from Bad Boys (1995): "Oh, this is bad." and "This is fucked up!"
• Stat Meters: RED added a new stat display (typically shown on the other player's unused play field), which shows a series of bars comparing the player's current score to that of an optional rival or the high score.
• Stellar Name: Jun Wakita's trademark. Among others, "Regulus", "Spica" and "Scorpion Fire" are all named after stars (SF is an allusion to Alpha Scorpii/Antares), "moon_child" and "Ganymede" refer to moons, and "Waltz of the Big Dogs" (the sequel to "Scorpion Fire") refers to the Canis Major constellation.
  • The game "Waltz" debuted in, SIRIUS, also qualifies and also refers to the same constellation.
  • Exaggerated with the song "To My Star" from Tricoro. The title has a star (obviously), it's a star-type song (the genre is STARPOP), it's sung by a star (Kanako Hoshino), it's about becoming a star (specifically, a pop singer), it has a cameo from a star (SUPER STAR 満-MITSURU-)...
• Stylistic Suck: According to the liner notes of the game's official soundtrack, "Salamander Beat Crush mix (CRASH MIX)" from beatmania CORE REMIX was produced the way it was to replicate the sound of a Bemani Pocket toy on a full-sized arcade machine. As such, it is deliberately mixed at an extremely low sample rate, evident even on the album recording, and comes replete with primitive beeps and robotic voices (if you can even make them out).
• Tag Line: Most games in the series have one, ranging from the simple ("It's party time!" from GOLD) to the nonsensical ("Next Link Various Tunes Change the World [ TRI ] For The Future !!!" from tricoro).
• Take That!: When Ryutaro Nakahara stopped using an asterisk and started to use a star for his Ryu☆ alias, his brother kept asking his "What's with that?" The song Be Quiet is his answer.
• Theme Naming: Since the 11th main installment of the IIDX series, every installment has had some sort of color theme to it, with a subtitle relating to the colors, such as "RED" (Revolutionary Energetic Diversification, primarily all dark red/black), "Happy Sky," (skies and clouds) "Gold," (black and gold with a luxury club motif), "DJ Troopers" (military and camouflage), "Empress" (pink and black with jewel motifs), "Sirius" (metallic silver and blue space-age), "Resort Anthem" (a Beach Episode), "Lincle" (blue, orange, and white with some atom trails), "Tricoro" (mostly greyscale with red/blue/yellow accents, and lots of abstract 3D stuff), "Spada" (dark brown/silver/red, firey medieval. Even the grade letter graphics, which have barely changed since 9th Style, got changed from their traditional techno look to a more medieval font for this iteration), "Pendual" (white and purple with time motifs. It also switched between light "present" and dark "future" modes on a regular basis; both modes had 2 exclusive songs), "copula" (yellow/white/grey, futuristic subway trains), "Sinobuz" (Japan, ninja weapons. Aligned with the aforementioned cycle of daily bonuses, each day of the week had a specific color scheme for the song menu and different menu music), "Cannon Ballers" (White, red, and green with automotive motifs), "Rootage" (a "digital library" look with a lot of triangles, browns, and golds, with the gameplay frame having Ethernet jacks on it for good measure), "Heroic Verse" (purple and white with superhero/Tokusatsu motifs), "Bistrover" (mostly a bright, world travel and food motif), and "CastHour" (blue-grey and orange, primarily influenced by video game streaming).
  • Also, the Extra Stage songs often have some kind of theme to them. See The Four Gods above. Empress also has a set of regular One More Extra Stage songs with a sweets theme and an alternative Extra Stage called EMPRESS PLACE that centered around former "empresses" like Cleopatra and Marie Antionette.
  • Similarly, in 15th Style: DJ TROOPERS, there is a new version of Cardinal Gate called Military Splash that has 4 Bemani artists hiding their identities behind battle formation aliases.
    • Lion = dj TAKA
    • Scorpion = Toshiyuki Kakuta, aka L.E.D.
    • Kraken = Ryu*
    • Eagle = Kosuke Saito, aka kors k, who is also a well-known artist outside of Bemani
    • Humanoid = DJ Yoshitaka
  • In Sirius, the extra stage system was a series of Nostalgia Levels based off versions 11 through 15. Each tier had two previously console exclusive tracks, a new remix of a song from that version, and a new song performed under an alias used by a boss song on that version. When played, the songs even used the matching interface skins from their respective versions.
  • On Lincle, the extra stage system returned to a more Cardinal Gate-esque system called "Lincle Kingdom", which was themed around the Seven Sins.
  • The Spada†leggendaria songs have the artists named after famous swords. Before that there were some sword named songs in the series (Claiohm Solais and Ascalon). Another difference is that the artists so far are ether commission artists or recent additions to Bemani (and that most them have songs in SOUND VOLTEX]]). The artists are:
    • Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi AKA REDALiCE,the weapon of Susano-o
    • Gram AKA DJ Genki, referring to Sigmund's sword
    • Durandal AKA DJ Noriken, the blade of Roland
    • Caldaborg AKA USAO, a misspelling of Caldabolg, a weapon from Irish Mythology
    • Falsion AKA DJ Shimamura, A corruption of the word Falchion, an European weapon. It could be a Mythology Gag to a Konami shooter called "FALSION" or a Shout-Out to Fire Emblem
    • KUMOKIRI AKA OSTER project of "Levan Polka" fame., Kumokiri is a sword from a Japanese epic poem in which it was used during the Genpei War
• Title Drop: "IIDX GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!" The full version of the opening theme, "GOLD RUSH", also proceeds to name off every single IIDX game up to that point during the breakdown.
  • The song's follow-up, "B4U (BEMANI FOR YOU MIX)", does something similar. While the original already contained a DDR title drop, this one also rapidly names off other Bemani franchises.
  • 2nd Style has a song called "Second Style", 5th Style has a song called "IIDX", and Happy Sky (IIDX 12) has "Twelfth Style".
    • HEROIC VERSE introduced "27th style".
• Uncommon Time: Many songs will do this, and the game takes care to display their measurement lines correctly.
  • "Holic" begins in 7/8, then becomes 7/4 and finally 4/4.
  • "100% minimoo-G" is one of the biggest offenders; if it has a time signature, it's so complex that the game simply doesn't render measurement lines for it!
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: In the rather buggy 9th Style release, "General Relativity" uses the timing windows of the last song played. But if it's the first song to be played after booting up the machine, it has no timing windows and as such every note is doomed to be hit as a POOR, making the song impossible to clear or score on.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: For example, Ereki, White Hair, Black Heart has a villain-like demeanor in TERRA'S videos, but is simply a stalking photographer in songs like Love-Shine. This is just one example of very surprising dissonances with personalities in different videos.
  • Interestingly meta in the series' "canon" because every character has externally-established (typically through art books) backgrounds and in actuality are simply people who play IIDX.
• Variable Mix
  • Tricoro onwards does this for the game's menu themes (they used to cut in after a loading screen).
• Video Game Delegation Penalty: The series has options to automate certain lanes or note types, with the most prominent one being Auto-Scratch, and older versions of beatmania IIDX having the 5-Key option to automate two of the leftmost or rightmost lanes to simulate classic beatmania. All of these options do not give you points for auto-played notes and mark your run as an "Assist Clear" as opposed to standard "Clear" status, and earlier games simply don't record scores achieved with assist options.
• Wham Line: For those who follow the Dan Inintei courses, one awaits the player at the end of Rootage's Single Play 8th Dan Course to dethrone "gigadelic" as the final stage of SP 8th Dan after ten consecutive versions^note it was also the SP 8th Dan final stage for four consecutive versions before being replaced by "Innocent Walls" for all of one version:
  DRUMSTEP
  S!ck
  Eagle
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Miracle 5ympho X

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