(IIDX) is a series of rhythm video games, that was first released by Konami in Japan on 26 February 1999. Beatmania IIDX has since spawned 33 arcade releases and 14 console releases on the Sony PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the beatmania game series, and is part of the Bemani line of music games.
Initially conceived and developed as a sequel to Beatmania, Konami released Beatmania IIDX in Japan in 1999. The development team designed the game to simulate the experience of a DJ performing at a real venue, and gave the cabinet a "club Visual Jockey style." The larger controller was integrated into the cabinet alongside a larger 40-inch widescreen monitor, dual speakers, and spotlights to replicate the feeling of performing at a live venue.
Gameplay
Beatmania IIDX tasks the player with performing songs through a controller consisting of seven buttons and a turntable. Hitting the notes at the correct time increases the score and groove gauge bar, which if equal to or above 80% on Normal difficulty will allow the player to clear the stage. Failing to hit the notes at the correct time depletes the players groove gauge until it is empty.
Starting from beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS, two new note types are added: Charge Notes, which require the user to hold and release buttons in time with the music, and Backspin Scratches, which involve spinning the turntable in one direction and then turning it in the opposite direction at the end of the note. beatmania IIDX 23 copula introduced a variation called Hell Charge Notes, which refill the gauge when held down but rapidly deplete it when not. Unlike regular Charge Notes, they can be pressed at any time, though missing the start or end will still break the player's combo.
Aside from standard single play with seven buttons and a turntable, Beatmania IIDX offers doubles play-style, where users can play with fourteen buttons and two turntables. Certain versions of Beatmania IIDX have modes that are available in both single and double play-styles such as Course mode, Step-up and Arena. In Course mode players are challenged to complete four songs in a row of similar difficulty with a shared health bar, if the health bar reaches zero during any song, the game ends. Step-up mode allows players to play up to four songs without fear of a game-over. However, only a small selections of songs will be available. Arena mode matches up to 4 players in a competitive lobby where each player can pick one song, whichever player performed the best across all 4 songs wins.
Difficulty levels
Originally, Beatmania IIDX difficulties ranged from "Level 1" to "Level 7". However, beatmania IIDX 5th Style, beatmania IIDX 10th Style and beatmania IIDX 11 IIDXRED added "Flashing 7s", "Level 8" and "Level 8+" respectively.
With the release of beatmania IIDX 12 HAPPY SKY, songs were re-rated on a new difficulty scale ranging from "Level 1" to "Level 12". This has remained the standard in all subsequent releases.
Groove gauge
When playing a song in Beatmania IIDX players can set how their groove gauge functions. Easy & Assist Gauge will drain slower on misses, with Assist lowering the bar to clear to 50% instead of the usual 80%. Hard & EX Hard Gauges drain at higher rates when a player misses, and do not regrow as quickly as other gauges. When a Hard or EX Hard gauge hits zero, the song immediately ends.
When a song is cleared, a player will be rewarded with a lamp relative to the gauge used to clear. Available lamps are: Fail, Assist Clear, Easy Clear, Normal Clear, Hard Clear, EX Hard Clear & Full Combo. The lamps appear next to songs during song select.
History
In 1997, Konami distributed its Games & Music Division's (G.M.D.) Beatmania in Japan as a DJ-themed arcade title, significantly influencing rhythm games. Its surprise success influenced the G.M.D. to rename itself Bemani, a portmanteau of "Beatmania", and the studio made several spinoffs following its release, including Pop'n Music and Dance Dance Revolution. Due to the success of Beatmania, Konami developed and released its sequel 2 years later in 1999.
Bemani developed several updates to the game after its release, including a crossover in Beatmania IIDX Club Version (later Substream) cabinets with Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix Club Version 1 and 2 machines for simultaneous play, leading to increased success and popularity. In late 1999, the publisher hired artist Goli to design graphics and characters for Beatmania IIDX 2nd Style. In 2002, 8th Style was released after the discontinuation of the original five-key Beatmania. Foster said the updates popularized the game to the point that it overshadowed Beatmania, and IIDX earned more new songs and became known for being very difficult. but did not see similar success. Beatmania IIDX still receives yearly arcade updates which feature new songs, new theming and new events.
Home releases
A video game named Beatmania was released in North America in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, This was one of the only official ways to play Beatmania IIDX in the west. On January 29, 2020, Heroic Verses LIGHTNING MODEL cabinets received a North American release. On August 5, 2020, a new version of Infinitas was released. This new version is similar to the Lightning upgrade for arcade releases, having support for 120 Hz displays and an improved engine.
In 2019, three mobile games were announced by Konami during the Japan Amusement Expo, representing three Bemani series: Beatmania IIDX, Dance Dance Revolution, and Sound Voltex. Only Beatmania IIDX Ultimate Mobile was released to the public, with Sound Voltex and Dance Dance Revolution Ultimate Mobile being cancelled shortly after location tests.
Hardware
thumb|200px|Effector controls and led ticker in a standard cabinet. The track volume slider has been replaced by a "filter" controller since 9th Style.
The beatmania IIDX cabinet has many standard features that are found in traditional arcade cabinets such as a widescreen display, powerful speakers, and start buttons. Also, unique to IIDX cabinets are the effector buttons and sliders, a bass platform transducer, marquee, and DJ simulating controller. The effector buttons and sliders allow the player to control the volume levels within the game and manipulate the music by adding additional sound effects. The bass platform vibrates beneath the player's feet to the beat of the music being played. The marquee is a series of sixteen-segment display LEDs, used to display game information and scores during gameplay.
e-amusement
Since 9th Style, the game has featured integration with Konami's e-amusement platform, which uses a card inserted at the beginning of the game to save stats, scores, allow customization, and track scores in comparison to previous plays and against others over the internet. A magnetic card reader was used from 9th Style to Happy Sky (12th). From Distorted onwards the newer type Contactless smartcard Konami e-amusement Pass system has been used. 9th Style did not require an internet connection to use a subset of the e-amusement functionality, but 10th and on required an internet connection to function, which must be provided by a subscription from Konami. Some versions can customize frames, BGM in SELECT MUSIC screen, notes, etc.. e-amusement is not available outside of the primary markets for IIDX (Japan, Asia, and the United States), which has left imported machines outside of Asia without full access to hidden songs and extra stages due to the increasing functionality and integration of e-amusement in more recent styles. However, new songs from e-amusement enabled styles can still be accessed on console versions (which can be imported from Japan) or in INFINITAS. As of Tricoro, required an internet connection to startup instead. As of Rootage, offline kits are returned.
Internal hardware
Each game since 9th style runs on a Bemani PC, a custom PC based system designed specifically for Bemani's games. Games prior to 9th style use Bemani Twinkle, which in turn is a PlayStation with a superimposer and an advanced sound board combined with a DVD player. As of the newest cabinet model for the "Lightning" cabinet introduced with Beatmania IIDX 27: Heroic Verse, there is an Nvidia GTX 1660, an Intel Core i5 9400F, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB SATA SSD. The cabinets also use a custom amplifier in addition to an Asus Xonar XE sound card, and run a limited version of Windows 10. There is also a 120 Hz main display and a touchscreen second display. Older versions of the cabinets running PC based hardware generally were significantly weaker as they did not have to power 2 displays. The final revision prior to the Lightning Model use Bemani PC ADE-6291, that is powered by an AMD RX-421BD, an R7 Radeon GPU and has 4GB of RAM.
Music
Music is an integral part of the beatmania IIDX series. Featuring a wide selection of genres and artists, both licensed and in-house, the Beatmania IIDX series is well known for its original music.
| 2007b = Beatmania IIDX 15 DJ Troopers
| 2008 = Beatmania IIDX 16 Empress
| 2009 = Beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS
| 2010 = Beatmania IIDX 18 Resort Anthem
| 2011 = Beatmania IIDX 19 Lincle
| 2012 = Beatmania IIDX 20 Tricoro
| 2013 = Beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA
| 2014 = Beatmania IIDX 22 PENDUAL
| 2015 = Beatmania IIDX 23 Copula
| 2016 = Beatmania IIDX 24 SINOBUZ
| 2017 = Beatmania IIDX 25 CANNON BALLERS
| 2018 = Beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage
| 2019 = Beatmania IIDX 27 HEROIC VERSE
| 2020 = Beatmania IIDX 28 BISTROVER
| 2021 = Beatmania IIDX 29 CastHour
| 2022 = Beatmania IIDX 30 RESIDENT
| 2023 = Beatmania IIDX 31 EPOLIS
| 2024 = Beatmania IIDX 32 Pinky Crush
| 2025 = Beatmania IIDX 33 Sparkle Shower
Releases
Beatmania IIDX is an arcade sequel to Konami's Beatmania Series, starting with bi-annual "Style" releases in 1999 followed by themed annual releases from 2004 onwards. Starting with 3rd style, Beatmania IIDX saw releases on the PlayStation 2 home consoles which continued up until Empress.
Beginning with Beatmania IIDX 27 HEROIC VERSE, LIGHTNING MODEL cabinets were officially sold for use in the United States due to the increase presence of Round One arcades.