maimai

maimai, released on July 11, 2012, is the debut entry in Sega's arcade rhythm game series, instantly recognizable for its distinctive circular touchscreen cabinet designed in collaboration with Sharp — a look that earned it the affectionate nickname "the washing machine." As the first version, it established the core gameplay loop that would define the series: notes radiate from the center of a round display and must be tapped, held, or traced on the touchscreen or eight surrounding buttons in time with the music. It introduced four foundational note types — Tap, Hold, Slide, and Break — along with a five-tier difficulty system on a 1–10 scale, where all Master charts were fixed at level 10. The game launched with three play modes: standard Single Play, head-to-head Versus Play, and cooperative Sync Play, with all multiplayer modes supporting up to four players across linked cabinets.

The scoring system centered around Achievement Rate, converting internal scores into a percentage from 0.00% to 100.00%, with All Perfect guaranteeing a perfect score. Players could save progress via Aime/BanaPassport NFC cards and track stats through the maimai.NET online service. A player level system awarded experience based on clear status, full combos, and sync performance, while level-gated unlocks encouraged progression. Each credit offered three tracks, with a bonus fourth track awarded for clearing all songs at 80% or above. Cabinet-mounted SD cameras supported gameplay recording with direct uploads to Niconico. Customizable settings included Guide Speed, Mirror Mode, Answer Sound, and Star Rotation indicators for slide velocity. Post-launch content was organized into an EXTEND folder — the only version to use this categorisation before subsequent releases folded additions into genre folders.