Hey everyone, Bit here. I’ve been into rhythm games a lot recently, mostly Project Sekai, otherwise known as Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage outside of Japan (although many Americans including me still call it Project Sekai).

I’ve gotten good enough at the game that I can get an all perfect play on some mid-level Expert charts, with my highest-level AP being “Beyond the way” [Expert 25].

The thing that got me back into rhythm games after a while of not playing osu! was some videos on YouTube about a discontinued Japanese arcade game called Wacca. I also saw an arcade game that was somewhat similar to Project Sekai and made by the same company, called Chunithm. There were even some other interesting machines.

At one point I decided to go a website called Zenius I-Vanisher, a website commonly recommended to find rhythm arcade games near you. So I ended up finding a place about 2 hours away from where I live called Hooligans Arcade, that had many rhythm games to try. I’ve been there and I will recount the experience of going there in this blog post :>

Getting started

At this particular arcade, you pay $15 to get in and you can play as much as you want for that day (they also sell monthly passes for $60). They also sell the Amusement IC card for $10, which allows you to create a profile and save progress in the rhythm games. I researched some about the card they gave me since it’s custom printed, and sadly it won’t work if I somehow ended up in Japan, so I would have to play those machines in guest mode or get a real Aime/E-Amusement card in Japan. If you don’t want to worry about that, the website that made the cards for Hooligans (eamusement.cards) also sells real Japanese cards too.

Also, if you go in any arcade that has rhythm games and you plan on playing them, bring a pair of 3.5mm wired earbuds. Most rhythm game cabinets will have a headphone jack somewhere to allow you to hear only the game and not the rest of the racket in the arcade.

The games

Here’s my experience with the individual games.

Chunithm Luminous+

So the machine at this arcade is not running the latest version of Chunithm (that would be Chunithm Verse, Luminous+ is 1 version behind) but whatever, it’s probably some weird import complication because Sega is weird and doesn’t officially import their arcade games to the US despite making the “International Version” of the game that has English menus. (in fact, I think all of the rhythm cabs here are unofficially imported)

The gameplay is VERY similar to Project Sekai, although instead of directly touching the screen, you’re touching a touchpad below the screen. There’s also a row of motion sensors above the touchpad for interacting with Air notes. Air notes can be simple “raise” notes (like the swipe notes in Project Sekai) or Air-Action notes. Air-Action notes are basically “air holds”, and a purple note may appear during these air holds that require you to wave your hand slightly.

I tried the single-song option that came with the first scan of the login card, then played 2 full sets (3 songs each, so 6 songs total). I even found some of the ORIGINAL SONGS from Project Sekai in the library under the “niconico” tab, where you would usually find Vocaloid songs.

My biggest achivement was an ALL JUSTICE (all perfect) on Kyo-Fu All Back [Basic 2]. That’s a low difficulty even for the Basic range (which can go up to 7, and the full range goes up to 15), but you have to start somewhere. Although I believe in Luminous and newer versions, you can get a special “AJC” tag on a song for hitting every note as Justice Critical.

Wacca Plus

Wacca is actually a discontinued game. It was developed in a partnership between Marvelous (game developer) and Hardcore TANO*C (music label). It came out in 2019, meaning that it was stymied by the COVID pandemic, leading to Marvelous discontinuing the game after the Reverse version update. However, a community-made continuation for the game called Wacca Plus is out there, and the cabinet at Hooligans is running it.

The game is based around a circular touchpad and screen. It has all the same note types you would expect from a mobile game such as taps, sliders, and swipes.

Although I was able to play for this first time without them, people recommend gloves for playing Wacca (and even Chunithm) because your hands can have high friction with the smooth plastic touch surface.

I didn’t do as well as in Chunithm, but I got at least an SS for each song in the set I played. The songs I played were Ouverture [Normal 3], Night of Nights [Normal 3], and Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story [Normal 4].

Sound Voltex: Exceed Gear

After Chunithm and Wacca, I don’t have much to say about the other games.

I did pretty poorly with Sound Voltex, mostly since the controls are quite complicated with 2 knobs and 6 buttons. My highest rating for a song was a B, and I never got a full combo (known as Ultimate Chain in SDVX). Also I think the cabinet’s right knob is damaged, since the right knob would only register input if I moved it in a certain way.

Jubeat Ave

I don’t know if Jubeat Ave is the latest version of Jubeat (pronounced you-beat). If I had to describe Jubeat in simple terms, it’s basically a rhythm game built out of a giant Stream Deck. It’s played on a 4×4 grid of buttons with displays in them. I did better with Jubeat than Sound Voltex, getting an S rating for a song.

Beatmania IIDX 31 Epolis

Another game I sucked at was Beatmania IIDX. It’s a game consisting of 7 keys and a turntable. The highest rating I got for a song was a B, and I even failed a song. I think it’s just because I’m new, and even for beginners Beatmania can be unforgiving.

In conclusion

I will probably be returning to this arcade in the future, and maybe try more of their games such as Pop’n Music. Also I’ve found a set of gloves I can use for Chunithm and Wacca, as well as Project Sekai at home :>

Anyways, this has been Bit, and I’ll see you next time :D