What is jubeat

jubeat Series

jubeat Qubell arcade.

jubeat (pronounced you-beat, which is a portmanteau of the Japanese word yubi (指, meaning finger) and the English word beat, and known as UBeat, and later jukebeat in North America and Europe), is an arcade music video game developed by Konami Amusement (formerly Konami Computer Entertainment Japan), and is a part of KONAMI's BEMANI line of music video games since 2008. The original game went on several location tests in Asia since December 2007, and was released on July 24th, 2008. A North American location test for the game as UBeat was announced in August 2008. The cabinet utilizes one widescreen (16:9) in portrait orientation which is split into two main areas; the top 2/5 of which is used for displaying scores and information, and the bottom 3/5 of which is split into 16 panel areas arranged in a 4x4 grid where the main part of the game takes place. Aside from the main game the bottom screen and the panels are used for menus and user interactive sections.

A new jubeat cabinet will be shown at JAEPO 2020 [1].

Gameplay

The basic gameplay of jubeat is similar to Nintendo DS music games such as Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents and can be considered to be similar to Whac-A-Mole. Animated explosions or other animations, called "markers", that can be chosen at the song select screen are shown within the panels synced to a track of the player's choosing; when they reach a "hot point", which is dependent on the marker chosen, the player must tap the corresponding screen to score points. Taps can be judged as either Perfect, いい感じ (Good), 早い (Early), or 遅い (Late). 3 difficulties (BASIC, ADVANCED, and EXTREME) are offered for each song.

Online and local multiplayer are available when the machines are connected either to each other or to the KONAMI network respectively. Once connected in a Local multiplayer game all players will play the same songs on the same difficulties. Whichever song and difficulty gets chosen the fastest is the one that will be played. (As of jubeat copious, players may choose their own difficulty.) In the multiplayer environment, icons appear above the song sleeves on the song select screen to show that someone is waiting for other players. If nobody is waiting when the player chooses a song, the game will create a session and wait around 30 seconds for other players. If no other players join within the roughly 30 second wait then the song is played as it would be in single player mode.

Unlike in most other BEMANI games, which use a lifebar to determine whether the player clears the song, clearing songs is achieved by achieving a score quota. (See below)

If during a multiplayer game the player fails a song, as long as another player that is playing with them has passed the song, the player is "saved" and play can continue. The only time that the player can be "saved" when not playing multiplayer is on the first song if the player is not using an e-amusement pass, or when the song was the first tune of the player in the version.

Scoring

When the song is finished, the player will receive a score up to 1 000 000 depending on his/her performance. Up to 900 000 points can be earned from hitting notes alone. The remaining 100 000 is achieved through a bonus that increases as the player gets PERFECT and GOOD judgements and decreases as the player gets EARLY, LATE, and MISS judgements (but cannot go below 0). Do note that to get a bonus of 100 000, the player has to have an existing combo at the end of the song, which means the player has to hit the last 5 notes or so at the end of the song.

In the sections below, the brackets [] indicate the floor function.

Judgement point

Let N = Note count
Let P = PERFECT count
Let G = GREAT count
Let g = GOOD count
Let p = POOR count
Judgement point = [0.9[1000000(P+0.7G+0.4g+0.1p)/N]]

Shutter bonus

The shutter bonus is internally represented as an integer (referred as S afterwards) between 0 and 1024 (inclusive). 0 means the shutter is completely closed and 1024 means it's completely opened. The increment or decrement of S is as follows:

Judgement	Increment/decrement
PERFECT, GREAT	+[2048/min(1024,N)]
GOOD	+[1024/min(1024,N)]
POOR, MISS	-[8192/min(1024,N)]

Shutter bonus = [S*100000/1024]

The bug that existed in Elemental Creation and Elemental Creation -GITADO ROCK ver.-'s EXTREME charts was caused by this algorithm not being updated to handle a note count more than 1024.

Rating

Ratings will also be assigned based on the score:

Rank	Score
EXC	1 000 000
SSS	980 000 - 999 999
SS	950 000 - 979 999
S	900 000 - 949 999
A	850 000 - 899 999
B	800 000 - 849 999
C	700 000 - 799 999
D	500 000 - 699 999
E	0 - 499 999

In order to clear a song, a grade of C or higher have to be obtained for the song. From jubeat ripples onwards, an SSS rank is earned for scores of at least 980 000, and a score of 1 000 000 is awarded the EXCELLENT (EXC) rank.

Beginning in jubeat saucer fulfill, the player's judgement counts can be displayed during the result screen (only if they play on "MORE" mode or enabling "EXPERT OPTION" until clan). In festo onwards, the judgment count display is now enabled in normal play.

e-amusement

When used with an e-amusement Pass, the game will save statistics to the e-amusement servers. As with other recent BEMANI games, e-amusement is also required for some unlocks and events.

Location Tests

North American Location Testing

A North American location test for jubeat was announced on August 26th on the DDR Online Community site, and was held from September 8, 2008 and ran until September 14, 2008. at a Boomers! Parks location in Irvine, California, and was accompanied by a location test of DanceDanceRevolution X. For the North American market, the game had been renamed as UBeat, which is pronounced the same way as jubeat. The songlist for UBeat was also considerably different from the Japanese version, containing new licenses alongside some of the original songs present on the game.

A second, unannounced location test occurred at Sherman Oaks Castle Park in November 2009. The game, tentatively called jukebeat, featured a wider array of licenses and several songs from jubeat ripples.

For songs exclusive to these location tests, refer to the game page for jubeat and jubeat ripples.

European Location Test

A European location test for jubeat was announced on October 10th on DDRUK, running through into the school autumn holidays. Like in the North American market, the game was also renamed to UBeat. The location of the two UBeat machines is at Tenpin Bowl, in Acton, West London. 2 UBeat machines were also placed in the London trocadero but have since been removed as the location test has ended.