To the Beat

To the Beat is a series of rhythm games developed by Team Beats and published by ACS. The series began with the release of its first installment, To the Beat!, in 2001, and has since spawned a number of sequels. Originally for Arcades, the series has been released for various consoles, including the PlayStation 2, XBox, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Portable.

Gameplay
To the Beat uses a four-way dance panel consisting entirely of diagonals: up-left, up-right, down-left and down-right. In the console versions, the arrows are mapped to the controller’s shoulder buttons by default, but the player also has the choice of using the face buttons and d-pad instead.

Just like its cohorts, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and Andamiro's Pump It Up, the game's objective is to hit as many of the ascending arrows that are in time with the music using the aforementioned dance pad. Each arrow corresponds to a certain panel in the dance pad, and the player must hit the ascending arrows by stepping on the corresponding arrow as it reaches the arrow receptor on the top of the screen.

Step charts in To the Beat can sometimes contain three or four ascending arrows at the same time, which are meant to be achieved using the player’s hands, as well as “freeze arrows”, which are long arrows that must be stepped on until it ends. αlpha adds in "roll arrows", which are freeze arrows that must be stepped on repeatedly instead of being held down, while NEO adds in "traps" which act like the "mines" in In the Groove, in that they must not be steeped in, unless it deals damage to the Beat meter and resets the current combo, and are represented by a large X inside a circle. Several songs would feature real-time BPM changes, where charts can slow down or stop completely mid-song.

Each player has a Beat Meter, which increases as the player successfully hits each arrow in time, and decreases each time the player misses an arrow, breaking their combo in the process. Filling up the Beat Meter to its maximum level would increase the score the player gains with each successful step. However, when the player’s Beat Meter is depleted to zero, it will cause a “Stage Break”, which warrants an automatic game over.

Each step is judged depending on the timing of the step and the arrow. These judges include, from highest to lowest, “Perfect”, “Great”, “Good”, “Bad” and “Miss” (“Oops” in most English versions). Perfects and Greats add up to the combo counter and fill up a portion of the Beat meter, Goods break up the current combo, do not add up to the Beat meter, and do not make the arrows disappear, unlike Perfects and Greats, while Bads and Misses/Oops break up the current combo and decrease the Beat meter. An "Excellent" judgment was eventually added in EXCEL.

Upon completion of a song, the player is given a rank depending on how well the player performed. With F being the lowest rank, and S++ being the highest, only achievable by performing Perfect or Excellent full combos in certain songs.

Songs in To the Beat each have four charts which also denote their difficulty: “Novice”, “Inter” and “Expert”. 2nd Dance adds the option for “Master” charts, which are harder than Expert charts and are meant for experienced players, while 4th Dance would introduce "Starter" charts, which are instead meant for beginners. Players can select their chart difficulty in the Song Select screen.

3rd Dance adds in a "modifier menu" that adds in more types of modifiers, and can be accessed by pressing the Start button on the machine upon prompted (usually after selecting a song). The modifier menu allows players to tweak several options in the game, such as alternate arrow skins and "speed modifiers", which double the speed of the chart, among others.

The Japan only arcade spinoff To the Beat x Karaoke Superstar: Sing Dance Paradise combines the gameplay of To the Beat with that of the Karaoke Superstar series of arcade karaoke games. The game uses a split-screen cabinet with a dance pad on one side and a microphone on the other, as one player dances to the beat while the other sings the lyrics.

Modes
A typical game of To The Beat begins with a timer waiting for another player. Players who are alone can cancel this timer and head straight to the game by pressing the Start button on the machine.

When the game is in one-player mode the game continues to the Pad Select screen, players are given a choice to play Single (use only one pad; four arrows) or Double (use two pads simultaneously; eight arrows). In a 2-player games, the choices are changed instead to Versus (both players compete for the highest score) and Duet (both players must dance in unison).

The game then segues to the Mode Select screen. In the first To the Beat game, players have to choose whether to play “Easy”, “Normal”, “Hard” or “Special (SP) Mix” mode. Easy mode has Stage Break turned off by default, but only allows players to choose one song. Normal mode is the standard gameplay mode of To The Beat, featuring three stages to play, special “boss songs” that can only be played during the final stage, an “Extra Stage” that can be accessed when the player fulfills the right requirements, as well as Stage Break turned on. Hard mode plays similar to Normal, but with the added challenge of a much faster-draining Beat Meter, as well as a different songlist consisting of songs rated 5-stars or more. Lastly, Special Mix mode is a special mode that allows players to choose from eight “mixes” (nine when counting the Roulette Mix), each consisting of four songs, and dance nonstop until all four songs are finished. A quick code can be entered on the title screen to access “All Music”, which allows players to access the entire selection of songs (including the boss songs) in Easy, Normal and Hard modes.

4th Dance features significant changes to the single mode system. Easy mode has been renamed as “Quick Play”, the Normal and Hard modes were merged together into “Standard” mode, and a new “Challenge” mode has been added, featuring several themed challenges that play differently from typical To the Beat gameplay, like alternate noteskins, usage of unorthodox pad conditions, and unusual requirements. The SP Mix mode stays the same.

Rating System
The difficulty of a song chart in To the Beat is measured by its rating, the more stars a song has, the harder it is. The rating system in To the Beat varies in each sub-series.

In the early To the Beat games, the charts’ ratings are measured via stars. The number of stars is shown onscreen alongside a descriptive word.


 * Simplistic - ★
 * Average - ★★
 * Conventional - ★★★
 * Tricky - ★★★★
 * Ecstatic - ★★★★★
 * Bewildering - ★★★★★★
 * Maniacal - ★★★★★★★
 * Disastrous - ★★★★★★★★
 * Nightmarish - ★★★★★★★★★
 * Insurmountable - ★★★★★★★★★★

3rd Dance uses the same star system as the early games, and also introduces three new star levels:


 * Overwhelming - ★★★★★★★★★★★
 * Unthinkable - ★★★★★★★★★★★★
 * Pinnacle - ★★★★★★★★★★★★★

EXCEL features a reworked star system, with the idiosyncratic names removed. Each song is rated with a number of stars between 1 to 15, with 1 star being the easiest and 15 stars being the hardest. This was also the case with αlpha, which increased the maximum star rating to 18.

NEO is noted for being the first To the Beat game to not use the iconic star system. Instead, it uses a more clear-cut number rating system. Each chart is rated with a number between 1 to 20 this time around, with 1 being the easiest and 20 being the hardest.

To the Beat R reworks the rating system into something more similar to the EXCEL rating system (1-15). Besids the rating number, a level meter system has also been added, which works similar to the old star system. MAXX would redefine the rating system yet again, reintroducing charts of up to Level 20.

Soundtrack
To the Beat's selection of music primarily consists of J-pop, hip-hop and electronica tracks, but sometimes also makes use of other genres of music as well. To the Beat uses both licensed songs, as well as exclusive songs created by ACS'/Team Beats' in-house composers, usually under various pseudonyms. The spinoff game To the Beat × Karaoke Superstars: Sing Dance Paradise only features licensed songs.

In its earlier years, To the Beat exclusively featured artists from the Avex Trax record label (this also includes foreign acts whose albums are distributed through Avex, like *NSYNC). To the Beat αlpha was the first game in the series to not feature the Avex Trax exclusive license, thus finally allowing them to feature songs from artists signed with other record labels.

Due to various government regulations regarding the usage of Japanese language in Korean products, the Korean versions of the To the Beat games are known for excluding songs with Japanese language by either replacing the song with a lyricless instrumental cover version, or excluding the song outright and replacing it with region-exclusive K-pop songs.

Starting To the Beat NEO, the game has also included crossover tracks from ACS' other franchises. Mostly remixes like Solidary Moon (Special Beat Mix) from the May 2017 update of R, a remix of "Solidary Moon", Twilight's stage theme in the Crisis Moon games. Some of these crossover tracks are shared within other Team Beats games, such as rhythmic_touch.

In 2021, coinciding with the release of To the Beat MAXX, ACS had struck a deal with the virtual YouTuber (VTuber) agency Hololive to allow the use of songs performed by their wide variety of VTubers to be featured in both To the Beat and rythmic_touch. In 2022, the Hololive Dance Pack was added in the v1.07 update for To the Beat MAXX, featuring over 30 Hololive songs such as "NEXT COLOR PLANET", "Ahoy! Warera Houshou Kaizoku-dan☆", "Say! Fanfare!" and "SPARKS", among others.

Titles

 * To the Beat! (2001; Arcade (NOVA System), PlayStation 2)
 * To the Beat! 2nd Dance (2002; Arcade (NOVA System), PlayStation 2)
 * To the Beat! 3rd Dance (2002; Arcade (NOVA System), PlayStation 2)
 * To the Beat! 4th Dance (2003; Arcade (NOVA System), PlayStation 2)
 * To the Beat! 5th Dance (2003; Arcade (NOVA System), PlayStation 2)
 * To the Beat! The Ultimate Dance (2003; Xbox, Nintendo GameCube)
 * To the Beat EXCEL (2004; Arcade (NOVA-II System), PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube)
 * To the Beat EXCEL2 (2005; Arcade (NOVA-II System), PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube)
 * To the Beat × Karaoke Superstar: Sing Dance Paradise (2006; Arcade (NOVA-II System)
 * To the Beat αlpha (2007; Arcade (System 201) PlayStation 2, Wii)
 * To the Beat αlpha2 (2008; Arcade (System 201), PlayStation 2, Wii)
 * To the Beat SP (2008; PlayStation Portable)
 * To the Beat αlpha3 (2009; Arcade (System 201), PlayStation 2, Wii)
 * To the Beat SP2 (2009; PlayStation Portable)
 * To the Beat NEO (2011; Arcade (System 202: ENDYMION), PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
 * To the Beat NEO2 (2012; Arcade (System 202: ENDYMION)
 * To the Beat NEO3 (2013; Arcade (System 202: ENDYMION)
 * Touch the Beat (2014: iOS, Android)
 * To the Beat R (2017; Arcade (nex System)
 * To the Beat R² (2018; Arcade (nex System)
 * To the Beat R³ (2019; Arcade (nex System)
 * To the Beat MAXX: The 20th Anniversary Dance (2021; Arcade (nex² System)

Trivia

 * The series has featured two prominent mascots that appear in nearly all To the Beat-related media: Ban Matsuda, a breakdancer, and Mi-U an idol. First appearing in the MV for the original song "groove2gether" by DJ 51 from 4th Dance, they have since cemented themselves as the faces of the entire franchise, with Ban eventually appearing in Cross Chaos as a selectable fighter.
 * The step code for "All Music" in the earlier To the Beat mixes is: down-left, up-right, down-right, up-right, up-left, down-left, down-right, up-right, up-left, down-right and down-left. Spelling it out in letters would spell out "ACS".
 * In the PS2 ports of the earlier games from 2nd Dance to 5th Dance, the player can unlock songs from previous TTB mixes by having a save file of said mix on the memory card. Each save will unlock two songs from said mix, which are different for each game, even when using the same save.
 * For example, having a save file of the original To the Beat! on the memory card would unlock "Déjà Vu (Para-Para Mix)" by Dave Rodgers and "It's Gonna Be Me" by *NSYNC when used in 2nd Dance, but using it in 3rd Dance would unlock "Boys & Girls" by Ayumi Hamasaki and the ACS Original song "iNSOMNiA" by 4444 instead.
 * Team Beats, the development team behind To the Beat, were actually composed primarily of ex-Konami employees who had previously worked on earlier Dance Dance Revolution mixes.
 * The easiest licensed song in the entire To the Beat series is "Boys & Girls" by Ayumi Hamasaki, introduced in the original To the Beat!, with a Novice chart of only one star. Meanwhile, the easiest ACS original is "Make it Love" by Lexi, from 5th Dance, also known for having a one-star Novice chart.
 * The spinoff game To the Beat × Karaoke Superstar: Sing Dance Paradise was inspired by the Sing n' Dance mode from Karaoke Superstars, a Western localized console variation of the Karaoke Superstar arcade games.
 * To the Beat R went through several name changes before its final release: for a time, it was known as "To the Beat INFINITE" and "To the Beat FOREVER"
 * Ever since the home ports of To the Beat NEO in 2012, there have been no new console ports of To the Beat games, perhaps because of the decline of dance pad games in general.
 * However, ACS has expressed interest in porting To the Beat R to modern consoles if fan demand is high enough.
 * In 2003, Konami filed a lawsut against ACS Softworks for copyright infingement regarding its dance pad game patent. However, like the lawsuit against Andamiro, the details were never released to the public up to this day.
 * Ironically, in the original To the Beat! back in 2001, one of the announcer's lines (when players have achieved the S+ ranking) was "This is the beginning of the real dance revolution!", a clear potshot against Konami and Dance Dance Revolution. The lawsuit would eventually follow the next year.