Dance Maniax

Dance Maniax is a game from the Bemani series of rhythm games, published by Konami, with songs mostly from the Dancemania series of music, and shares many songs with Dance Dance Revolution. Instead of using physical contact to activate sensors, it uses optical switches to allow hands, feet and legs to be used in gameplay by passing them above or below the sensor.

Gameplay
Dance Maniax is a dance game that uses four optical sensors to determine player movements. Sensors are positioned such that there are two top and two bottom sensors on each side. In addition, special options (such as center play, doubles, speed modifiers, etc.) are accessible by holding the left arrow button, the right arrow button and the start button after credits have been inserted but before the game has begun. Center play is where one player controls the middle two pairs of sensors. Also, doubles play is where one player controls all eight sensors at once. By default, players are presented with a set of predefined courses, and are able to select one per game, or should they have started the game into the "options" menu, they may also choose to define their own course, pre-set Internet Ranking, or pre-set Marathon courses. In Dance Maniax 2nd Mix, its Marathon course contains songs only in Dance Maniax 2nd Mix. In Dance Maniax 2nd Mix Append J-Paradise, songs in Dance Maniax 1st where included and only one of the 3 series titles can only be chosen for Marathon Course in one playing session.

In-game, the songs are played immediately in sequence: as soon as. Notes scroll in a similar fashion to Dance Dance Revolution: four circles ascend and the player must move their hand over or under the appropriate sensor in time to receive an "OK!" The outer "blue" lanes are the lower sensors, and the inner "pink" lanes correspond to the upper sensors. Should they miss or not hit the sensor in rhythm with the song, their life meter will immediately decrease. Play continues until either all songs in the course have been passed, or it ends as soon as the life meter is fully depleted.

Music
The music of Dance Maniax is varied, showing a wide array of genres and styles. The track listings for each game are composed of songs created by Konami specifically for the Dance Maniax line of games, songs that had been created by Konami for earlier Bemani games (referred to as transplants), and songs licensed from the Dancemania series of compilation albums. Through a deal with Toshiba-EMI, Konami was allowed to freely license tracks from Dancemania albums in exchange for advertising the albums in the games where the licensed tracks were used. For more information, see Bemani artists.

Versions
Japanese Releases:
 * Dance ManiaX - Released in 1999, Dance ManiaX featured 26 songs.
 * Dance ManiaX 2nd MIX - Released in 2001, Dance ManiaX 2nd MIX featured 28 new songs and 25 songs from the original Dance ManiaX, for a total of 53 songs.  (The one song that was not transplanted from the original was "My Sharona" by DJ Miko.)
 * Dance ManiaX 2nd MIX append JPARADISE -- Released in 2001, Dance ManiaX 2nd MIX append JPARADISE featured 14 new songs, nearly half of which are from Dancemania presents J★PARADISE.  The 53 songs present in Dance ManiaX 2nd MIX are also present, for a total of 67 songs. This version features a secret song called "PARANOiA Jazzy Groove+TRIP MACHINE -CLIMAX-+DEAD END(Sync Edit)". This song is not different from the original NONSTOP MIXES from 2ndMIX; they only differ because dance chips are custom made.

Korean Release:
 * Dance Freaks - Released in 2000, Dance Freaks features 32 songs. In addition to the entire 26 song Dance ManiaX library, there are an additional 6 licensed Korean songs exclusive to this version.

Note: Unlike most other Bemani games, no home versions of Dance ManiaX have been developed. This is likely due to the expense and difficulty of constructing an arcade-accurate peripheral controller. As well, Konami has stopped active development of the Dance ManiaX series.