Video Game / SOUND VOLTEX

2 Following

SOUND VOLTEX (officially abbreviated as SDVX) is an entry in Konami's BEMANI series of Rhythm Games. It's a variation of traditional 4-lane rhythm games, but with the addition of two smaller "FX" buttons directly below a traditional 4-key row of buttons, along with effector knobs on both sides (which you must either rotate in a certain direction, or slam from side to side). The result is chaotic but fun, with higher difficulties having players rapidly whipping their hands back and forth between the various controls.

Its other big distinction is that much of its soundtrack consists of remixes of songs from other Bemani games by Doujin musicians. Through Downloadable Content, this aspect quickly went out of control as the game began to be flooded with Vocaloid songs and Touhou Project remixes (and even long-time meme songs like "Bad Apple!!", "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!", and even the Nyan Cat song).

Although the series is relatively new compared to long-running BEMANI series like beatmania and DanceDanceRevolution, its unique twist on 4-lane gameplay, heavy focus on fan-submitted content from recogonizable and aspiring artists, the lengths to which Konami takes player feedback (in Sound Voltex II, Skill Analyzer charts were voted upon by players rather than being purely hand-picked by staff), and the loving care with which all key contributors to each song (music artist, chart designers (aka "Effectors"), and album art artists) are credited have made Sound Voltex one of the most rapidly-growing BEMANI series. In just three years, the songlist has expanded from 166 in Sound Voltex Booth to over 540 in Sound Voltex III; to compare, jubeat took seven years to reach that point. GRAVITY WARS had around 885 songs to play, HEAVENLY HAVEN had a over a thousand songs, and EXCEED GEAR sits in excess of two thousand as of January 2025, giving it a comparable song library to beatmania IIDX, DanceDanceRevolution, and pop'n music, despite being half their age.

Most Sound Voltex songs are considered licensed songs, and therefore traditional Sound Voltex soundtracks are not available. However, there are a few albums that feature songs throughout the series and are available for purchase, with some examples like SOUND VOLTEX ULTIMATE TRACKS -Touhou Koumakyou REMIX-, which is a compilation of songs chosen from the Touhou Project EOSD^note Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Remix Contest; BEMANI x Touhou Project Ultimate Master Pieces^note a compilation of song remixes from different Touhou games; and SOUND VOLTEX ULTIMATE TRACKS -LEGEND OF KAC-^note songs that appeared as part of the KAC 2012 and KAC 2013 contests.

On October 4, 2017, Konami released Sound Voltex III GRAVITY WARS e-AMUSEMENT CLOUD, a PC port of the game. It is similar in functionality to beatmania IIDX INFINITAS, requiring paid "tickets" and subscriptions in order to use. In December 2021, Konami updated the game to the EXCEED GEAR engine and interface, as well as removing the ticket requirement (but still requiring a subscription).

Note: Unless otherwise stated, all difficulty levels on this page use the 1-20 scale.

STAND BY - ON YOUR MARK - TAKE POSITION. READY?

• Alliterative Title:
  • Sound Voltex II -infinite infection-
  • Sound Voltex IV -Heavenly Haven-
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If your first song is level 7 or lower, you won't get a Game Over if you fail (in Light Start).
  • In Standard Start, failure at the first song will still allow the player to advance to the next stage (although failure in the 2nd song after a failure in the first song will net a game over).
    • As SDVX IV moved the Skill Analyzer into a separate folder in Track Select (found only in the 1st Track), failing the first song or second song of a Skill Analyzer course when Standard Start is used will allow the player to advance to the next stage and same Standard Start settings apply.
    • As of December 21, 2017, Standard Start now guarantees three tracks, pass or fail, and uses Alternative Rate.
  • In the location test version of Gravity Wars, if playing with the Excessive Rate gauge and the gauge hits 0%, instead of a Game Over, the gauge would simply switch to the standard Effective Rate gauge at the amount it would be at if you had been using it from the start. This type of gauge, the "Alternative Rate" gauge, was added into the release version in March 2015.
  • If you are on an analog note that is drifting to either side of the lanes, the game prevents you from going off the note if you're turning too fast.
  • Like in other arcade music games, if at least one player in a multiplayer round clears the track, players who failed will be "saved" and allowed to move to the next track if they have any remaining. This only applies if you are using Effective Rate or Alternative Rate or you're playing local multiplayer, though; if you fail using Excessive Rate or Permissive Rate in online multiplayer you'll disconnect from the other players and get a Game Over anyway.
  • Normally, Standard Start costs more than Light Start, however Round 1 USA locations charge the same amount for both, to avoid a situation where Standard Start would have to cost twice as much (since 1 swipe equals 1 credit) or all modes would require varying numbers of multiple swipes to allow more fine-tuned prices (which would not be as user-friendly as swiping once).
  • An Effect Radar was added to EXCEED GEAR, with every chart in the game receiving a different rating on the radar between six categories: Notes (average NPS), Peak (peak NPS), Tsumami (knob patterns), One Hand (combined knob and button patterns that require use of one hand), Hand Trip (patterns that require your hands to cross to the other side of the controls), and Tricky (jacks, speed-ups and slowdowns, unusual interface effects, and any other gimmicks). By giving each chart an Effect Radar graph, players are better-informed on what a chart is like ahead of time, reducing the odds of them stumbling into a gimmick chart or otherwise excessively difficult chart they're unprepared for.
  • Starting in NABLA, charts with a difficulty of 17 or higher are further subdivided by decimal points—17's are split into 17's and 17.5's, while 18's and higher are split into the full range of decimal points. This, on top of the Effect Radar, makes it more clear to players what kinds of high-difficulty charts they're about to play.
• April Fools' Day: Starting in GRAVITY WARS Season 2, one new April Fools Day song was added per major version (excluding VIVID WAVE). These songs are only playable on April Fools Day each year.
  • On April 1, 2015, only Voltenizer Maxima could be selected as a Navigator.
  • The inaugural April Fools Day song from 2016, "GRACE-chan no chou~zetsu!! GRAVITY kouza w"^Translation"Grace's GRAVITY Course of Ultimate Devastation!! LOL", looks like a Tutorial Level... Except Grace is in charge instead of Rasis, villainously grandstanding and taunting you while she throws the lanes all over the place in a way that would make In the Groove marathon creators proud. The only chart it has is a Gravity chart... That's rated a 1.
    Grace: So, how was it!? My power, do you comprehend it!? Compared to Rasis's navigation, mine was so much easier to understand, wasn't it!? Wasn't it!?
    Ortlinde: ...No comment...
  • 2018's April Fools Day brought about "Maxima sensei no mankai!! HEAVENLY kouza♥"^Translation"Professor Maxima in Full Bloom! HEAVENLY Course♥". Like "GRAVITY kouza", it only has a Heavenly chart rated 1. It takes ''TWO-TORIAL's'' gimmick to the absolute extreme, featuring complete screen blackouts and extreme lane interface screw that forces you to actually remember the patterns, as the visual guide is next to useless. Unlike in regular gameplay as well, the BT chips are keysounded, as otherwise you would have no idea how to hit them.
  • 2021's April Fools Day added "Exceed kamen-chan no chotto issen wo exceed shita EXCEED kouza"^Translation"Exceed Mask's EXCEED Course that Exceeds the Line a Little". Unlike the previous two, it is a Maximum chart that's rated a 1. Like "GRAVITY kouza", it's based on the tutorial music—this time EXCEED GEAR's—and its gimmicks include extreme interface screw like before, as well as new mindbenders like notes travelling at speeds different from the player's set lane speed, stopping and starting, and even changing lanes before they reach the judgement line. And this time, Gr... Rather, the mysterious Exceed Mask challenges you, now assisted by a confused and slightly concerned-looking Rasis.
    Exceed Mask: Good work, everyone! (LOL) Haven't I, Gr—Exceed Mask, demonstrated my skill enough??
    Rasis: Finally, just a little more to go!
    • Not content with just having her own song, Exceed Mask also took over as everyone's navigator for 2024's April Fools Day.
  • 2025's April Fools Day turned all the characters on the title screen into Yukkuris and set everyone's navigator to Yukkuri Rasis, complete with all her voice lines being read out by the infamous AquesTalk text-to-speech voice.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The cover art for "Second Heaven Lamaze-REMIX" depicts a 3-scoop ice-cream cone as a reference to the line "Somebody scream!" being mondegreen'ed into "San-bai ice cream!" ("3-scoop ice cream!")
  • The title of "Konran shoujo Soflan-chan!!"^Translation"Girl of Chaos Soflan-chan!!" "Soflan" is a term used amongst music game players to refer to sudden, drastic changes in scroll speed, and originated from the beatmania IIDX track "SOFT LANDING ON THE BODY".
• Bait-and-Switch: The winners of the KAC song composition contests are usually commissioned to make more original songs to be added later in the year, usually around summer. When Phase 5 of the infamous Omega Dimension unlock system was announced, Chroma's "Made In Love" was shown at the top as a follow-up to his winning song "I". Many players had thought this was the final boss song due to being the biggest shown on the teaser... only for it to receive a Level 17 chart on Maximum. The excellence award winners didn't appear on the teaser too, but they served as the true final bosses of the phase, with Camellia's Xronièr being the only one of them rated a 20.
• Big Bad: Grace in GRAVITY WARS. She and her other companions get a Heel–Face Turn by HEAVENLY HAVEN.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Remember "Nyan Cat" from BOOTH? In Infinite Infection, it got an Infinite chart. And it was rated a 15. However, with the re-rating of charts in HEAVENLY HAVEN, it is now rated a 16.
• Boss Rush: "KAC 2012 ULTIMATE MEDLEY -HISTORIA SOUND VOLTEX-", from Gravity Wars, is a medley of various Sound Voltex songs, several of which have level 15 or 16 charts.
  • There's also "KAC 2013 ULTIMATE MEDLEY -HISTORIA SOUND VOLTEX-", which comes in "Emperor Side" (also added in Gravity Wars) and "Empress Side" (added in Heavenly Haven).
• Bowdlerization:
  • The Korean version of HEAVENLY HAVEN removes a number of album jackets due to South Korean regulations on suggestive content, replacing them with generic jackets. The songs were still perfectly playable...until a July 2018 update took an axe to all songs added from roughly November 2017 onwards, also for regulation-related reasons.
  • The U.S. version of EXCEED GEAR got hit with a similar change in 2024, with the character art on the title screen being removed and other "default"/attract mode content (unlockable content not being impacted) facing censorship. Most notably, Rasis's EXCEED GEAR navigator appearance was removed, leaving her as an empty "no navigator" slot.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: In order to access OMEGA DIMENSION EXTRA TRACK, one must have a full BLASTER gauge at 100%. Alternatively, the extra stage can still be accessed when BLASTER START is played.
• But Wait, There's More!: Omega Dimension Phase 5. The final four songs did not appear on the teaser. One of them is a 20!
  • A bit more meta in the sense that it was during a tournament, but after iLLness LiLin is played at the 6th KAC, Cody announces shortly afterward that there will be a second finals song for the players.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • The difficulty levels: Novice = Purple, Advanced = Yellow, Exhaust = Red, Infinite = Rainbow/Purple in SDVX IV, Gravity = Orange, Maximum = Grey, Heavenly = Blue/White, Vivid = Pink, Exceed = Blue, Ultimate = Gold
  • VOL-L notes are colored cyan while VOL-R notes are colored pink. As of Sound Voltex III you can change them to other colors, and yes you can set both knobs' notes to the same color if you really want to.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": This BEMANI series takes a number of liberties with conventional rhythm game terminology:
  • The judgements are called CRITICAL (perfect), NEAR (slightly off), and ERROR (way off or missing outright).
  • Combo is referred to as Chain, though this is a fairly mild example as the two terms are interchangable in many games.
  • A stage/song is referred to as a "track". Perhaps a subversion, as "track" is the correct catch-all term for music compositions, while the proper definition of "song" is "a composition written for singing", but "song" is used more widely.
    • Stage failure is referred to as a "TRACK CRASH".
  • Clearing a track with no ERROR judgements, known as a Full Combo in other BEMANI games, yields the message "ULTIMATE CHAIN". Getting all CRITICAL judgements results in a "PERFECT ULTIMATE CHAIN".
    • Sound Voltex II and III just gives you a "PERFECT" instead, averting this instance of the trope.
  • The Life Meter is known as the "Effective Rate".
    • During Skill Analyzer courses, where the Life Meter is played straight, it is called the "Permissive Rate".
    • Another straight variation of the life meter, one intended to serve as a counterpart to beatmania IIDX's and pop'n music's HARD gauges, is called "Excessive Rate".
      • In the April 22, 2025 update of EXCEED GEAR, a new, Harder Than Hard Life Meter was added: the "Maxxive Rate", which decreases the Life Meter by a larger amount than the "Excessive Rate", although it can only be used when the S-Critical judgement is enabled.
• Camera Abuse: In "MixxioN", Grace fires at the screen in the latter half, leaving bullet holes in it. When the song debuted in The 10th Konami Arcade Championship, the bullet holes appeared in the stream overlay too! The broken screen effect even remained into the "TRACK COMPLETE" screen for the occasion.
• Changing of the Guard: Grace is the default navigator in NABLA, taking Rasis's place after a 14-year tenure. Rasis is still available as an unlockable navigator in the Premium Generator.
• Continue Countdown: Starting in a mid-cycle update for SOUND VOLTEX IV, upon the end of a game, the player is given the option to continue. Unlike most examples of this trope, which are about giving the player a chance to avert a premature Game Over, the continue screen in this game instead gives the player a chance to start a new session of the game without being logged out and having to log back in.
• Cool Starship: The NEMSYS in GRAVITY WARS, which Rasis is the navigator of. It can be seen in the NOV album cover for "Nexta"◊.
• Copy Protection:
  • The game is part of the eAMUSEMENT Participation revenue-share program, and as such requires an Internet connection to the game's servers to boot up.
  • While the lower-budget QR code version of BOOTH does not require an Internet connection (instead, you "log in" by scanning your personal QR code that you obtain from the eAMUSEMENT website and then scan a code on the game screen at the end with your phone to save your data to your online account), it still has a form of this: the game not only takes the player's credits when a game is started, but it also uses up an "operator credit" that's separate from players' credits. When the game is out of operator credits, it stops functioning and the staff has to reload the machine with more credits through prepaid cards ordered from Konami.
• Crossover:
  • Touhou Project has a particularly large presence, featuring Appeal Cards of the characters and several Touhou arranges. In fact, Sound Voltex II had a location test at the Touhou-centric Reitaisai 10 convention in 2013. It certainly helps that Mayumi Morinaga, a prominent BEMANI vocalist, is also a vocalist for Touhou arrange circle Yuuhei Satellite. There are so many Touhou arranges that they got their own category in SDVX II.
    • There are several FLOOR remixes of songs from Touhou games like Perfect Cherry Blossom, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, and Double Dealing Character.
  • As far as BEMANI crossovers go, generally subverted in that most songs that make it over to SDVX get remixed, often by a artist contributing via Sound Voltex Floor.
  • Played straight with the POLICY BREAK and FLOOR INFECTION events beginning in SDVX II. POLICY BREAK is a type of SDVX event in which songs are crossed over from other BEMANI games and left in original form (excluding in-game filters). Examples include "VALLIS-NERIA", "I'm So Happy", and "BabeL ~Next Story~". FLOOR INFECTION is a type of event for other BEMANI games, which goes the other way: Sound Voltex songs get crossed over to other BEMANI games. Examples include "Joyeuse" in GITADORA and "Max Burning!!" in REFLEC BEAT.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • Players used to BOOTH charts may get thrown off by long button notes and short FX notes.
  • Players used to charts from the first two games may get thrown for a loop when they encounter VOL trails that start from the middle rather than the edges (i.e. blue and pink beams no longer always mean "turn right" and "turn left", respectively) as well as trails that go outside of the chart lanes.
• Darker and Edgier: GRAVITY WARS comes after infinite infection and features a black and orange interface, heavy use of guitar in its system music, and a title screen depicting Grace, the Big Bad of the game, looming over the Series Mascots. EXCEED GEAR is another tonal downshift coming from VIVID WAVE, utilizing hard techno and dark silvers in contrast to the previous game's neon pink, green, and white and electropop tunes.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In Heavenly Haven, Standard Start will guarantee three Tracks, even if you fail all of them. It also offers the Alternative Rate System: If you play on the Excessive Rate Life Meter and you drain that out, instead of a Track Crash you'll be instantly switched over to the Effective Rate meter, with the gauge at the level it would be if you had been playing on Effective Rate the entire time, so there's practically no reason not to use Excessive Rate.
• Double Unlock: Some songs, as well as the Infinite, Gravity, Heavenly and Maximum-difficulty charts for the songs that have said difficulties, require you to fulfill another condition before you are allowed to purchase them in the store, only accessible at the end of your standard game session. In SDVX IV, you can buy the songs while choosing your song at the track select screen.
  • The so-called 'boss songs', namely "For UltraPlayers" (with a difficulty of EXH 19), and "Everlasting Message" (GRV 19) have exceptionally complicated unlock conditions as the player has to pass a series of other rather difficult songs to be able to purchase these songs in the shop.
    • Oh, did I forget to mention that those songs on the road to the boss songs have to be unlocked and/or bought as well? Well, they have to be.
  • Infinite Blaster / Blaster Gate unlockable songs are examples in this trope.
  • There are currently five OMEGA DIMENSION EXTRA TRACK phases in Sound Voltex IV. To access certain songs like FIN4LE ～終止編の彼方へ～, WHITEOUT, and TWO-Torial, among others, the first few songs in the phase must be completed before being allowed to play said tracks in order to unlock them. This requires filling the BLASTER rate to unlock the EXTRA TRACK, or playing in BLASTER START.
    • In OMEGA DIMENSION Phase 3^note the first set of released songs made for the 7th KAC Original Song Contest, you must complete the first six tracks to unlock A Lasting Promise and Last Resort, then play those two to unlock I.
    • When first starting on OMEGA DIMENSION Phase 5, Made in Love is the only playable song at first, but once that's cleared, you gain access to the next eight songs. Clearing those eight songs then unlocks another three songs^note Absolute Domination, Failnaught, and Fly Like You, and then clearing those three will unlock the final track^note Xronièr.
• Doujin: Doujin music is a major staple of the series.
• Dramatic Disappearing Display:
  • When "Lachryma《Re:Queen’M》" made its debut as the game's final round song at the 5th KONAMI Arcade Championship, Grace took over the upper 1/3 of the screen, causing all interface elements at the top (score, opponent information, etc.) to vanish. Towards the end of the song, the lane also vanishes. This also happened in the 6th KONAMI Arcade Championship, with the final round songs iLLness LiLin and HE4VEN.
  • During the 7th KONAMI Arcade Championship, "I" was presented in the same circumstances, with Rasis causing the top half of the interface to vanish. Then the screen appears to turn off, then back on, with all interface elements in the middle (such as the Effective Rate meter) gone too!
  • The 9th KAC brought out RoughSketch's "666". Halfway through the song, the scores and player names disappeared. The lanes then came close to the screen and the header then disappeared. All that was left was a Live2D animation of Kureha looming over the lanes and Effective Rate meter. Then she proceeds to cut the lanes in half down the middle!
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Many elements of earlier games, especially BOOTH, the first version, are much different:
  • BOOTH has only three difficulty levels: Novice, Advanced, and Exhaust. The version-specific Harder Than Hard difficulty^note Infinite, Gravity, Heavenly, Vivid, or Exceed, depending on the version the chart was introduced would not be introduced until the next version, infinite infection, and Maximum difficulty would not be introduced until HEAVENLY HAVEN.
  • BOOTH's songlist does not have any original songs by in-house musicians. All original songs for it are commissioned songs. Later games would start to feature BEMANI Sound Team's original output.
  • BOOTH charts only have Chip notes for the four BT buttons and Long notes for the two FX buttons. The next version would introduce Long BT notes and Chip FX notes.
  • In charts made for the first two versions of the game, Tsumami/VOL notes always start on the horizontal edges of the track: far left for blue trails and far right for red trails, and can never go out of the bounds of the playfield. Starting in the third game, GRAVITY WARS, Tsumami notes can start anywhere on the lanes and may go out-of-bounds.
  • In the first three games, your grade isn't solely determined by score. It's actually calculated off a hidden "grade score" that comprises your displayed score multiplied by your Effective Rate at the end of the song, so two results with identical scores might have different grades if their Effective Rate gauges are different. Starting with HEAVENLY HAVEN, your displayed score alone is used to determine your grade.
  • BOOTH doesn't have Skill Analyzer courses, something added to the next game.
  • FX notes in BOOTH are dark green. In all subsequent releases, they're bright orange.
• Fake Longevity: Before the introduction of North America-specific builts, Blaster unlocks took forever to unlock in the US, due to Blaster Start being unavailable, as cabinets would use Japanese builds with all PASELI features enabled, rather than using pan-Asia builds that have Blaster Start and other otherwise-PASELI features available as coin modes. As of the North American release of EXCEED GEAR, Blaster Start is available at double the cost of Normal mode.
• Fictional Currency: Packets (Pc) and Blocks (Blc). Packets are used to purchase Appeal Cards (i.e. in-game avatars), while Blocks are used to purchase song charts.
  • Starting in VIVID WAVE, PCB replaces both Blocks and Packets.
  • Starting in NABLA, Blocks and Packets have been reintroduced, with Blocks being convertible into Packets, and Packets now being used to obtain Appeal Boards and Appeal Parts through a gacha system.
• Gimmick Level:
  • Some charts have a disproportionately high number of knob trails compared to button notes. #Fairy_dancing_in_lake EXH is one of the more infamous examples of this.
  • Basically, if the chart was effected by Hirayasu Matsudo, expect it to be one of these.
  • Attack on Dwarf EXH takes this up to eleven. The chart has a maximum chain of 1700, but only contains 24 FX taps and 4 BT holds, which contribute 141 to the chain. The rest is knobs.
  • TWO-TORIAL is a gimmick track in a different way: a large chunk of the chart features some sections where Voltenizer Maxima tells you to "Listen..." to the background track, while the chart scrolling pauses, and then the scrolling resumes as he says "Go!", with you attempting to hit the notes to replicate the measures you just heard.
• Game-Breaking Bug: One happened during the 4th KAC in 2015 that prevented finalists from playing the intended Final Boss song "Everlasting Message". Instead, they were given a filler round of "For UltraPlayers" (the final round song of the previous KAC) and had to come back a month later for another shot at "Everlasting Message".
• Harder Than Hard:
  • The difficulties go Novice, Advanced, and then Exhaust.
  • Infinite Infection ups the ante by introducing the Infinite difficulty, which is only available for select songs. GRAVITY WARS, HEAVENLY HAVEN, VIVID WAVE, and EXCEED GEAR have the Gravity, Heavenly, Vivid, and Exceed difficulties respectively, which are alternative names for this difficulty; the name used depends on which game the chart was introduced in. All of these difficulties have two major things in common: They're often used for songs from previous versions, often to introduce chart gimmicks that were not present in the song's debut version; and they have to be unlocked, typically through Blaster Gate.
  • HEAVENLY HAVEN adds Maximum difficulty, which is on par with Infinite/Gravity/Heavenly/Vivid/Exceed. Unlike those difficulties, new songs from SDVX IV onwards always come with Maximum charts. This means you can tell if a fourth-difficulty chart was added with the song, or if it was originally from Gravity Wars or earlier and got a newer chart.
  • An update to EXCEED GEAR in 2025 added Ultimate difficulty (ULT), which is a fifth difficulty tier that sits above MXM/INF/GRV/VVD/XCD. It's currently only available for one song, "Everlasting Message".
• High-Tech Hexagons: EXCEED GEAR makes extensive use of hexagons in its UI and background design. On top of complementing its neofuturistic space sci-fi look, it also doubles as a Visual Pun, as hexagons are six-sided, and EXCEED GEAR is the sixth entry in the series.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Novice (NOV), Advanced (ADV), Exhaust (EXH), Maximum (MXM^note In itself an idiosyncratic way of abbreviating "maximum", which is traditionally shortened to "max"), Infinite (INF) / Gravity (GRV) / Heavenly (HVN) / Vivid (VVD) / Exceed (XCD)^note which of these five difficulty names is used depends on what game the chart debuted in. No NABLA-specific difficulty name exists yet., Ultimate (ULT).
• Interface Screw:
  • When using a knob, the playfield tilts accordingly. Sound Voltex II will play this straight with charts requiring the knobs to be held at a certain state (thus keeping it tilted).
  • Occasionally, using the knobs will cause the track to Do a Barrel Roll! The crossover boss song "VALLIS-NERIA" is infamous for doing this many times during the chart.
  • Gravity Wars introduces multiple new screws: the chart shaking on certain notes, the chart switching to an overhead view at some points, and the chart zooming in extremely close to the notes, among others.
  • As of Heavenly Haven, four boss songs have a unique screw: at some point in the song, the chart lanes disappear.
  • Heavenly Haven also introduces songs where the chart comes to a complete halt. This was introduced with the song "Doppelganger", and also appears on three other boss songs (Ikazuchi, TWO-TORIAL, I). I in particular also has the screen go completely black during its stop.
  • Plenty of times in KAC, the final songs will do something to the note lanes to catch the finalists off-guard. The impact is helped by being freshly debuted songs, so the players have absolutely no idea what to expect. Some of the notable examples include 7th KAC's "I" turning off the screen briefly and turning it back on again without warning, 9th KAC's "666" cleaving the lane in two, and 10th KAC's "MixxioN" riddling your screen with bullet holes.
  • The MXM chart of "Voice 7 Voice!!!!!!!" features a section with a lot of left-and-right slams (right-angle laser turns) in rapid succession. This plays hell with the way the playfield tilts based on knob position, causing it to shake violently in a way that can be hard to read.
• Joke Level:
  • "Nyan Cat", simply due to the song itself, although the charts are decidedly not joke charts.
  • "GRACE-chan no chou~zetsu!! GRAVITY kouza w", the April Fools' Day joke of 2016.
  • "Maxima sensei no mankai!! HEAVENLY kouza", the AFD joke of 2018.
  • "*Feels Seasickness...*" is more like a joke boss (and not the easy kind), due to the song itself being a stark contrast from every other winning KAC song.
• Kaizo Trap: Like in other BEMANI games that have this song, Nostalgia crossover Fly Far Bounce has a small number of notes before the actual ending.
• Konami Code: Selecting "Shiawase ni Nareru Kakushi Command ga Arerushii" on EXH difficulty and inputting the Konami Code^note turn the right knob left twice, then right twice; then turn the left knob left and right twice; then BT-B and BT-A will unlock its XCD difficulty chart.
  • The song "↑↑↓↓←→←→BA" made its game debut in EXCEED GEAR, with the song itself being made to celebrate the code's 35th anniversary. Its higher-difficulty charts feature knob patterns that make left and right arrow shapes and spell out B and A as they're sung in the song.
• Level Ate: kamome sano's cutesy French dessert-themed songs: éclair au chocolait, choux à la crème, crêpe suzette and petits fours.
• Life Meter:
  • In normal play, you get a special Life Meter called the "Effective Rate". It doesn't end the game if you hit 0%, but you do need to end the song with the meter at 70% or higher to pass.
  • In Skill Analyzer, you get a straight lifebar, the "Permissive Rate", that results in a TRACK CRASH if it hits 0% at any point.
  • Another straight lifebar is available in normal play, called the "Excessive Rate", with a higher penalty for missing.
• Lighter and Softer: Unlike BOOTH, which primarily uses a blue and black interface, infinite infection uses a primarily pink and white interface. Also, Heavenly Haven uses a blue and white interface in contrast to Gravity Wars's black and orange, more similar to the likes of DDR A and IIDX Happy Sky, and doesn't seem to a villain of some sort.
• Musical Gameplay: Played with. Hitting non-hold notes and long BTN notes won't influence the background track, but hitting long FX notes and following the VOL notes will create filter effects that "mix" the track. If you don't hit any of these notes at all, the track will sound as intended, while doing so will give the impression of mixing a track as part of a DJ's set. This is why chart designers aka "Effectors" are given credit, unlike in most other rhythm games.
• Mythology Gag: "DISTORDER" MXM features knob patterns that mimic the fader patterns seen in the original INFLUENCE chart in PolarisChord.
• Non-Indicative Name: "TWO-TORIAL" is very much not a Tutorial Level.
• Noob Bridge: A common newbie mistake is turning the knobs extremely hard for slam notes. In truth, the knobs do not pay attention to the speed at which you turn the knob—only that you're turning them in the right direction. Getting a feel for how the knobs work and how to properly read the patterns is a rite of passage for intermediate-level players.
• Number of the Beast: 666 by RoughSketch, the winning song in the 9th KAC Original Song Contest. It also plays in 666 BPM!
• Oddly Named Sequel: The second version is actually "Sound Voltex II: Infinite Infection", the third is named "Sound Voltex III: Gravity Wars". and the fourth is named "Sound Voltex IV: Heavenly Haven." The fifth game, Sound Voltex Vivid Wave, doesn't have a number proper, likely instead using a play on the fact that "V" is the Roman numeral '5'.
• Portmanteau: "EXTRACK" = EXTRA + TRACK.
• Procedural Generation:
  • VIVID WAVE introduced a game mode called "AUTOMATION HEAVEN", which involves the player selecting four songs. The game then mixes all four of them in one 180 BPM set list, seamlessly transitioning between songs and charts throughout.
  • EXCEED GEAR expanded upon the example above with "MEGAMIX BATTLE", this time with two players selecting a set of five songs to mix. The resulting set list is usually around eight minutes, and each player gets one opportunity during the match to select what song plays next amongst the songs that haven't been played yet amongst their selection.
• Punny Name:
  • The title "Sound Voltex" is a subversion of Japanese Ranguage; given the electronic/futuristic look of the game, its a worthy pun.
  • Rasis's name is pronounced "ray-sis", referring to the extensive use of light "rays" for notes.
  • Grace's name also has a "ray" sound.
• Required Spinoff Crossover:
  • "FLOWER", though remixed by REDALiCE. The original version was made available in Gravity Wars as part of an inter-company crossover event.
  • Also 凛として咲く花の如く, but also remixed, this time by Machigerita.
• Sampling: Dreamin' feat Ryu has a lot of samples. (fittingly, some of them are from other Ryu songs such as Second Heaven or Thunderbolt)
• Scoring Points:
  • The game's regular scoring system awards up to 10 million points for the track. An Critical (or S-Critical, if enabled) earns the full value of each note, a Near earns 50% of the note's value, and an Error earns nothing. Only chip notes can be awarded Nears, long notes and ticks thereof will always be either Criticals (or S-Criticals, if enabled) or Errors.
  • EXCEED GEAR introduces EX Scoring, and with it, the S-Critical note judgement. S-Critical awards 5 points if it's on a Chip note and 2 points if it's a Long note or Tsumami note tick, Critical awards 4 points, Near awards 2 points, and Error awards 0. EX Score is expressed as both a raw score as well as, depending on the player's options, a percentage of the maximum score with one decimal place (so an EX Score of 1800 out of 2000, for example, would be shown as "MAX 90.0%") or how many points away from the max (so the aforementioned score would be shown as "MAX -200").
• Series Mascot: Rasis, the pink-haired girl seen in a lot of official art, serves as the game's main mascot.
• Socialization Bonus:
  • Playing local multiplayer will allow you to play tracks that the other players have unlocked that you have not unlocked yet. However, this won't unlock the track for you to play at any time; you still have to unlock it by yourself.
  • Playing either multiplayer will save you from a Track Crash if at least one other player clears the track and either (a) you're using Effective Rate or Alternative Rate or (b) you're playing local multiplayer. (Failing with Excessive Rate or Permissive Rate in online multiplayer will still disconnect you and end your credit.)
• Some Dexterity Required: At first, the gameplay premise seems simple enough: you hit six buttons and manipulate two analog knobs in accordance with the notes. However, harder charts will require you to frequently juggle between the two input types. Two parameters on the Effect Radar on the song select basically determine how much of this trope will apply to the chart: "One-Hand" indicates how much you may have to use one hand on the knobs while using the other hand to hit the buttons, while "Hand-Trip" indicates how frequently you will have to cross your hands or similar technical maneuvers. By the time you reach the highest difficulty levels, you will be experienced in using each of your fingers on each of your hands to hit each of the buttons and knobs.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To beatmania. Both are BEMANI games involve making sound effects by hitting notes and have one row of white keys and one row of black keys, but both games contrast in several ways:
  • beatmania gives you a background music track with missing bits and you have to fill in those bits by pressing keys in time to falling notes. Sound Voltex, on the other hand, gives you a track that is already complete and you hit notes to add effects to it.
  • beatmania maintains a minimalist note-scrolling interface with very few changes ever to the gameplay mechanics, while Sound Voltex makes use of fancy interface effects that can potentially screw over the player and each new game has added at least one new gameplay gimmick.
  • While beatmania is best known for its collection of in-house and commissioned tracks, Sound Voltex features some of those but also allows and encourages fans to submit tracks for use in the game through Sound Voltex Floor contests.
• Suddenly Voiced:
  • Voltenizer Maxima actually has voiced lines in "TWO-TORIAL", telling you to "Listen..." (to the background track) and then "Go!" (replicate what you just heard by playing the relevant portion of the chart). The same gimmick is repeated for the April Fools' Day track "Maxima sensei no mankai!! HEAVENLY kouza".
  • Rasis later gained voiced lines for the in-game tutorial on VIVID WAVE.
    • Rasis then gained voice lines in EXCEED GEAR for various menu interactions, from logging in, to commenting on scores, to asking if you want to play again.
  • While initially in EXCEED GEAR Rasis's voice remained for all other characters as navigators, several characters eventually got voice lines for the first time via unlockable navigators, including Grace, Tsumabuki, Left, Right, Kureha, and Near & Noah.
  • "HEAVEN KNOWS" features vocals from Grace's voice actress.
• Temporary Online Content: No song was removed from the series until June 1, 2016, when "Cyber Thunder Cider" was removed due to an expired license.
  • Another series of removals in March 2018 actually required "KAC 2012 ULTIMATE MEDLEY" to be retroactively modified to remove the affected song.
• Testosterone Poisoning: Voltenizer Maxima, a hulking, muscular man whose design is based on the SDVX cabinet.
  • Nishinippori could count as a lesser example. He's a rather ripped man who hardly wears anything, usually shouts in a Large Ham type manner and has a job as a bodyguard.
• Wham Line / Shot: At least in the KAC, multiple times even.
  • KAC 2013: The winning tracks Bangin' Burst and For UltraPlayers are revealed just before the game is played, but everyone was in for a shock seeing the difficulty jump to 16!
  • The 4th KAC: After XD2.BOT has been dubbed the champion, 'Gravity Wars' antagonist GRACE appears in the big screen with an extra mission for the winner - a medley of the 12 winning songs from KAC 2012.
  • The 5th KAC: The track lanes in Lachryma《Re:Queen'M》 disappear at the final verse of the song.
  • The 7th KAC: After being inactive/missing from BEMANI for about two years, chiptune composer Chroma suddenly appears with the winning song ''I''. Absolutely no one in the crowd expected him - not even the players!
  • The 8th KAC: Before both songs were revealed, dj TAKA announces that there will be two winning songs for the KAC once again. Speaking of inactive/missing artists, Kabocha's ΣmbryØ was announced as the first winner, rendering even the MC's shocked. As for the second song, MAD CHILD stops dj TAKA in his talk before the song is revealed, giving a cryptic hint that refers to changing BPMs in the song. Then Camellia's *Feels Seasickness...* is announced as the winner, with young character Kanade Yamashina appearing on the jacket. Most of the crowd (and the live chat) had already jokingly expected denpa vocalist Nanahira, considering Camellia's heavy association with her as well as her own association with this character. 15 seconds into the song...
• What If?: The album art for "Nexta" depicts an alternate scenario◊ where the Nemsys crew are corrupted and Grace is the only one left. The illustration credits for each difficulty even make a blurb that sounds like it'd fit right at home at the end of an anime episode.
  NOV: ...But was the world really saved?
  ADV: The praying girl offered herself as a sacrifice to the end of the world, and resurrected the sleeping girl.
  EXH: Now filled with resolve, she decides to make this dream come true...
  GRV: SOUND VOLTEX III: GRAVITY WARS - Episode if: The "Next" Battle -Lament-