| Pump It Up |
|
| Developer(s) |
Andamiro |
| Publisher(s) |
Andamiro |
| Release date(s) |
August 1999 |
| Genre(s) |
Music |
| Mode(s) |
Single player using five or ten panels or two players using five panels each |
| Platform(s) |
|
| Input |
Ten square pressure sensitive panels |
| Arcade cabinet |
Custom |
Pump It Up, commonly abbreviated as PIU, is a rhythm video game developed by Andamiro, a Korean coin-operated games producer. Similar to Konami's dancing game Dance Dance Revolution, players use their feet to step on arrows according to the music.
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Contents
- 1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Difficulty
- 1.2 Combos
- 1.3 Jumps
- 1.4 Hold notes
- 1.5 Modifiers
- 1.6 Final rating
- 2 Game modes
- 3 Home versions
- 4 The songs
- 5 Releases
- 5.1 1st Dance Floor: The Ultimate Remix (Arcade)
- 5.2 2nd Dance Floor (Arcade)
- 5.3 The Fusion / 1st & 2nd Dance Floor (PC)
- 5.4 3rd O.B.G. (Oldies But Goodies) (Arcade/PC)
- 5.5 3rd O.B.G. SE (Seasonal Evolution) (Arcade/PC)
- 5.6 The Collection (Arcade/PC)
- 5.7 Perfect Collection (Arcade/PC)
- 5.8 Extra Mix (Arcade)
- 5.9 The Premiere / The International Dance Floor (Arcade)
- 5.10 The PREX (Arcade)
- 5.11 Rebirth (Arcade)
- 5.12 Premiere 2 / The 2nd International Dance Floor (Arcade)
- 5.13 PREX 2 (Arcade)
- 5.14 Premiere 3 / The 3rd International Dance Floor (Arcade)
- 5.15 PREX 3 / The 4th International Dance Floor (Arcade/PC)
- 5.16 Exceed / The 5th International Dance Floor (Arcade)
- 5.17 Exceed 2 / The 6th International Dance Floor (Arcade)
- 5.18 In The Groove 2 (Arcade)
- 5.19 Exceed SE (PS2/Xbox)
- 5.20 Zero (Arcade) / The 7th International Dance Floor
- 5.20.1 New Songs
- 5.20.2 Another Step songs
- 6 See also
- 7 External links
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Gameplay
Each Pump It Up dance machine consists of a pad connected to the machine's computer hardware. On the dance pad are 5 buttons: two red ones on the corners closest to the cabinet, two blue ones on the corners farthest from the cabinet, and a yellow one in the middle. On the screen of the machine itself, arrows corresponding to each of these buttons scroll towards the top of the screen, and the player steps on the buttons on the dance pad when the arrow corresponding to the direction on the pad aligns itself with a set of stationary arrows at the top of the screen (sometimes called "targets" or "receptors").
Players receive a judgment for each step based on the accuracy of the step. Judgments include, from best to worst, Perfect, Great, Good, Bad and Miss. The size of these judgments vary from version to version, and sometimes depend on the difficulty of the machine set by the machine operator.
Players generally play until the number of songs they have paid for have been played (usually between 2-5 songs), or the player has failed a song. In some cases, players may "fail" a song and cause their play to end early, and in others, players may earn a bonus song for exemplary performance on songs played previously during the round. Also, the machine operator may turn on a function known as "Stage Break," causing play to stop immediately once a player's lifebar is depleted. If Stage Break is off, players only fail the song (and cause play to stop) by getting a combo of 51 consecutive misses.
Difficulty
The steps for the various levels of difficulty available for a particular song are ranked using a numerical scale, which varies from version to version.
Before Exceed — more information about game versions is available in the Releases section — was released, the difficulty for all game modes ranged from 1 to 10, with the exception of "Vook", a song introduced on The Premiere 2, which was level 12 on Double mode. These difficulty ratings were only useful with respect to other songs in the same mode: a level 5 Crazy song will likely be easier than a Crazy song ranked 8, but is probably more difficult than a 7 on Hard. With Exceed's debut, all levels were reworked, in a unified range from 1 to 15 for Crazy mode and ranging as high as 20 for Nightmare mode. The rating system was again slightly reworked for the upper level songs with Exceed 2's release, raising the range to 20 for Crazy and going even higher for Nightmare mode, with a high of 22. Exceed 2 also added the infamous "??" rating for the truly top-tier songs. However, the difficulty ratings are by nature subjective, so are not always deemed accurate.
The way the difficulty rating appears on screen also varies a bit, depending on the version's interface: on The Premiere, The PREX, The Premiere 2, Exceed and Exceed 2 , the difficulty is indicated by a natural number, like "3" or "8"; on all other versions, they are indicated by a line of circles, with as many circles as the level of the song.
After the release of PIU Zero, the difficulty has been scaled from 1 to beyond 20, with the highest one now being 23. This number is sure to be passed in upcoming releases, and some unrated songs are arguably more difficult than the level 23. These include some of the "another step" songs, which are all given a level of "??".
Combos
Combos are attained by successfully pressing consecutive arrows, earning a judgment of "Perfect" or "Great". Combos greater than or equal to 4 are displayed below the judgment rating during gameplay. Step judgments of "Good" do not break a player's combo, but do not add to it. Before "Extra" version "Good" does break a player's combo. Attaining a combo of the entire length of a song is called a full combo, and completing a song while attaining all "Perfect" judgments is called a full perfect combo or FPC.
Jumps
Sometimes, a player may be asked to press two or more arrows simultaneously. When two arrows arrive at the receptors simultaneously, this is known as a jump, as the player must jump in the air to hit the two arrows with their two feet at the same time.
On the harder songs, three arrows or more may go up at once. In such cases, players normally try to hit two pad buttons with a single foot, or stoop and use their hands and/or knees to help.
In newer versions of Pump It Up, jumps increment the combo counter by one. However, the versions up to The O.B.G. SE, however, scored jumps differently: each arrow was independent, meaning hitting only one arrow of a two-arrow jump would count as a non-MISS (a PERFECT, for example) followed by a MISS, and hitting both could increase the player's combo by two. This behavior resembles Beatmania and other rhythm games, as well as Dance Dance Revolution's Solo series. Multi-arrow steps were introduced first in Pump It Up, on the first release of the game in 1999.
Hold notes
The Extra, Exceed, and Premiere 3 versions as well as the Prex series also feature another kind of arrow on screen, normally called a hold note, a freeze note (from DDR) or a long note. These arrows look like stretched versions of the regular arrows. Their corresponding button must be held until the whole arrow passes through the gray arrows on the top. If the arrow is released before the hold is completed, one can resume holding it regardless of how long the note wasn't held for (unlike DDR and other similar games, where letting go of a note for a long enough time would count the note as a MISS).
For each half-beat or quarter-beat — the duration depends on the game version and song "tick count" — a hold note is held, a PERFECT is scored; if it is not held, a MISS is counted.
Modifiers
Since the first release, all game modes accept modifiers which are enabled by using special codes. The effects vary from speeding arrows up to making them fade as they go up, or making them appear in random places instead of their pre-defined column (while still being on the same beat).
Most players, after a starting period, get used to applying the modifiers to make arrows faster, which makes them more spaced. This is a matter of personal preferences, but top tier players generally prefer to apply these modifiers to make the arrows scroll towards the top of the screen at a very fast pace.
Final rating
When a song is cleared, a results screen appears, which shows how many PERFECTs, GREATs, GOODs, BADs and MISSes were attained, and the max combo. Then a final rating is given, which may be S, A, B, C, D, or F. An S means that no MISSes were made, while an F means a fail, and generally the player can't proceed to play another song.
Bonus stage
If all stages are cleared with an A or an S the player will be able to choose an extra song to play. This is called the bonus stage.
From a bonus stage, it is not possible to get another bonus stage.
Game modes
Playing
double (with both pads)
Normal (Easy)
On a few versions called Easy, but most often Normal, arrows hardly ever are off-beat. Additionally, jumps normally have no other arrows close to them, so players can understand them and get prepared in time.
The difficulty for this mode ranges from levels 1 to 7.
Hard
Almost all songs have off-beat arrows, especially 8th notes (half-beat). 16th-notes are infrequent.
The difficulty for this mode normally ranges from 3 to 8, with a few exceptions ranging from 2 to 10.
Crazy
The hardest single mode. All songs have half-beat notes, and most also have 16th or 24th notes.
The difficulty for this mode, until Exceed was released, ranged from 1 to 10; now, however, all levels were reworked, and this mode now ranges from 7 onwards, now stretching to 21 with Zero's release.
Division
In this mode the player(s) are presented with choice making sections during a song which give them choices to change the mode at the point (each side being separate):
- G – Groove Style: a sort of step chart for freestyling; most commonly resembles hard mode.
- W – Wild Style: a harder set of steps, resembles Hard mode and Crazy mode depending on the song — it can also get more difficult than Crazy if only Ws are pressed on certain songs.
If no choice is made during the choice making section the player who missed the choice making point is set to normal mode. It should also be noted that the songs have no set difficulty levels and instead the level is displayed as "??" due to the fact the player can change the difficulty. Until Zero, this was the only way to have separate difficulties for two players on PIU, and was only present on Rebirth and Premiere 2. Andamiro only made 23 songs available on this mode, one of which seemed unfinished — A Prison Without Bars.
Freestyle (Double)
Previously called Double, but since The Prex 3 called Freestyle. In this mode, a single player uses both pads, having a total of 10 panels to potentially navigate. Most songs here are very similar to their Hard counterparts, with the additional challenge of having to move across both pads.
The difficulty for this mode normally ranges from 3 to 8, with a few exceptions ranging from 1 to 12, or more. Vook and Love is a Danger Zone 2 are the extreme exceptions, with ratings of 15 and 18 respectively.
Nightmare
Introduced in The Prex 3, Nightmare is a harder Double mode. It is deemed as the ultimate challenge Pump it Up has to offer.
In The Prex 3, all Nightmare songs are of level 99 (which just shows up as a horizontal line of skulls going from one side of the screen to the other), but on Exceed the songs have actual difficulties and can go from 8 to 20.
In Exceed 2, difficulties for Nightmare mode went up to "21", "22" and "??".
In Pump it Up: Zero, the song Love is a Danger Zone 2 has been rated at "23".
Extra Expert (XX)
Instead of featuring the traditional Crazy mode, the Extra version had the Extra Expert, where songs had a special difficulty rating. Other versions use the same steps from this mode in their Crazy mode.
One unique characteristic, though, is that songs have both single and double steps listed in this mode. The Extra Expert Double steps were, like the later-introduced Nightmare steps, harder than the original Double steps. However, these step sequences are not available in any other release – even the songs that already had XX Double steps in Extra got brand new sequences for their Nightmare versions.
The difficulty in this mode ranges from "1st Level" to "5th Level", with one song ("Can Can") being of a 6th "Final Level".
Half-Double
In this mode, a single player stays in the center of both pads and uses the inner six arrows to play: the center and rightmost arrows from the left pad, and the center and leftmost arrows from the right pad.
The difficulty in this mode ranges from 2 to 10. This mode was present in Rebirth, Premiere 2, Premiere 3, and Prex 3.
Nonstop Remix
This mode first appeared in Korean releases, and featured longer songs normally mixing two or three songs from artists featured in other songs of the game (most of the mixed songs also were part of the game). As the songs are longer, many people consider them also more tiring. Most versions of the game consider songs played in Remix mode to be worth more than one song due to their length, so often players will get to play fewer songs in Remix mode than in a normal mode.
Just like Extra Expert, this mode also features single and double versions of each song.
The difficulty in this mode ranges from 4 to 7, with an exception at level 9.
Nonstop Remixes later made a return in the Exceed 2 version, and are now graded on the same 1-20 scale as the rest of the songs, despite having higher numbers than certain stepcharts might normally have. Also, all the remixes in Exceed 2 now have Crazy, and occasional Nightmare, modes of play, a first in the series.
Battle Mode
In this game mode, two players compete on two songs in hard mode and a song in crazy mode. The winner for each song is the player who gets the highest score.
On versions up to The Premiere, a player could "attack" (cause the effect of a modifier, like speed up or vanish) to the opponent's scrolling arrows by accumulating a combo and then breaking it. The effect depended on the combo accumulated by the attacker. On The Prex and Extra this attacking feature was removed. Recently released Exceed 2 brought it back in a whole new "station" as it was referred to. There would be extra bonus arrows containing power ups activated by action steps that come up later which launches the attack. The battle could be decided in only 1 song in most cases.
Stage Break does not affect this mode.
Combo Battle Mode
In this mode the players rack up combos and the highest combo count wins. The only requirement to win is to get a higher max combo.
This mode was introduced in The Premiere 2/Rebirth.
Hybrid Battle Mode
Introduced in PIU Exceed 2. Players could select one NSR for the price of one player (equivalent of 2 songs) and battle each other using icons that would scroll up to the indicators as well. Different icons represented different attacks... players could also just play plain Hybrid. The step charts change depending on how well the players are doing.
Mission Mode
Introduced in PIU Zero, this mode is basically clearing songs that are modified as "Missions" and more are unlocked after finishing other missions. There are about 30 missions. Clearing them will give reward like hidden songs, skins, and other modes. Each mission is divided into three songs, or stages, and are ranked in difficulty by the number of stars shown. If a song is failed, the player is also given an option to continue the mission and attempt the stage again.
Another Step
Introduced in PIU Zero, this mode has songs which have alternate stepcharts. Most of the charts on this mode are experimental with unique (and often weird or extremely difficult) elements inside unlike any other stepcharts found in the game. Another steps are only playable in one remix from Exceed 2, while Zero devotes an entire Channel to it. Zero's channel includes several regular songs from the game. The songs in it and even the channel itself have to be unlocked slowly over time by playtime and clearing missions. The full song list of this station can be found later on in this article.
Home versions
Andamiro eventually released home versions of the arcade game. These versions are designed to run on PCs, coming with a CD containing the game and a special dance mat, with arrows of the same size as the arcade's pads.
On Korean versions, the mat is connected through the PS/2 port, and comes with an adapter to share it with the keyboard. On international versions, the mat uses a USB plug.
PIU can be simulated by programs such as Kick It Up and StepMania.
On November 11, 2004, Andamiro released the Korean version of Pump It Up: Exceed on the Playstation 2, which includes most of the songs from the arcade Exceed version. A Japanese/Asian PS2 is required to play the game. An American version of the game was released on August 31, 2005 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 under the title Pump It Up!: Exceed SE [1]. This version includes most of the songs from the Korean PS2 version, as well as arcade songs unavailable in the Korean version. In addition, six US licensed songs were also included.
The songs
The songs used in Pump It Up are normally Pop songs or specially-produced music, created by a musical division of Andamiro. As of Pop, the first versions featured several K-Pop artists, like Baby V.O.X., Fin. K.L. and S.E.S.. As the game's popularity grew on other countries, international Pop and Latin Pop began to appear.
A special musical division of Andamiro, called Banya, is in charge of making new songs targeted especially for the game. Of all songs released until the Exceed version (202, not counting the nonstop remixes), there are 60 songs by Banya (about 30% of the total).
Songs are all between 1:20 and 1:55, with Nonstop Remixes being approximately 2:30 in length (with one exception - Canon-D, which is slightly over three minutes long).
Releases
1st Dance Floor: The Ultimate Remix (Arcade)
Released: October 1999
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Double, Nonstop Remix, Battle
The first version released. Features 15 normal songs, and 4 nonstop remixes.
From this version, songs that became particularly popular were "Funky Tonight", by the Korean pop group Clon, and "Another Truth" (also known as "Cordiality"), by Novasonic. "Funky Tonight" is one of the most used songs for freestyling.
2nd Dance Floor (Arcade)
Released: December 1999
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Double, Nonstop Remix, Nonstop Remix Double, Battle
The second release, featuring 4 old songs, an old remix, 17 new songs and 6 new remixes. The same interface from the first version is used, and one of the new nonstop remixes is hidden and can only be found with special codes.
To play the Nonstop Remix songs in double, a special code is needed when selecting the Nonstop Remix mode.
The Fusion / 1st & 2nd Dance Floor (PC)
Released: 1999
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Double, Nonstop Remix, Nonstop Remix Double, Battle
The first home version; there are no arcade counterparts for this one. It includes songs from both 1st and 2nd releases, summing up 32 songs and 10 nonstop remixes.
No new songs are introduced in this version; it is the first "collection" release, which just packs old songs.
3rd O.B.G. (Oldies But Goodies) (Arcade/PC)
Released: May 2000
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Crazy, Double, Nonstop Remix (single/double), Battle
The first version which offered Crazy mode, though a special code was needed to enable it. The code also has effect on Nonstop Remix, but cancels out the effect of the Nonstop Remix Double code if used.
A new interface appeared: the blue arrows are used to scroll through the available songs, which appear in pairs on the top of the screen. Each of the red arrows is used to choose one of those songs. The center arrow has no purpose other than entering codes.
Having a completely renewed song list, this release brought back to life many well-known Korean hits from the 90's. The Banya songs, although new, were also Korean-90's-styled. Only 2 songs from a total of 23 were from older versions, and both came with new harder stepcharts: Extravaganza and Another Truth (this one also had a new BGA). The 7 remixes included the hidden remix from 2nd Dance Floor (which was no longer hidden), also with a whole new stepchart.
3rd O.B.G. SE (Seasonal Evolution) (Arcade/PC)
Released: September 2000
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Crazy, Double, Nonstop Remix (single/double), Battle
Apart from songs, there isn't much new in this version. Same interface as the previous version. A special feature, though, is that it features a secret song, "Kiss", which can't be found in any other version.
14 songs and a single nonstop remix were added, as well as several songs from previous mixes.
The Collection (Arcade/PC)
Released: November 2000
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Double, Nonstop Remix (single/double), Battle
A new "collection" release, which packs all previously released songs (except for SE's secret song) in an O.B.G.-style interface.
Though there are no new productions, this version features a total of 66 songs and 18 nonstop remixes.
Perfect Collection (Arcade/PC)
Released: December 2000
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Double, Nonstop Remix (single/double), Battle
As the title suggests, this version improves The Collection by featuring all songs that appeared in that version and adding 17 new songs (no new remixes). That means 83 songs and 18 remixes.
The interface is similar to the previous ones, but with a new game mode selection screen which offers Crazy mode without the need of a special code. Also, in the song select screen, instead of representing songs by small pictures it shows a roulette with slanted labels, each with a song name written to it. This change is particularly unfriendly among non-Korean players (which, though this is another Korean release, may play this version on arcades that imported the game).
This version was later released for PC, but using an interface similar to The Premiere, described below. The PC version was released internationally.
Extra Mix (Arcade)
Released: February 2001
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Extra Expert (single/double), Double, Nonstop Remix (single/double), Battle
As it is another Korean release, this version should be considered another successor of The Perfect Collection, not from The Premiere.
This version is quite unique: it changed Crazy's name to Extra Expert (or XX for short), introduced a brand new interface, a new Double challenge (the XX Double) and the hold arrows. As it is a Korean release, the Nonstop Remix mode returned.
On the new interface, the blue arrows choose the songs as usual, but the red arrows change the game mode. With a single credit one can play songs from any mode (considering the limitations like Double modes only being available when there's only one person playing, and Battle mode only being available when there are two players). Like in The Premiere, the center arrow is used to confirm the selection.
This version was actually produced by F2System, an Andamiro affiliate which also produced in 2000 the Techno Motion dance simulation game. Two of the songs from this version are signed by F2: "Holiday" and "Can Can". Can Can, which now has an artist of Radezky since its inclusion on Prex 3, appears in the KPOP section of Exceed, despite being produced specifically for Pump It Up. It has since been moved to the Banya channel in Exceed 2.
23 new songs were added, and 5 nonstop remixes.
The Premiere / The International Dance Floor (Arcade)
Released: June 2001
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Double, Battle
The first international release. Features 6 new songs, all of them covers of American Pop songs, from *NSYNC to a-ha, and 81 old songs (in other words, almost all the previous songs, minus remixes). Several songs were renamed, so that they had English names – or, at the very least, romanizations.
The interface has been redesigned: the blue arrows still navigate through the songs, but only one song appears on screen, which is confirmed with the center button. The red arrows are used only for entering codes, which are a lot simpler (and thus easier to memorize), and there's a single code for speeding up arrows instead of separate codes for each velocity, making it more user-friendly.
A special Brazilian version was also released, which featured, as well as the 6 international Pop songs in English, 8 additional Brazilian Pop songs in Portuguese by original artists (not covers).
The PREX (Arcade)
Released: November 2001
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Double, Battle
A new collection, aimed to fuse The Premiere and Extra (hence the name PREX). Contains The Premiere's 87 songs and Extra's 22 normal songs (nonstop remixes and the new version of Clon's "First Love" were not included).
The interface is from The Premiere.
Rebirth (Arcade)
Released: January 2002
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Crazy, Double, Half-Double, Division, Combo Battle
This Korean release features a slightly improved Premiere interface: different codes, and a new code to switch between Easy, Hard and Crazy modes (changing game mode from other modes is not possible).
Two new game modes were introduced: Division and Half-Double. Unfortunately for the Division lovers, this mode was dropped and no other version has offered it again, save Premiere 2.
There are 34 new and no old songs available in this version. Though it is a Korean release, the Nonstop Remix mode was not included.
This version was simultaneously released with The Premiere 2.
Premiere 2 / The 2nd International Dance Floor (Arcade)
Released: March 2002
Available game modes: Easy, Hard, Crazy, Full Double, Half-Double, Division, Combo Battle
The international counterpart for The Rebirth. The 34 new songs from Rebirth are featured, with 66 old songs from The Premiere (though this is an international release, there are no old or new international songs), plus 2 new songs from Banya: Vook and Csikos Post (the last one is a remix of Hermann Necke's song with same name). The new songs from Extra, which appeared on The PREX, are not available.
This version is normally not considered a collection, just an alternative version of The Rebirth. When attributing the new songs to a release, people often call those 36 songs (the Rebirth ones, plus Vook and Csikos Post) as "Premiere 2/Rebirth songs".
PREX 2 (Arcade)
Released: November 2002
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Full Double, Half-Double, Combo Battle
Fusing again the Premiere series with Extra, this international collection was released, with an Extra-style interface, all 36 songs from Premiere 2/Rebirth, 21 songs from Extra (the same included from The PREX, except for "Circus Magic") and the remaining 36 songs from previous versions that appeared in Extra, making up a total of 93 songs.
Premiere 3 / The 3rd International Dance Floor (Arcade)
Released: May 2003
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Full Double, Half-Double, Combo Battle
This international release features an Extra-style interface and 20 new songs, all from American Pop and Latin Pop, the latter due to the increasing success of PIU in Latin America, especially in Mexico.
However, featuring only 36 old songs (summing up to 56), and with 16 new ones being from unknown singers (although there's a cover of Gloria Estefan's Conga), not mentioning that most of the new songs had no challenging/difficult steps, this version is considered by an expressive number of fans as the worst PIU version ever made.
PREX 3 / The 4th International Dance Floor (Arcade/PC)
Released: October 2003
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Freestyle, Nightmare, Half-Double, Combo Battle
Breaking the PREX tradition, this version is not a collection, as it features 3 new songs and does not feature very many Extra songs. It uses the same interface (including same graphics) from The Premiere 3. In total, there are 77 songs.
Apart from the new songs, this version also featured the return of Banya's "Hypnosis" and "Ignition Starts", songs from the first version which never appeared in international releases, a few new step routines for old songs and the Nightmare mode, bringing the challenge in the game to a new degree.
There were also some major international licenses that were made for this mix and intended to be released with the game, but since Andamiro didn't get the licensing for them they were taken off the Stage.cfg file, which the machine uses to show songs on the song select screen. One could "unlock" these hidden songs by altering the Stage.cfg file.
There was also a special release of PREX3 for arcade that did not include the rap songs with profanity in them, which brought the song list down to 72 on this version.
In December, the PC version of The PREX 3 was released, with all the songs from Prex 3, plus Banya's song An Interesting View from 3rd OBG.
Exceed / The 5th International Dance Floor (Arcade)
Released: April 2004
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Freestyle, Nightmare, Battle
As this is the 10th arcade release (not counting collections), this version has an X (a Roman 10) in its logo, and a name making a reference to that: Exceed.
This release introduces yet another interface, where the songs are divided into three channels (Banya, Pop and K-Pop). The player uses the red arrows to change the channel, and the blue arrows, as usual, to change the song. Once the player confirms their song choice with the yellow arrow, the player can choose on which difficulty they'd like to play the song.
An interesting fact is that this version uses a completely new hardware, making upgrades from older versions not so simple, but offering a much more responsive and visually improved interface and interaction.
Exceed also uses a new operator menu interface which allows an arcade owner to lock out songs they deem inappropriate for the arcade.
This version features 24 new songs from a total of 102.
Exceed 2 / The 6th International Dance Floor (Arcade)
Released: December 2004
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Freestyle, Nightmare, Battle, Remix
Featuring a slightly modified Exceed interface, the player first must choose between three game modes, called Stations:
- Arcade station
- The gameplay is similar to the previous games, featuring Normal, Hard and Crazy, and also Freestyle and Nightmare for single-players.
- Battle station
- A mode made especially for matches, featuring four different battle modes. It takes only one credit (instead of the usual two for two players), but only one song is played. The song is also limited to being selected from the remix selection (hard mode only). Special modifiers can affect gameplay, which are activated during gameplay by stepping on particular arrows, signified by specialized icons. The variety of available modifiers depends on the mode of battle selected (i.e. 'Minesweeper', 'Item Battle'). A pair of characters are also depicted on screen, who react to the loss of health during gameplay.
- Remix station
- A mode specifically for playing longer songs, in the old Nonstop Remix fashion. In this mode the player normally plays only 2 songs, with an extremely difficult Bonus song called "Raw" only being earned if the player obtains a grade of S on both Remix station songs.
This version features 18 new songs from a total of 136.
In The Groove 2 (Arcade)
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Main article: Pump It Up: In The Groove 2
Released: June 2005
Available game modes: Single, Double, Battle, Marathon, Survival
Roxor Games partnered with Andamiro to create a new dedicated cabinet for their successor to In The Groove. On June 18, 2005, Roxor Games announced that the game would become part of the Pump It Up line, though it would still be a four-panel game like Dance Dance Revolution. Actual cabinets barely mention Andamiro and Pump It Up, and only do so in the title banner in small lettering. This game was only given "Pump It Up" as part of its title due to partnering by Roxor and Andamiro in the arcade cabinet, and is not an official release in the 5-panel Pump It Up series. Currently, Roxor Games has ceased their partnership with Andamiro and manufactures their In The Groove cabinets themselves, independent of Andamiro.
Exceed SE (PS2/Xbox)
Released: August 2005
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Battle, Freestyle, Nightmare, Sudden Death, Home, Survival, Arcade, Video
Features the same interface as Pump it Up : Exceed arcade version with new features : an easy modifier menu and the ability to select separate difficulty levels from the other player under home mode.
There are 101 songs on the PS2 version and 97 songs on the Xbox version with the ability to download more songs on the Xbox version using Xbox Live. This version features 6 new songs to the series; Junkie XL's remix of A Little Less Conversation, Let's Groove by Earth, Wind, & Fire, I Love You Baby by Pandera, Name of the Game by Crystal Method, Rapper's Delight from Sugarhill Gang, and Walkie Talkie Man by Steriogram.
Zero (Arcade) / The 7th International Dance Floor
Released: February 2006
Available game modes: Normal, Hard, Crazy, Freestyle, Nightmare, Another, Mission, and Remix, plus the Easy Station for beginners.
In Februrary of 2006, Andamiro released a brand new version of Pump It Up: The International 7th Dance Floor. An easy mode was added for beginners. A brand new interface was implemented that allows preview of background animations when the player views a song prior to selection. Also, for the first time ever in an arcade release, two players are able to select two different levels of difficulty in the same song, at the same time.
New Songs
- BanYa - Beat of the War 2
- BanYa - Jump
- BanYa - Love is a Danger Zone 2
- BanYa - Moonlight
- BanYa - Papa Gonzales
- BanYa - Phantom
- BanYa - Witch Doctor
- Cachy Huang - Up Up
- Cho PD - My Friend
- Drunken Tiger - Emergency
- Eugene - Wuthering Heights
- Eun Ji Won - All Famy
- JTL - Enter the Dragon
- Jang Yoon Jung - Oh My
- Lazy Bone - Do It Yourself
- Louis - Chung Hwa Ban Jeom
- Mina - Turn Around
- Spooky Banana - Mr. Fire Fighter
- Pandera - I Love You Baby
- Perry - Storm
- T.O - Footprints
- Turtles - What's Goin' On
- Remix: Try to B.P.M - LIADZ
- Remix: K-Hip-Hop Mix Vol. 1
- Remix: K-House Mix Vol. 1
Another Step songs
-
- time/point-release unlocks
- Eres Para Mi - Another Freestyle - unlocked upon unlock of Another station
- Final Audition 2 - Another Crazy - unlocked upon unlock of Another station
- Final Audition 3 U.F - Another Nightmare - unlocked upon unlock of Another station
- Mexi Mexi - Another Nightmare - unlocked upon unlock of Another station
- My Friend - Another Freestyle - unlocked upon unlock of Another station
- Solitary 2 - Another Crazy - unlocked upon unlock of Another station
- Extravaganza - Another Crazy - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 7
- Final Audition 2 - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 11
- Love is a Danger Zone 2 - Another Hard - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 13
- Love is a Danger Zone 2 - Another Crazy - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 13
- Love is a Danger Zone 2 - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 13
- Naissance 2 - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 15
- Final Audition - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 17
- Do it Yourself - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 19
- Solitary 2 - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 21
- Mr. Larpus - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 23
- Extravaganza - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 25
- Another Truth - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 27
- Witch Doctor - Another Nightmare - time/point-release unlock - after opening of mission 29
-
- mission unlocks: must clear mission
- Love is a Danger Zone - Another Freestyle - mission unlock (mission 16)
- Love is a Danger Zone - Another Nightmare - mission unlock (mission 16)
- Witch Doctor - Another Crazy - mission unlock (mission 17)
- Final Audition - Another Crazy - mission unlock (mission 19)
- Join The Party - Another Nightmare - mission unlock (mission 20)
- Circus Magic - Another Nightmare - mission unlock (mission 26) [note: only mode playable for this song in the entire game]
- Vook - Another Freestyle - mission unlock (mission 27)
- Vook - Another Nightmare - mission unlock (mission 27)
- I'll Give You All My Love - Another Nightmare - mission unlock (mission 28)
See also
- List of dance games
- Dance Dance Revolution
- Comparison of panel-based music video games
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Pump It Up
- Andamiro website
- Pump It Up official website
- PIU4Home - Official site for the Exceed SE home version.
- Pump It Up Ranking – Official worldwide records database.
- Pump Haven – Fan site featuring an international Pump community, simfiles, game music and videos, and various other PIU media. The largest English-speaking international Pump community online.
- PH's PIU Master Song List 1 & 2 - Statistics on all released Pump It Up songs from all games, mix appearances, levels, artists, etc.
- Pump Xtreme - Pump Xtreme is the top online resource and community for Pump It Up players in the Americas and abroad since the year 2000.
- Pumpcore - Fan site, featuring forums and videos of top U.S. players.
Categories: Computer and video games developed in Korea | Arcade games | Dance video games