Here Comes a ‘New’ Challenger

I’m a Dance Dance Revolution player, however I am open to trying all rhythm games, even games that would challenge DDR’s domination of the dance game market. When I was first learning DDR, Pump It Up was a curiosity, but not something that I wanted to get into, because to a DDR player, PIU can be very confusing. In DDR the four buttons are arranged in a cross, at each of the four compass points: Up (North), Down (South), Left (West), and Right (East). In Pump It Up, the five buttons are arranged in an ‘X’, one in each corner, and one in the centre.

Five buttons? What is this “five buttons” nonsense? My few arcade experiences with PIU were embarrassing and a bit torturous. My feet were too used to the DDR pad layout. I found myself defaulting to the locations of the DDR buttons. I did not make it far in my PIU career, and so, I stuck to DDR.

I have seen experienced PIU players in action, in technical as well as freestyle (where the player attempts to actually dance whilst also passing the stage) routines. I have, of course, witnessed experienced freestyle and technical DDR players in action. From my observations, the music and button layout in PIU lend themselves more easily to freestyle dance routines. A lot of the music in the arcade version of PIU leans towards R&B and house style music, which is very danceable. Much of the music in DDR generally leans more to the trance, DNB, and electronica genres. As such, casual play of PIU looks more like actual dancing than the same in DDR.

According to this article in Next Generation, Pump It Up will be coming to the PS2 and Xbox, bundled with a MadCatz dance mat. It will be called Pump It Up: Exceed. For some arcade gamers, PIU has been a familiar sight. DDR machines, however, are far more common at arcades than the Korean “knock-off”. It was first released in 1999. Pump It Up was later released as a PC game, and although it was popular, it was more successful outside North America.

I welcome PIU’s arrival to consoles. It would be nice to have more games in this genre. I think veteran DDR players may be looking for a new challenge, and PIU would definitely offer that.