Get Down With “Pump It Up: Exceed”

by Louis Bedigian

“Everyone who plays it, especially DDR fans, say the same thing: ‘Wow. That's real dancing.’”

Guys hate dancing. We don’t like the idea of moving our legs to the sound of music. We’d rather just bob our heads to something loud and undecipherable.

The funny thing about gamers is that, if a developer turns something we don’t like into a good video game, we’ll come running. Who cares if it’s “lame.” Who cares if it’s “not cool.” Games can turn anything into interactive entertainment.  Entertainment is the key word.

It happened with Dance Dance Revolution, and Mastiff hopes to encourage many more gamers to get on their feet with Pump It Up: Exceed. Featuring challenging gameplay and intriguing concepts, it’s no wonder we’re so pumped for the game’s release. Will it exceed our expectations? 

Currently when Americans think of dance games they think of DDR.  How do you plan to change that with Pump It Up: Exceed?

Bill Swartz (Head Woof at Mastiff): People who have never heard of email were probably pretty amazed at fax machines ("a letter coast to coast instantly!!! Wow") and I'm sure people who had never heard of a Walkman were pretty amazed by the first home stereos ("Music without musicians?! In my living room?!!!!! And the sound comes from more than one place????"). DDR is fantastic product, it’s a highly polished product, but it’s a stepping game, not a dancing game. PIU is a dancing game. The into-it fans already know it. I think it will be common knowledge ("hey...check out my Walkman") pretty soon.  

Where has the Pump It Up series been the most successful thus far?

BS: Tough call. It’s done amazing numbers in Latin America and Korea.

How did Mastiff come to be involved with the home version of the game?

BS: We loved the arcade game, we went to Andamiro, the rest is history.

I love the idea of having choreographed dance moves.  Tell us about this concept.

BS: Like so many great inventions its a pretty simple concept. A choreographer listens to a song and puts together a dance for it. One of the PIU dancers at Andamiro (yes, they do have professional dancers), dances the song, its recorded and becomes the reference for play. Its time intensive, but its the only way that you can be sure that every song has a real dance that goes with it.
  

Trippy. 

Pump It Up uses a five-button mat that lets the step-designers reward players for not just where they put their feet, but how their feet got there.  Please explain how this works.  Also, why are five buttons better than four?

BS: It takes two points to define a line, but three points to define an arc. Having a middle button means that designers can reward a player not just from his or her foot from A to B but for HOW they move it. Also, having buttons at every corner and in the middle means the you have the same symmetry whatever direction you are facing, a big deal in PIU since at advanced levels you often need to rotate 360 degrees.

What kind of visuals does this game provide besides arrow sequences?

BS: Its a pretty good mixture of computer animation and live action music videos.

Is it hard to learn choreographed moves?  I'm a DDR veteran but I'm no pro - if my skills are average or below, how easy will it be to jump into Pump It Up: Exceed?

BS: PIU has a gradual learning curve, getting right into it shouldn't be hard at all. Its not DDR so your level of DDR experience won't matter that much.

What about gamers with incredible DDR skills?  Pump It Up could easily be a mainstream hit, but it's the hardcore dancers who will play it first.  Will there be many new challenges for them to overcome?

BS: My guess is that people with incredible DDR skills tend to be people with a great sense of rhythm and a good memory. They are certainly useful for PIU. Super DDR players will have to go through a learning curve but will probably get very good very fast.  Think of a superior athlete going from football to soccer. They would have a huge leg-up on most people, with work they'd excel quickly, but they can't take their skill set with them exactly as-is. However...one other thing to consider here. PIU is a LOT of fun. Everyone who plays it, especially DDR fans, say the same thing: "Wow. That's real dancing." That's enough of a hook for people to make the transition.  

Please! Just one peck. 

How many difficulty settings are there in the arcade version, and how will this compare to the home version?

BS: There have actually been more than nine iterations of the arcade version, so it’s hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

That said, the game offers 5 basic levels

• Normal

• Hard

• Crazy

• Free Style (one player, two mats)

• Nightmare (insanely fast, best not attempted by mere mortals)

The game also has a variety of modifiers (for example, Velocity, which changes the speed of the arrows), at least 6 we're telling you about.

However, the home version does feature a mode called (hold on) Home Mode that, among other things, allows you to practice with no penalty for errors. 

Is the difficulty further dispersed by having songs with varying challenges?

BS: Yes, and songs are clearly labeled by beats per minute.

Can you give us an idea of how many songs will be featured in the game?  Also, does each song equal one stage?

BS: Around a hundred, and no, in most modes there are ladders.

Which artists are lending their tracks to Pump It Up: Exceed?

BS: Included are popular dance tracks from Grammy nominees Crystal Method and Steriogram, Elvis vs. Junkie XL, Sugarhill Gang and Earth, Wind, and Fire. Additionally, there is a large selection of K-Pop (Korean Pop) songs featuring well-known Korean acts like BoA and CLON, Latin music, and music from the Pump It Up ‘house’ band, Banya. 

Do you have what it takes to get a perfect score?

Gamers love to dance together to prove who's best.  Pump It Up: Exceed is going to have a multiplayer mode for sure - tell us about it.

BS: We actually have two things going. We have a two player, two mat mode...you know play with your buddy, get scores. We also have an Internet ranking system. Get a score, a secret code and post it to a site on the web with your handle/initials/whatever. 

15. What other modes of play do you plan to include?

BS: Home, Sudden Death (one slip and its game over), Arcade (4 song ladder for internet ranking), Video (unlockable), Survival (unlockable), Tutorial, and Statistics.

Sounds great!

Thank you for your time.