Pump It Up

Pump It Up is a rhythm game series developed by Andamiro. The gameplay focuses on stepping on panels on the floor that correspond to the four basic diagonal directions and a center panel, all in time to music. If this sounds a lot like Dance Dance Revolution, it is a lot like DDR: in fact, the game's first installment was also released in 1999. Some have speculated that the two games may have been developed at around the same time too!

However, while they may have similar mechanics, the slight differences between them make them both unique in their own right. First, there's the aforementioned pad layout of 4 diagonal arrows and a center panel. Then, there's the soundtrack. Unlike DDR's greater focus on J-pop and electronica, Pump primarily has Korean hip-hop and pop as its dominant genres. Just like DDR, there's also original music by a few in-house artists, often by Yahpp and his former in-house group Banya, who often perform classical and rock music. Yes, you heard that right. Additionally, the differing pad layout can create a much wider variety of routines, and on higher difficulties, they can get really hard really fast. It is obvious why the highest 5-panel and 10-panel difficulties are named "Crazy" and "Nightmare" respectively.

Compared to DDR, Pump isn't as popular in Japan and the United States (DDR is historically more dominant, though recent downfalls for said series in North America is helping to attract people), but it's a big hit in its home country of South Korea, as well as Central and South America too. However, this did not stop Andamiro and a few former developers from making a Gaiden Game designed for the "I'm Mad Cause Konami Killed In the Groove" audience, known as Pump It Up Pro.

Pump It Up contains examples of:
hits seventeen steps per second in places. God only knows what Fiesta has in store...
 * Already Done for You: Some of the World Max missions are like this.
 * Announcer Chatter: Averted in comparison to DDR, there is no in-game announcer, though there has always been announcers in the menu.
 * Anti-Frustration Features: If you fail your first stage, you'll still get a second one. On stages 2 and 3, by default, you won't get a Game Over if you run out of life, unless you get 50 misses in a row.
 * Pump Pro 2's routine mode doesn't seem to fail the players at all, even if the health bar goes to zero.
 * Regardless, you get a Game Over if you get a grade of F even in the first stage - if you accumulate an excessively high number of total misses (Higher level nightmare charts can still be passed with over 100 total misses, depending on the song).
 * Art Shift: Multiple times throughout the BGA to "Rapper's Delight".
 * Attract Mode: Common in all of the arcade games.
 * Best Boss Ever: There are some memorable boss style charts in World Max. Try playing the full version of Deja Vu where the chart can randomly change at two points.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: Some songs don't have difficult patterns, but drain your stamina very quickly.
 * "Get The Party Started" from Premiere EX3 is a very good example of this trope. The Normal, Hard, and Free Style charts are standard for a pop song, but Crazy and Nightmare have not only a max combo of over 660 including long notes, but also patterns that to this day are still very difficult to play through! They're so bad, rumor has it Andamiro fired the guy who made them.
 * Butterfly of Doom: Final Audition Episode's 1, 2-1, and 2-2.
 * Cat Concerto: "Turkey March Minimal Tunes"
 * Classic Cheat Code: Up Left, Up Right, Up Left, Up Right, Center to change your speed mod. It's considered a requirement for playing at higher skill levels.
 * Cloning Gold: The addition of the center panel makes a surprisingly large difference from DDR, because it makes it impractical to keep your center of gravity above the center of the pad.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer: Both World Max two-player missions and Pro 2's routine mode use these. World Max doesn't limit it to just two, though...witness Three Attack.
 * Combos: Keep hitting arrows in a row to increase. Also inverted: you can get combos for missing steps in a row. Missing 51 (30 in Pro) in a row causes a Game Over.
 * Continuing Is Painful: Fail a mission on Zero or NX1, and you have to pay full price for one more shot at the song. Hope you've recharged your energy within 30 seconds...
 * Critical Annoyance: Some World Max missions require you to finish with dangerously low health.
 * Curse Cut Short: Bust Back
 * Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Immediately going from this to Dance Dance Revolution / In the Groove or vice versa can have this effect.
 * Dark World: Dark Shantomia in NX2.
 * Do Well, But Not Perfect: Some World Max goals require this.
 * Double Unlock: The games with World Max use this. Once you get the songs, you have to pay mileage in order to play them.
 * Downloadable Content: Some of the songs for NXA are like this.
 * Double Play: Freestyle and Nightmare modes.
 * Dynamic Difficulty: Some charts change depending on if you have missed notes or not. This is usually noticed in the old Division mode or select mission charts.
 * Easy Mode Mockery: Playing on the Easy Station on Zero/NX1 allows you to play 3 songs, but you can't qualify for a 4th.
 * Everything's Better with Motorcycles: She Likes Pizza, Enter the Dragon.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai: The Solitary songs.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Beethoven Virus's hard chart is the best example.
 * Starian and Com'back, in the same difficulty level, are examples too.
 * Exergaming: The crazy/nightmare charts can easily give a good workout. As with In The Groove, a "multiplayer" version of Pro with wireless pads was produced as well, which is primarily aimed at fitness centers.
 * Fake Difficulty: Two sources here (at least).
 * Most of the charts are designed to be able to use your feet for the whole song. Some have forced hands, where you have to use your hand (or something else) to hit the panels. Prominent examples include Ignition Starts Crazy, Bee Nightmare, Miss's Story Crazy, and Chimera Crazy & Nightmare.
 * A good number of the mission charts don't always use the same constant BPM as the arcade charts of the same song. Part of playing the chart means to be ready for any gimmick, for you generally aren't told of them before you first play the chart.
 * Falling Blocks: Block Game
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: There are both Fire and Ice noteskins available.
 * Flying Saucer: Alien Attack in World Max 2.
 * Also makes appearances in the BGV for Com'back.
 * Gaiden Game: Pump It Up Pro, which is a Spiritual Successor to In the Groove
 * At Amusement Expo 2012 in Las Vegas, a Gaiden Game for this Gaiden Game surfaced in the form of "Pump It Up Infinity"; which is closer to the "main" series, but still manages to pull off at least one thing that StepMania charters like to do nowadays...
 * Gimmick Level: In spades. Join The Party CZ is the most famous. Bee FS may count too. And at least half the Anothers.
 * Global Currency: Mileage is the one currency used all over.
 * Good Old Fisticuffs: U Inside My Dim Memory
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Le Code De Bonne Conduite. When translated into English, the lyrics describe
 * Fever by Cho PD, just right at the beginning:
 * Guide Dang It: Many things in World Max can do this to you.
 * Harder Than Hard: Most of the another charts are significantly more difficult than the regular charts.
 * Have a Nice Death: "Hey! Why don't you just get up and dance man?"
 * Hundred-Percent Completion: A possible goal with NX2 and NXA. NXA ups the ante by having the Arcade mode songs count: you have to get an S rank on all of them (A rank if the chart is above 4 skulls).
 * Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Normal, Hard, and Crazy for single-pad charts, Freestyle and the aptly-named Nightmare for double-pad charts. Averted in World Max (listed in 1-5 bars) and in Fiesta, which uses level numbers only.
 * Inspired By: Mr. Larpus, inspired by song Wipe Out.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha: Xenesis.
 * Interface Screw: Common when playing mission or course modes. Some missions allow you to avert this trope by paying mileage to make the effects go away.
 * Pump Pro 2 introduces Fake Notes to the mix. These are notes that look like the normal arrows, but are...well, fake. They were first noticed in this gauntlet course. Fake notes are available in recent builds of StepMania as well.
 * Level Editor: Different ones are available for the differing series.
 * The Pump It Up Pro series has two edits for creating stepcharts. One is Step Mania itself, assuming one can find the music. The other is Pump Pro Edits' fan-built online editor (provided Internet Explorer isn't used).
 * Fiesta EX recently released StepEdit Lite for creating custom charts for 141 of the songs.
 * Level Grinding: Mileage for World Max.
 * Loading Screen: NXA gained one in places that never had one before.
 * Lost Forever: Some missions on World Max 2 can be this if one is not careful.
 * A song in Fiesta EX was added in the 1.50 patch. It was very quickly removed in the 1.51 patch.
 * Love Hurts: The Love is a Danger Zone songs have very difficult charts on the higher difficulties, especially after Exceed 2.
 * Luck-Based Mission: Hidden Parts is arguably one of the most well known, but there are others.
 * Multi Platform: A home version of Exceed was released for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, but didn't sell very well.
 * There was also a PC port complete with expansion packs.
 * Mythology Gag: Pump Pro 2 has a song called "In the Groove"; its artwork uses a recolor of the In the Groove logo.
 * Nintendo Hard: Rivals In the Groove for the most challenging game involving stepping on panels. While the arcade style charts do not have mines in them (except on Pro, where the charts are done in a more In The Groove-like style, and thus can contain mines and rolls), some mission mode charts have them, and can actually require the player to hit the mines in order to pass the mission.
 * Takes this to a whole new level if the arcade machine's owner has enabled stage break, where the player gets an instant Game Over if the lifebar depletes, and it drains much more quickly than ITG does. In this case anything you pass will have a grade of A or higher. Fortunately stage break does not affect the first song of the credit.
 * The most difficult charts in the game are ball-bustingly hard by DDR standards. In fact, there are doubles charts that require two people to play (even though you're in a 1-player mode), and there are charts that are not intended to be cleared!
 * Pump Pro 2 actually brings a genuine "2P Doubles" mode, known as Routine Mode, that has both players using all 10 panels, and the charts are specifically designed (and the notes color-coded) for two players. Fiesta and Fiesta EX have borrowed the concept for some of their Double Performance charts.
 * The speed of NXA's boss song Final Audition 2-X
 * No Damage Run: Sudden Death Mode on the Exceed home versions. Missing even one arrow means failure.
 * No Export for You: The song "Tell Me" wasn't brought outside of Korea for NX2. Averted in NXA.
 * Nostalgia Level: Some of the World Max missions are this.
 * Old Save Bonus: Put in a USB stick with NX2 World Max data in NXA to unlock most of the World Max 2 World.
 * Game Breaking Bug: If you use this shortcut, you miss out on some unlocks due to the requirements being completely skipped over. Goodbye, Hundred-Percent Completion!
 * Old School Dogfighting: Final Audition 3
 * One-Hit Kill: The mines in the Item War mission. As a variant, Pump It Up Exceed for the home consoles also have a mode where getting a miss kills you, but bads do not.
 * Only Smart People May Pass: Brain Shower on NXA.
 * Public Domain Soundtrack: A staple of rhythm games, really, but Pump takes it to a whole new level. Beethoven Virus, Turkey March, Dr. M, Pump Me Amadeus, Csiko's Post, Winter, Bee, Canon-D, Ugly Dee... nearly every version introduces a new classical remix.
 * Rank Inflation: From worst to best: F, D, C, B, A, S. Getting an S requires not missing. PIU Fiesta added an SS ranking for getting nothing but Perfects, while the Pro series uses SS for Greats and Perfects.
 * Recycled in Space: Brain Shower is Pump It Up WITH BASIC ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS.
 * Remixed Level: Both Love is a Danger Zone 2 and Beat of the War 2 have instrumental versions.
 * Rhythm Game
 * Scoring Points: Most official tournaments use the score you get at the end of the round. Scoring is combo based, but only minimally. Once you get 50 combo, each step is worth only a little more, but it can add up.
 * Secret Level: Quite a few in World Max. Some can only be found after defeating a Boss Song in a world: Pro 2 has some secret levels in their courses: one of them has a title of all ?????s until playing far enough reveals that it is.
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: Playing charts without the arrows appearing at all. The Eraser mission in NX2's World Max acts like said example.
 * Sequel Escalation: Started from Exceed up until NX2/NXA to most players.
 * Socialization Bonus: Present in both the mainline and Pro series.
 * In the mainline Pump series, there are World Max/Quest missions that require 2 or more players to complete properly. Until those are beaten, other charts inside the mode may be hidden for quite some time.
 * The Pro series has Routine mode, which offers charts designed for two players to enjoy.
 * Speedy Techno Remake: Again, BanYa's materials are all (slightly) sped up techno (hard rock actually) remixes of Classical pieces.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Cordiality vs. Another Truth
 * May also be a case of I Have Many Names, like Caution, which became Don't Bother Me in later versions.
 * Spiritual Successor: The Pro series is considered a spiritual sequel to the In the Groove series for multiple reasons; including being developed by much of the same staff, a lot of features (and even music) from ITG are present on Pro (like the use of Step Mania as its core, mines, edit mode, etc), and the overall look and feel of the game seems to be also geared towards former ITG players.
 * Sports Game: Some countries consider this game as a sport.
 * Take That: A particular mission on NX 2 has been interpreted by many to be an attack at Pro. Firstly, the titlecard gets the songs mixed up ("Chopstix/Dance Vibrations", even though its really "Chopstix/Dance All Night"), imitating the "mine arrows" from Hasse Mich NM, etc. That, combined with some ridiculous gimmicks (Seriously, you expect to be able to parse an Exclusive-Or that quickly?)
 * The Stinger: Get two S grades in the Remix mode on Exceed 2 to be able to "play" RAW.
 * Tournament Play: Almost every year, Andamiro hosts the World Pump Festival, a major international tournament.
 * Translation Train Wreck: The international versions of NXA suffered from this in World Max 2. Seriously, portions? More than 300,000 points and achieve? Do not miss the items more than 5? Engergizer? Select the biggest Velocity at last and Do Not step the Misses more than 10? Reports even suggest the other translations didn't come out as good either.
 * Trial and Error Gameplay: Many of the World Max/Quest World missions.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: NXA's Brain Shower.
 * Unlockable Content: The mainline Pump games with mission charts can have songs unlocked by beating more and more charts. The Pro series has pad codes that are entered on a specific screen.
 * Unwinnable: A bug in older versions of NXA can prevent players from completing World Max.
 * Unwinnable by Design: The progressive course "Make Haste!", from Pro 2.
 * And RAW, of course. Its not really meant to be played however, since its a sort of credits roll.
 * Use Your Head: One such way of hitting quintuple arrows. Or, if you're fast enough, you may fall butt-first on the center pad, while your hands hit the rear arrows and your feet hit the ones at the front. Or if you're small or otherwise have short legs, hit the front arrows with your hands, the back arrows with your feet, and the middle arrow with one knee. Great way to get bruised knees, though.
 * Video Game Lives: Pump Pro 2's new Gauntlet Mode.
 * Video Game Lives: Pump Pro 2's new Gauntlet Mode.