Pump It Up: Exceed [With Dance Pad] [PS2]

Pump it Up: Exceed takes the dance game genre and turns it at a 45 degree angle. No, the dance mat isn't diamond shaped; it's that the arrow buttons don't reside in the familiar North, South, East and West pattern. Pump it Up's pad (and there's really no point at all in buying the version without the pad because regular dance controllers simply won't work with it) puts its arrows on the corners--and adds one to the middle.

The result will trip up many Dance Dance Revolution fans, but it's a boon to new players because it feels more natural to hit the corners, especially when it comes to the combos. Hitting the North and South buttons in DDR means angling the body awkwardly, while in Pump it Up it's possible to hit all combos while facing forward and the middle button increases the combinations--and challenge level--exponentially.

This is a hard game. The easiest levels are unforgiving, the pace is frantic and it's less user friendly than DDR. Nobody ever tells you that you're cool or the ultimate dancer. And though nobody boos, they might as well be booing for how hectic and frustrating the higher difficulty levels can be. But one newbie's (or 34-year-old game reviewer's) frustration can be a help to an expert DDR player. Pump it Up offers what DDR freaks want most--something different and something harder. Not only harder, playing Pump it Up feels more like dancing. The combinations are clever, fast paced and require a different, more creative style than typical dance games (which usually feel more like aerobics). And despite the bizarre cover model, using your hands is not required (Well, maybe it is required if you plan to buy a second pad and use both in single player--seriously, this is an option.)

The PlayStation 2 version offers 101 songs and the Xbox version offers only 97 (more can be downloaded via Xbox Live, but the game isn't playable on the net on either system). The music is less varied than the multiple DDR titles or even the competing In the Groove dance game, but it's more beat oriented and more lively. Tracks come from various artists like The Sugarhill Gang, Elvis (representing the old school), and The Crystal Method, while music from genres like Electronica, J-Pop, Latin and Hip Hop fill up the rest of the playlist. The manual claims most of these are original tracks; I can't argue with that, but I will say they all sound very good and work well with the game and lend it a jubilant energetic vibe.

Pump it Up handles the graphics well, too. Like DDR you get a selection of real videos that play behind the relentlessly scrolling angled arrows, combos and center button moves, but you also get some bizarre and very cool animations that pop up. It's never boring to look at, which makes it a better party game experience. If you're not goofy enough to watch, the other players and spectators can watch the screen. Of course, this doesn't really matter in single player because you'll be too busy trying to keep up.

Where the game falls as flat as new players just starting out is in the menus. In arcade mode, a few missed steps cause the game to end. This happens without warning and might put DDR fans off a bit. Players have to choose the song and then go all the way back and choose another if the first choice proves too hard. Worse, the very first song that comes up isn't an easy one. What's up with that? Also, and this is a minor point, the pad actually does let you use up, down, left and right as buttons, but these are only used in the menus. This means players have to take a very different stance when scrolling around and looking for the next song to play. The included dance pad is decent as bundled dance pads go, but experienced players used to their foam or metal pads are going to wish this thing had a zipper on it. Other than that, the pad works fine on a reasonably hard surface.

Pump it Up features all the familiar modes but is missing one important one--Workout mode. There's Arcade mode, which isn't very forgiving. Players can try as many songs as they like, provided they don't miss too many steps and score an A or S on each song (D and F fail). Home mode is basically the same thing as Arcade mode, but missing steps won't send you crashing shamefully to the menu. Sudden Death mode is for crazy pretzel people. One mistake and the song ends. No mercy, no appeal. Finally we have Survival mode (which unlocks after you beat 20 songs in Home Mode) which lets you dance a marathon of tunes until you've missed enough steps to deplete your life bar. Missing is the Workout mode and calorie counter, which is a pity, but does fit the hardcore difficulty level and dance focus of the game.

Pump it Up is flawed but on the right track. If anything, it just needs some tweaking to make it easier and a little friendlier to players new to the concept of hitting arrows in time with a beat. It's not for the weak, the flabby and could be very dangerous to the uncoordinated, the aged, and the easily humiliated. We suspect veteran DDR players will adore the new wrinkles and twists, moves and grooves and quickly buy another pad so they can play musical twister like the weird hip-hop wizard on the cover of the game. In the meantime, we'll be over here nursing out sore muscles with Icy Hot pads.