Pump It Up Pro

Infobox VG
title = Pump It Up Pro


developer = "Fun in Motion"
publisher = Andamiro
designer =
release = August 2007
genre = Music
modes = Single player using five or ten panels or two players using five panels each
cabinet = Custom
arcade system =
monitor = Raster
input = Ten square pressure sensitive panels, eight buttons.
platforms = Arcade

Pump It Up Pro (abbreviated as PIUPRO or Pump Pro, and marketed as Pump it up PRO) is a spinoff of the Pump It Up series and the first developed by "Fun in Motion". The product is "a branch of the Pump It Up brand" [Ward, Kyle; [http://kyle-ward.com/index.php/2007/03/12/pump-it-up-pro-comments/ Pump It Up Pro comments] ] that does "not have an effect on the classic Pump It Up" games. Pump It Up Pro was designed with the intent of getting players who normally play 4-panel dance games into 5-panel dancing. The game utilizes a build of StepMania 4 for its engine. The game can be purchased inside a FX cabinet, or as an upgrade kit for SX and GX cabinets running MK6 or MK7 hardware (which includes the button panel for the front of the machine, USB ports, the hard drive, the marquee graphics, and optionally the MK6 hardware)

Notable contributors include Kyle Ward, who also contributed many songs and step charts. A sequel was confirmed on a blog post on his website [ [http://www.kyle-ward.com/faq/pump-it-up-pro/ http://www.kyle-ward.com/faq/pump-it-up-pro/] ]

Gameplay

Gameplay in "Pump It Up Pro" is similar to other Pump games, but with slight differences. A new judgment, "Superb", is slotted in above Perfect on the ranking scale. Holds function differently as well. In addition to requiring that they be hit at their heads in order to register, holds are registered solely in quarter-beat increments. Some songs contain Rolls, which must be rapidly tapped in order to count. Individual taps on them increases the combo and the lifebar. Song difficulty is ranked on a 1-15 scale of colored blocks, all revival songs were re-rated to fit on the new scale. Some songs contain mines, which must be avoided.

Instead of the pads, Pro uses a set of buttons on the front of the cabinet to navigate the interface. A options menu activated with the red Options button is used instead of codes for gameplay modifiers.

Additional modes

A new Easy difficulty is added on Pro, intended to be easier than Normal. Most Easy stepcharts are ranked between 1-3 blocks on the difficulty scale. The Revision 5 patch revived Half Double mode as a difficulty. Half Double only uses the 6 panels on the inside of the pad layout (excluding the outer corners). Pump It Up Pro does not contain a separate mode for remixes and long versions, the long songs and remixes present on Pro are present in regular play, and require two rounds to play. In place of a Remix mode, is Progressive, a mode containing courses consisting of 4 songs each. Two sets of courses are present, courses without modifiers contain sets of songs sorted by the version it originally debuted on (such as "From The 1st Dance Floor" or "From Exceed 2", and two "Urban Comatose" courses containing songs from Pro. The rest of the courses contain scripts of modifiers intended to make reading the songs more difficult. An exception to the 4 song standard are the "Warp" courses, which use rate modifiers to speed up the songs themselves to make 6 or 8 songs be played in the time period of 4 songs, and "Sangoma", a course which plays both Witch Doctor songs, then proceeds to the Witch Doctor/Extravaganza remix "Wi-Ex-Doc-Va".

5 of the courses are unlocked with unlock codes, Warp 8XM, Victory, Darkly We Wander, Understand, and Up and Down. The unlock code for Up and Down was never released due to a bug in the course's last song, which was caused by refresh rate issues. The issues were caused by an effect in the song, "Heel and Toe", in which it was scripted to make the arrows look like they were coming from both the bottom and the top of the screen. The Revision 5 patch unlocked the boss song VVV, along with Up and Down, with "Monkey Fingers" now being the last song with a new script.

The game in total, inherits many elements from "In the Groove", a 4-panel dance game which Kyle Ward was previously involved with, such as the ability to save stats and song edits on a USB flash drive. Andamiro built cabinets for and distributed "In the Groove 2".

Multiplayer version

A multiplayer version of this game is being developed, known as Pump It Up Pro Multiplayer. It is the first dance game ever to support 32 players at once. The instructor chooses the song, which other players may dance to in the difficulty level of their choice (easy, normal, or hard). [ [http://www.piu-pro.com/2008/03/pump-pro-multiplayer-pictures.html Pump It Up Pro - Multiplayer Pictures] ] It is coming soon, and was displayed at the Zigzag booth at Leisure Industry Week. [ [http://pumpitup.com Pump It Up Pro - Official Website] ]

Songlist

The song list of Pump it Up Pro consists mainly of songs from older versions of Pump it Up. The new songs are a mixture of songs from the In the Groove series, including songs that were planned to be featured on "In the Groove 3".

Note: All songs on this songlist are only songs appearing new to Pump it Up. Songs requiring an unlock code are marked with a padlock icon.

ong packs and Revision Updates

As with In the Groove 2, Pump it Up Pro can be updated with revision updates downloaded to a USB memory card. The first revision update, revision 5, was released on July 23rd, 2008. The patch features numerous bug fixes, difficulty rating adjustments for several songs, the addition of a indicator on the song selection screen for songs with edits available, and the revival of the "half double" difficulty, a 6-panel mode utilizing all panels except for the outer corners of the pad. All songs have new Half Double charts, including ones that previously had Half Double charts on previous Pump games. In addition, songs that were missing Nightmare difficulty charts now have new charts created by the Pump it Up Pro step artists.

ong packs

In addition to revision updates, the revision 5 update also allows operators to install new song packs for their machine. The first of which, "Pump it Up Pro: Encore", was released in August 2008. Song packs are distributed on USB memory cards authenticated with the machine's serial number, and are not downloadable.

Encore

The first song pack, Encore, contains 12 songs, 10 of which are new to the Pump it Up series in general, and 2 crossovers from other Pump it Up games. Can Can does not retain its charts from "Pump it Up Extra" however, the song contains new charts on all difficulties.

External links

* [http://www.pumpituppro.com/ Pump It Up Pro official website]
* [http://www.pumpituppro.com/forum Pump It Up Pro official forum]

References