Pump It Up NX2

Pump It Up NX2
Developer(s)	Nexcade
Publisher(s)	Andamiro
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date(s)	January 21, 2008
Genre(s)	Music
Media/distribution	Hard drive

Pump it Up Next Xenesis (or NX2 for short) is the 20th arcade game release in the Pump It Up series. It was released worldwide on January 21, 2008 after being made available in Mexico and Korea a couple months prior.

NX2 is an expansion of NX with major differences. The 29 "New Tunes" from NX's Arcade Station have been added to their respective channels on the song wheel and replaced with 30 new tracks. The Korean version of the game has one more track, "Tell Me" by the Wonder Girls. This song was licensed only to Korea and therefore is not present in international releases. Two songs, Yahpp's "Solitary 1.5" and Hot Potato's "No Despair" are only available for play when using the game's proprietary USB stick. The game also includes five songs taken from Pump it Up pro with new stepcharts created by Nexcade. NX2 also adds support for USB memory cards, which are used to save progress in WorldMax mode and can also be used for internet ranking. NX2 only supports its own proprietary USB drive which can be ordered directly from Andamiro in bulk or offered by the arcade.

WorldMax

Aside from new songs and many aesthetic changes in the interface, the major innovation of NX2 is the USB system and the "WorldMax" station of the game. WorldMax is very different from anything previously seen in any music game in that it is reminiscent of a musical RPG found inside an arcade game. Using the game's proprietary USB system, players can play WorldMax while saving their own progress and unlocked features. Featuring eight separate worlds (Rootinia, Shantomia, Mirtain, Barharn, Harena, Morigin, and Cryomiston as well as the Prue Ocean) each complete with their own boss missions and even sub-bosses, players travel through 333 missions with various (and sometimes extremely unusual) requirements. Some later locations such as the Switch and Mystery Box add a major twist to the game, while the Warps found in each land let the player quickly travel between lands they have reached.

Players gain "miles" in the game's mileage system in each of the missions, using this mileage to alter aspects of their missions (such as the play level, speed, and a lottery system) as well as purchase unlocked songs in Special Station. Unlike NX's World Tour, WorldMax is a very personal experience for individual USB owners in that it serves as a sort of gamesave that tracks players' progress rather than the progress being a communal effort. The system also allows players the opportunity to continue their progress in any Pump It Up machine with NX2 installed.

The difficulty of WorldMax - and the game as a whole - has slightly gone down in favor of charts created for the fun factor rather than for difficulty and tech. Unlike the very harsh difficulty and unforgiving nature of World Tour, WorldMax grants players multiple chances per credit, allows greater freedom in choosing which songs to play, uses spending mileage to make missions easier, and focuses more on missions that make players have to think more than simply hit arrows. For example, many missions such as the "Hidden Parts" mission in Shantomia have several versions of its chart to confuse and challenge the player. With changes such as this, it appears that the game is going back to its "roots" in that it's focused less on difficulty, has its logo changed back to the original Pump It Up logo from the original games, and is focused more on traditional K-Pop.

Other changes

Other things that have changed in NX2 include:

3 songs per credit - unlike older versions of Pump, where you always had the opportunity to play 4 Arcade Station songs per credit depending on your bonus, the maximum number of songs playable in a credit on NX2 is 3. According to Andamiro, this was done due to requests from arcades that found that 4-song credits were too long. Training Station, Arcade Station, and WorldMax all allow 3 regular song plays per credit (with the exception of Remixes and Full Songs), while Arcade Station only has two songs by default, with the possibility of a third song with the same conditions as in the past. This change has been met with both optimism and dislike in the Pump It Up community, however it has proven to have the side effect of bringing in much more in terms of profits for arcades with many players, especially with the added replay incentive of WorldMax.

Expansion of Training Station - NX2's Training Station adds on to the twenty relatively simple lessons from NX with an additional twenty, this time expanding the depth of the tutorial to where the 40th lesson ends with training on some of the game's most difficult Nightmare charts. In later lessons, arrows become color coded to represent what feet should be hitting which steps. This is done to help players learn how to turn and twist in stepcharts properly. Arrows that are red are meant to be hit with the left foot, blue with the right foot, and yellow steps can be hit with any foot.

Arcade Station layout - NX2's layout in Arcade Station is very similar to NX's, however it's been touched up quite a bit. The song scroll layout is now reminiscent of Cover Flow, with far-left and far-right disc images being folded to the side. Each song now displays the machine's record score for every song on every mode when the song/chart is selected as well a displaying the calorie and oxygen consumption information for every chart.

Internationalization - Starting with NX2, Pump machines now support four language settings: English, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese. All four languages have complete language files in WorldMax as well as in Training Station and other areas where text is important, further catering to the various markets where Pump It Up has expanded. However, some international aspects of the game have gone back to the way they originally were, such as title screens for many new NX2 songs remaining completely in Korean.

Chinese Edition - A special edition of NX2 for mainland China exists, roughly translated as "Dragonfly Phoenix Dance". It is officially licensed for Chinese arcades and contains seven additional songs by popular Chinese artists. This edition, along with a cheaper system to introduce FX cabinets to Chinese arcades, was created in attempt to spread the game's popularity in the area. Aside from an alternate title screen and Chinese translations for some ingame text, the only difference between this edition and other editions of NX2 is the inclusion of the seven new songs. The new songs all have re-used background animations from pre-Exceed songs.

Pump it Up NX2 Song List

Key:

• A - Game includes alternate song cut in WorldMax
• B - Playable with USB only
• C - Changed or new steps included
• K - Korean version only
• R - Revived song from a previous release
• T - Training Station only
• U - Unlockable
• W - WorldMax only
• Z - Chinese edition of NX2 only^[1]

New Tunes

1) Pia - A Maelstrom 2) Gil Gun - A.U Ready? 3) Crying Nut - Astral Song [A] 4) HEaDTriP - Beat # No. 4 [A] 5) BanYa Production - Beat the Ghost 6) BanYa Production - Caprice of Otada 7) Sonic Dimension - Chopstix 8) Taiji Boys - Come Back Home 9) May - Compunction 10) Oscillator X - Dance All Night 11) Elpis - Dance Vibrations 12) ZiGZaG - Energizer 13) Yahpp - Faster Z 14) Seo Taiji - Feel the Soul 15) Mina - Get My Phone Call 16) Sonic Dimension - Groovin' Motion 17) BanYa Production - Guitar Man 18) BanYa Production - Higgledy Piggledy

19) Taiji Boys - It's My Business 20) BanYa Production - Jam O Beat 21) BanYa Production - Money 22) BanYa Production - Monkey Fingers 2 23) Bae Chi Gi - Nice to Meet You 24) Hot Potato - No Despair [A/B] 25) Yahpp - Pumptris Quattro 26) Joanne - Shiny Day 27) Yahpp - Solitary 1.5 [B] 28) Wonder Girls - Tell Me [K] 29) Bada - V.I.P 30) 015B - Very Old Couples 31) No Brain - You Fall in Me 32) BanYa - Moonlight (Original Version) [W] 33) Spooky Banana/Yahpp - Mr. Fire Fighter & Beat of the War 2 [W] 34) Yahpp - Pumptris 8bit Ver. [W] 35) 015B - Very Old Couples (Short Term Memory version) [W] 36) Yahpp - Yasangma [W]

37) Full Song: Pia - A Maelstrom [W] 38) Full Song: Gil Gun - A.U Ready? [W] 39) Full Song: Crying Nut - Astral Song 40) Full Song: HEaDTriP - Beat # No. 4 [W] 41) Full Song: Taiji Boys - Come Back Home 42) Full Song: Som2 - Deja Vu [W] 43) Full Song: Drunken Tiger - Emergency [W] 44) Full Song: Seo Taiji - Feel the Soul [U] 45) Full Song: Epik High - Fly [U] 46) Full Song: N.Ex.T - For You [W] 47) Full Song: Jiny - Free! [W]

48) Full Song: BanYa Production - Guitar Man [U] 49) Full Song: WAX - I'll Give You All My Love [W] 50) Full Song: Taiji Boys - It's My Business [U] 51) Full Song: BanYa Production - Monkey Fingers [U] 52) Full Song: Spooky Banana - Mr. Fire Fighter [W] 53) Full Song: Hot Potato - No Despair [U] 54) Full Song: Wonder Girls - Tell Me [K] 55) Full Song: Lee Hyun Do - Typhoon [W] 56) Full Song: Bada - V.I.P 57) Full Song: 015B - Very Old Couples [U] 58) Full Song: No Brain - You Fall in Me [W]

59) Remix: BanYa Production - BanYa-P Guitar Remix [U] 60) Remix: May - May Remix [W] 61) Remix: BanYa Production - Money Fingers [U] 62) Remix: Joanne/Bada - NX2 Diva Remix [U] 63) Remix: Dynamic Duo/Eun Ji Won - NX2 Hip-Hop Remix [U]

64) Remix: U;Nee/Duke/Lee Hyun Do - NX2 K-Pop Remix 1 [U] 65) Remix: Mina/Bae Chi Gi - NX2 K-Pop Remix 2 [U] 66) Remix: Lee Hyun Do/Som2 - NX2 K-Pop Remix 3 [U] 67) Remix: Sonic Dimension/Oscillator X - Pro Pop Remix [W] 68) Remix: BanYa/Crash/1TYM/Judain/Eun Ji Won/Harisu - Red Song Remix [W]

69) Another: Gil Gun - A.U. Ready? [U] 70) Another: BanYa Production - Caprice of Otada [U] 71) Another: BanYa - Come to Me [U] 72) Another: Elpis - Dance Vibrations [U] 73) Another: Yahpp - Faster Z [U] 74) Another: Yahpp - Fire Game [U] 75) Another: Jiny - Free 76) Another: BanYa Production - Guitar Man [U] 77) Another: May - Handsome Character That Pass [U]

78) Another: BanYa Production - Higgledy Piggledy [U] 79) Another: Taiji Boys - It's My Business [U] 80) Another: Yahpp - Pumptris Quattro [U] 81) Another: Apple Jam - Snow Dream 82) Another: Typhoon - So [U] 83) Another: BanYa - Solitary [U] 84) Another: BanYa - Turkey March [U] 85) Another: BanYa Production - Ugly Dee [U] 86) Another: No Brain - You Fall in Me [U]

Returning Music

87) Novasonic - Another Truth 88) Yahpp - Arch of Darkness [C] 89) BanYa - Beat of the War 90) BanYa - Beat of the War 2 91) BanYa - Beat of the War 2 (D&G version) [W] 92) BanYa - Bee 93) BanYa - Beethoven Virus 94) BanYa - Blazing [W] 95) BanYa Production - Bullfighter's Song 96) DVS - Bust Back [W] 97) BanYa - Canon-D 98) Yahpp - Chimera 99) Louis - Chung Hwa Ban Jeom 100) Crying Nut - Circus Magic 101) Sechskies - Com'back 102) Deux - Come Back to Me 103) BanYa - Come to Me 104) BanYa - Csikos Post [T] 105) Som2 - Deja Vu 106) Crash - Dignity 107) LazyBone - Do it Yourself 108) BanYa Production - Do You Know That -Old School- 109) Tashannie - Don't Bother Me 110) BanYa - Dr. M 111) Eun Ji Won - Drunken in Melody 112) Drunken Tiger - Emergency 113) JTL - Enter the Dragon 114) Kaoma - Essa Maneira 115) BanYa - Extravaganza 116) BanYa - Final Audition 117) BanYa - Final Audition 2 118) BanYa - Final Audition 3 U.F [A] 119) BanYa - Final Audition Episode 1 120) Yahpp - Final Audition Episode 2-1 121) Yahpp - Final Audition Episode 2-2 122) Yahpp - Fire [W] 122) Epik High - Fly 123) T.O - Footprints 124) N.Ex.T - For You 125) Fin.K.L - Forever Love 126) BanYa - Free Style [W] 127) Jiny - Free! 128) Clon - Funky Tonight 129) BanYa - Get Up! [R] 130) U;Nee - Go 131) Dynamic Duo - Go Back 132) Lexy - Greenhorn 133) BanYa Production - Gun Rock [W] 134) Sam-I-Am - Haley 135) May - Handsome Character That Pass 136) Novasonic - Hatred [W] 137) BanYa - Hi-Bi 138) Cho PD & B.E.G - Hold the Line 139) 1TYM - Hot 140) DJ Dookie - Hybs 141) Hyun Jin Young - Hyun Jin Young Go Jin Young Go 142) WAX - I'll Give You All My Love 143) BanYa - J Bong [R] 144) BanYa - Jump [R/W] 145) Debbie Scott - Kiss Me [T]

146) Los Ninos de Sara - La Cubanita 147) N.Ex.T - Lazenca, Save Us 148) Manresa - Le Code de Bonne Conduite 149) BanYa - Love is a Danger Zone 150) BanYa - Love is a Danger Zone 2 [C] 151) BanYa - Love is a Danger Zone 2 (D&G version) [W] 152) Kim Jong Kook - Lovely 153) BanYa - Mission Possible [R/W] 154) BanYa - Miss's Story [R] 155) U'Two - Mistake [C] 156) BanYa - Monkey Fingers 157) BanYa - Moonlight 158) Spooky Banana - Mr. Fire Fighter 159) BanYa - Mr. Larpus 160) Park Hyang Lim vs. Yahpp - My Brother is Street Singer 161) Cho PD - My Friend 162) BanYa - N 163) BanYa - Naissance 164) BanYa - Naissance 2 165) Jang Yoon Jung - Oh My! 166) DJ DOC - One Night 167) BanYa - Papa Gonzales [W] 168) BanYa - Phantom 169) BanYa - Point Break [C] 170) Victoria - Power of Dream 171) Som2 - Pray 172) BanYa - Pump Me Amadeus [W] 173) BanYa - Rolling Christmas [T] 174) Lee Hyun Do - Sajahu 175) ROD - Shake it Up 176) BanYa - She Likes Pizza 177) Novasonic - Slam 178) Apple Jam - Snow Dream 179) Typhoon - So 180) General Grant - Soca Make Yuh Ram Ram 181) BanYa - Solitary 182) BanYa - Solitary 2 183) Duke - Starian 184) Perry - Storm 185) BanYa - Street Show Down [R] 186) Ururbu Project - Terminal Depository 187) Andrew Kim - Throw 'em Up 188) BanYa - Turkey March 189) Mina - Turn Around 190) Lee Hyun Do - Typhoon 191) Hyun Jin Young vs. Yahpp - U Inside My Dim Memory [C] 192) BanYa Production - Ugly Dee [T/W] 193) BanYa - Vook 194) Victoria - Watch Out 195) Deux - We Are 196) Gyfted - We Goin' Fly Remix 197) Crash - What Do You Really Want 198) Turtles - What's Going On 199) BanYa - Will o' the Wisp 200) BanYa - Winter 201) BanYa - Witch Doctor [A] 202) Yahpp - Witch Doctor #1 203) BanYa - With My Lover [W] 204) Eugene - Wuthering Heights 205) BanYa - X-Treme

204) Full Song: Yahpp - Beat of the War 2 205) Full Song: Yahpp - Canon-D 206) Full Song: Crash - Dignity 207) Full Song: Yahpp - Fire

208) Full Song: Cho PD & B.E.G - Hold the Line 209) Full Song: Yahpp - Love is a Danger Zone 2 210) Full Song: Kim Jong Kook - Lovely 211) Full Song: Hyun Jin Young vs. Yahpp - U Inside My Dim Memory

212) Remix: Clon/Sechskies - 2nd Hidden Remix 213) Remix: BanYa - BanYa Classic Remix 214) Remix: BanYa - BanYa Hip-Hop Remix 215) Remix: BanYa Production - BanYa-P Classic Mix 216) Remix: Yahpp - Bemera 217) Remix: Sam-I-Am/DVS/Andrew Kim/Gyfted - Chicago Club Mix [W] 218) Remix: Deux - Deux Remix 219) Remix: Drunken Tiger/Honey Family - Drunken Family Remix 220) Remix: BanYa - FA Ep. 1 + Chicken Wing Remix [R] 221) Remix: Tashannie/Clon - Groove Party Remix

222) Remix: DJ. DOC/Epik High - K-Pop Dance 223) Remix: Lexy/1TYM - Lexy & 1TYM Remix [R/W] 224) Remix: Novasonic/Crash - Novarash Remix 225) Remix: Novasonic - Novasonic Remix [R/W] 226) Remix: Kristeen/Scoop/Fresno - Pop House Mix 227) Remix: Yahpp - Treme-Vook of the War 228) Remix: Yahpp - Try to BPM - LIADZ 229) Remix: Turbo - Turbo Remix 230) Remix: Yahpp - Wi-Ex-Doc-Va 231) Remix: Perry/Drunken Tiger/JTL/Eun Ji Won - Zero K-Hip-Hop Mix

232) Another: Novasonic - Another Truth 233) Another: BanYa - Bee [C] 234) Another: BanYa - Beethoven Virus [C] 235) Another: Yahpp - Chimera [C] 236) Another: Som2 - Deja Vu 237) Another: LazyBone - Do it Yourself 238) Another: BanYa - Dr. M 239) Another: BanYa - Extravaganza 240) Another: BanYa - Final Audition 241) Another: BanYa - Final Audition 2 242) Another: BanYa - Final Audition 3 U.F 243) Another: BanYa - Final Audition Episode 1 [C] 244) Another: Yahpp - Final Audition Episode 2-1

245) Another: Yahpp - Final Audition Episode 2-2 [C] 246) Another: N.Ex.T - For You 247) Another: BanYa Production - Gun Rock 248) Another: BanYa - Hi-Bi [C] 249) Another: BanYa - Love is a Danger Zone 250) Another: BanYa - Love is a Danger Zone 2 251) Another: BanYa - Mr. Larpus 252) Another: BanYa - Naissance 2 253) Another: BanYa - Phantom [C] 254) Another: BanYa - Vook [C] 255) Another: BanYa - Witch Doctor 256) Another: Yahpp - Witch Doctor #1

257) Alex To - Take It Off [Z] 258) Luo Zi Xiang - Fist of Fury [Z] 259) Wang Lee Hom - Long Live the Chinese [Z] 260) Alan Luo - Mechanical Doll [Z]

261) Jolin Tsai - Wild Game [Z] 262) ENERGY - One Last Chance [Z] 263) Karen Mok - Fire [Z]

References

1. ^ http://www.ph-online.net/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=18;t=8905