History VideoGame / PumpItUp

* NintendoHard:
** Rivals ''VideoGame/InTheGroove'' for the most challenging game involving stepping on panels. While the arcade style charts do not have [[DemonicSpiders 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.
** In ''DDR'', doubles charts are designed so that the widest jump you ever have to make is a vertical arrow on one side and the other side's inner horizontal arrow. No such mercy exists in ''Pump It Up'', where doubles charts can feature jumps and rolls that require your feet to be on extreme opposite sides of the stage. Don't pull a muscle!
** That said, ''Pump'' has looser timing windows than ''DDR'', making it easier to get a perfect run on a ''Pump'' chart than it is to get a Perfect Full Combo on a ''DDR'' chart of the same difficulty. However, this often comes at the cost of ''Pump'' having a larger density of "boss" charts than ''DDR''. That said, the Hard Judge and Very Hard Judge options exist for players who think that ''Pump''[='=]s usual timing windows are too easy.

* RankInflation: From worst to best: F, D, C, B, A, and S. Getting an S (or higher grades) requires [[NoDamageRun not missing]]. ''Fiesta'' added an SS ranking for getting nothing but Perfects (the grades in such games go like this: F, D, C, B, A, S, golden S, and SS). The Pro series uses SS for both Superbs and Perfects.

* AttractMode: Common in all of the arcade games. Some of the games' opening theme music can also be played in-game as [=Short Cut=] songs.

** Since the introduction of AV (Auto Velocity) in ''[=Prime 2=]'', many players set the Auto Velocity to a high number, sometimes even the highest, so that they can read the chart more easily.

** A couple of the old Hard charts, like Beethoven Virus and Winter, where parts of the song want you to spin.
** Join The Party CZ. Hold one arrow in the center the entire time or break your combo.

** In Prime onwards, use your PP (dance points) to unlock harder charts of specific songs online.

** Pro 2 introduces Fake Notes to the mix. These are notes that look like the normal arrows, but are...well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fake]]. They were first noticed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E44BBFVuNDk&t=1m52s this gauntlet course]]. Fake notes are available in [=StepMania 5=] as well.

** The latest 1.01 update of Prime 2 has a song called "Just Kiddin". Hope you enjoy its motion-sickness-inducing BGA courtesy of [=Daicon=], also known as [=MiLa=].

Released in celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary.

** Since the introduction of AV (Auto Velocity) in ''[=Prime=]'', many players decided to set the AV to max before playing Yeo Rae A S13, for an easier reading of the chart.

* FallingBlocks: Block Game.

** Doin's song "Cleaner" is a sequel to "Vacuum". Combining the two titles together creates [[IncrediblyLamePun Vacuum]] [[ThatOneBoss Cleaner]].

* RatedMForManly: PIU is mostly manly hip-hop, classical, and remixes of video game music. Background animations typically feature cute/sexy women, manly men, cats or robots. It has five pads instead of four and features special modes just for showing off. It's almost like they took one look at DDR, proclaimed it "girly", then decided to go the other way!

* RockMeAmadeus: ''Turkey March''. ''Beethoven Virus''. ''Canon D: Part of The Memories''. [=BanYa=]'s most popular tracks, such as the three mentioned above, are remixes of classical music pumped up to a dance tempo with ''rock instruments'' and ''upbeat percussion''.

* VideoGameLives: Pump Pro 2's new Gauntlet Mode.

** "80's Pop" by Lipstick from ''[=Fiesta=]'' is credited as by Energy Present in-game. This error goes as far as the BGA itself.

* MultiPlatform: A home version of Exceed was released for the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} and the UsefulNotes/XBox, but they don’t sell very well.

First main arcade game with 16:9 graphics and online service support. Also introduces Rank mode.

** A common machine setting in the franchise is "Stage Break". Having it off means that you only fail after you amass a combo of 50 misses (tl;dr you likely RageQuit) and depleting the lifebar doesn't end the song. However, in this state, clearing a song without depleting the lifebar is known as a "stage pass". Typically, machines are configured to not fail the player on the first stage at all, and have the aforementioned 50 combo behavior on subsequent stages. Recent games turn off Stage Break by default, and it can only occur on Rank Mode.

** Up Left, Up Right, Up Left, Up Right, Center to change your speed mod. [[NintendoHard It's considered a requirement for playing at higher skill levels.]]
** Starting with ''Fiesta'' (and including ''Infinity''), hit Down left, Down Right, Down Left, Down Right, Down Left, Down Right to access the Command Window instead.

** Pump it Up M has goals that require you to get a specific grade such as A.

* HardModePerks: Rank Mode forces on Very Hard Judge (timing windows are stricter), stage break (instant GameOver if your lifebar hits 0), and visible [=BGA=] among other things, but allows you to score more points. It's possible to get an all-Perfect run but still not beat the machine best or world record unless you turn Rank Mode on.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Song series from the same artists tend to have related titles, especially if the sequels don't use the number 2 (Such as "Final Audition 2" and "Overblow 2").

** Nato's boss songs are named after [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] deities from the Franchise/CthulhuMythos: "Yog Sothoth", "Shub Niggurath", and "Nyarlathotep".

** "Black Maria", also from ''Infinity'', has a distorted image of a little girl suddenly obscure the game's interface for a few seconds at certain points in the song.

* NoDamageRun: Sudden Death Mode on the Exceed home versions. Missing even one arrow means failure.

** Some series mascots also have their own official names like Seulki (female mascot from ''Exceed''), Taeyo (male mascot from ''Exceed''), Jiwan (male mascot from ''NX'' series), Prima (female) and Primo (male) for ''Prime'', Mari (female) and Mori (male) for ''Prime 2'', etc.
** If you go to the official [[https://www.piugame.com/ Pump It Up site]], get an AM Pass and an account and access the Item Shop, you'll find other characters available as avatars and the site itself will reveal their names. These are some examples.

** Put in a USB stick with [=NX2=] World Max data in [=NXA=] to unlock most of the [[spoiler:first]] World Max 2 World. If you use this shortcut, [[GameBreakingBug you miss out on some unlocks due to the requirements being completely skipped over]]. Goodbye, HundredPercentCompletion!
** Averted in Fiesta 2: having Fiesta EX save data on your drive will cause your drive to stop functioning. Be sure to remove all your Fiesta EX data before playing to avoid this GameBreakingBug.

* RankInflation: From worst to best: F, D, C, B, A, S. Getting an S (or higher grades) requires [[NoDamageRun not missing]]. ''Fiesta'' added an SS ranking for getting nothing but Perfects. The Pro series uses SS for both Superbs and Perfects.
** ''XX'' changes the scale a bit by making SS achievable with Greats, and all-Perfects now being an SSS. Also, grades now have two flavors: in full color when you get stage pass, and in broken grey with "damage" on it and a distorted AnnouncerChatter when your lifebar hits 0 at any point in a stage. That said, the experience of getting any grade is never the same.

** ''PHOENIX'' changes the scale a bit again by making it possible to get a + by the grade (S+ and SSS+ for example) and like in M, it's determined by a player's accuracy rate. As such, the judgment combo is now based on the new plates system (the plates are not shown when getting a broken grade):

* RankInflation: From worst to best: F, D, C, B, A, S. Getting an S requires [[NoDamageRun not missing]]. ''Fiesta'' added an SS ranking for getting nothing but Perfects. The Pro series uses SS for both Superbs and Perfects.
** ''XX'' changes the scale a bit by making SS achievable with Greats, and all-Perfects now being an SSS. Also, grades A and lower now have two flavors: in color when you get stage pass, and in grey with "damage" on it and distorted AnnouncerChatter when your lifebar hits 0 at any point in a stage. That said, the experience of getting an A is never the same.

** ''PHOENIX'' changes the scale a bit again by making it possible to get a + by the grade (S+ and SSS+ for example) and like in M, it's determined by a player's accuraty rate.