Everyone in the rhythm gaming community likely knows that the next iteration of Pump It Up is about to drop, although some of the details on the US release have been…fuzzy. That’s why we’re here though, to help find the facts and present them to you.
First off on the release – a bit of confusion was caused by an Official PIU Facebook post which stated that the game would be available in the US on August 1st. It’s been available in South Korea since the 4th of July (seems like it should’ve launched in the US then), but I reached out to Andamiro USA and they stated that was incorrect. Some additional confusion might have been caused by posts like this one on Twitter, saying that they have the game and the picture shows USA software.
According to the latest from Andamiro, the game will officially be available starting August 14th. Of course, anyone can place an order through their preferred Andamiro distributor right now. Naturally, you might be wondering about people like in that tweet – well, some people in the PIU community have those connections that get around official channels, and little can be done about that. It would be the game, just not purchased through the normal channels that most get it through.
With that all out of the way, what does this new edition of Pump have that others don’t? Best I can tell, it appears to build on Pump It Up XX 20th Anniversary, which means that it still supports an enormous and impressive (500+) song list. They’ve got some of the latest hits from the world of K-Pop, so if that kind of music is your jam, you’ll probably find plenty to enjoy there.
Beyond the songs, they have three game modes that players can choose from: Basic Mode (for n00bs/beginners), Full Mode (for the PIU faithful), and Premium Mode (only accessible using the AM.PASS card, for the PIUl33t). There are changes to existing step charts as well as a new scoring system that applies regardless the mode a player selects.
Speaking of cards, like PIUXX, this supports the AM.PASS network and card system, which beyond player accounts, supports online code updates and there is an Online Matching System, allowing for cross-site play. I’m not sure if the cross-site feature has been done before with PIU (or another dance game like DDR) but in any case it’s rare. Players matching with someone in another arcade will get to see their opponent thanks to the built-in camera.
Speaking of the cabinet, if you own an arcade and buy this for the first time in its dedicated form, it will ship with what is called the LX cabinet(pictured up above). There have been several PIU cabinets released over the years and LX is the latest one. PIUXX shipped in that model, although Andamiro still supports their older cabinets via kit upgrades. I’m not sure what pricing is for all of these but ask any distributor carrying the game and they can give a quote. If I recall correctly, PIUXX was in the neighborhood of $15~16k for the new dedicated version, but I could be misremembering that and it could be lower. Then again, prices for everything have skyrocketed since the last PIU release, so don’t be surprised if its on the higher guessing end.
Either way, it looks like the heat’s back on in the North American rhythm game space. Are you excited for this game?
