Mastiff ready to Pump It Up on PS2/Xbox

Mastiff has announced plans to publish a PS2 and Xbox version of arcade dance game Pump It Up: Exceed, although it's not clear when it'll come out yet or whether it'll make an appearance outside the USA.

According to Mastiff, Pump It Up's become very popular in arcades throughout the world - including the UK - although as we never go outside we couldn't possibly comment.

The key to its apparent success is said to be the way it choreographs steps for each song with a five-button mat "that lets the step designers reward players for not just where they put their feet, but how the feet got there".

More than 80 songs will be included in the console version, which includes a mixture of arcade tracks (from Korean pop acts like Sechs Kies, Honey Family, Clon and Novasonic, along with a selection from Pump It Up's "original band" BanYa) and new additions (including tracks from Crystal Method and Steriogram, Elvis vs. Junkie XL and Sugarhill Gang).

The home version will also feature new game modes. Practice and tutorial will help players get to grips with the set-up, while Home, Sudden Death and Survival presumably do other things - although their functions aren't discussed in the literature we've seen.

Nor is the question of which dance mats the game will support. Presumably Dance Dance Revolution/Dancing Stage compatible efforts are out, so we're guessing Pump It Up will require its own special peripheral.

What is discussed though is the arcade version's ability to upload high scores to an online ranking system. That has been retained for the console versions.

In a cheap dig at Konami's rival (and genre-leading) Dance Dance Revolution/Dancing Stage series, Mastiff's Bill Swartz explained how "Other dancing games are about watching the screen and stomping in the right spot, which is great if you didn't get enough whack-a-mole as a kid."

"Pump It Up gets you dancing like you're in a club," he reckons. We shall see. Or, rather, dance.