Pump It Up: Exceed (game & dance mat) (Xbox, 2005)

This game is just amazing. I've played DDR and other rhythm games. Heck, I even make my own in Flash.

Unlike DDR and other dancing pad games, you actually have to "Feel the beat" to play this. I've tried "not" feeling the beat and it just doesn't work for some reason. The graphics are nicely done. The song choices are good (though I wish there were more english songs). But what really got me was the pad. Unlike the traditional dancing 4-button pads, Pump It Up has 5 buttons, with the arrows pointing diagonally.

Perhaps the only aspects of the game I didn't like was that the learning curve is insane and that the songs aren't rated in difficulty well enough. It took me quite a while to get used to playing, especially since they only had a couple easy songs (though even those were difficult at first). The difficulty of the songs weren't done too well either. I sometimes can barely finish a song with one level but ace another song that is several levels above it.

Overall, I would give it a 9.5/10.