Cross Time

Cross Time debuted in 2004 in the online game O2Jam, released alongside Love Fighter and the second installment of the Ghost Festival series. At a time when even the toughest songs topped out around difficulty 18, Cross Time launched with a Hard chart rated 26, an outlandish number that made it the defining boss song of its day. Both the male and female vocals heard in the track are Brandy's own voice, with the female part sung in falsetto. More than twenty years on, it remains beloved for its production quality and how satisfying its patterns feel to step. It joined Pump It Up in the Prime 2 1.10.0 update as a collaboration title, entering the game, oddly enough, with the exclamation mark dropped from its original name.

Rather than reuse O2Jam's original artwork, PIU commissioned a new title image and BGA from EuNyack and NANACO STAR SYNDROME, the same pair behind an EZ2AC BGA. Reworking the characters into female figures struck some fans as a strange choice at first. The two women featured in the BGA are named Rio (red hair) and Rou (blue hair). The song's signature trait is its frequent speed-change gimmick, which gives players the sense of 'crossing time' that the title suggests.

In PHOENIX the song offers Single S3, S7, S12, S16 and S18 (charted by CONRAD) and Double D11, D17, D20 and D22 (by NIMGO), plus a Double Performance 3. The S12 (formerly 11) and S16 (formerly 15) close with diagonal twists and freeze notes worth learning if you are chasing an S rank, while the S18 demands solid hold-note skill in its back half. On the Double side, the D20 weaves staircase runs with holds from roughly the midpoint onward. The D22 began as a Prime 2 mission-zone chart subtitled 'Nimgo's Freezing Time'; it was bumped from level 21 to 22 and stands out for its freezing steps, opening with center notes that must be hit on beat across the first two measures.