Mad5cience

Added to Pump It Up in the 1.15.0 update of the 2015 PRIME edition, Mad5cience is an original composition by Paul Bazooka that has remained in the lineup through PHOENIX. It plays at 130 BPM, and its BGA was produced by YSJ. The title hides a stylized flourish: that 5 doubles as an S, so the name should be read as Mad Science.

On PHOENIX the song offers Single charts at S5, S15 and S20, plus Double charts at D7 and D16. The S15 sets a couple of traps: midway the scroll slows down and a run appears that looks like a string of chained hold notes, but it actually layers short notes into overlapping notes, so stepping ahead of time draws a miss. Another stretch looks like five rapid double-taps, when in fact it is a single hold note that must be pressed down and kept held. The S20 is built mostly on bracket stepping; during its central trill, played while holding the middle panel, you have to slow down when switching feet to avoid a cascade of bad judgments, thinking of the run in groups of eight. The D16 is essentially a stretched, slightly slimmed-down version of the S15.

The S20 features one-foot two-note brackets, though in a simpler form than the notorious What Happened S21, which makes it a good chart for practicing that technique. Clearing it with an SSS rank or higher on PHOENIX unlocks the [BRACKET] LV.2 title. On top of that, Prime 2 (patch 1.09.0) introduced a Quest Zone exclusive chart at D22 carrying the subtitle Mad EXC.