Scorpion King

Four years on from "The Ashtray", r300k came back to the arcade with this, the artist's first original track for Pump It Up. The blend of an Egyptian setting with a wobble bass drew praise. The BGA, handled by Lyrebird Ferdinant, is a 3D animation featuring pyramids, a pharaoh, and the scorpion that gives the song its name.

Single mode offers S3, S5, S8, S15 and S19. S15 is the hardest of the normally-unlocked charts: although 113 BPM is low, it gives almost no rest and pours out horizontal twists throughout, so it can feel tough if twists are your weak point; in PHOENIX, earning an SSS rank or better grants the [TWIST] Lv.1 title. S19 keeps a high twist count early and likewise offers little rest, but its low BPM means stamina drain is lighter than expected; its finale splits into two run sections, the second adding siderun, and outside that stretch it stays approachable for players new to the level.

Double mode offers D10, D16, D20 and D23. D10, despite being a Double, includes a fair number of patterns that spin on a single pad. D16 raises the angle of its half twists considerably and features a leg-splitting, shifting run that evokes a scorpion crawling along. D20 is a slow song, but the 24-beat run that pours in from the midpoint never feels slow, so it pays to take it more deliberately than instinct suggests. D23, added in the XX 2.08.0 update by stepmaker DulKi, is defined by a bracket-heavy finish; in PHOENIX, an SSS rank or better grants the [BRACKET] Lv.9 title.