Pump It Up: Exceed is a dancing game similar to the Dance Dance Revolution series . The Pump It Up dance mat is different from the norm as the arrows are set on diagonals and includes a button in the middle which allows for more complexity in the dance moves that are required to be performed in the game.
The general gameplay has the player watching a music video as symbols scroll by. The player must match the symbols on the screen with the symbols on the Pump It Up dance pad with their feet. Hitting the arrows in sync with the music will keep the players life bar up and give the player a good rating, while doing the opposite will drain the life bar and give bad ratings. If the life bar drains all the way, the game ends.
The game has several modes to choose from: Arcade Mode, Home Mode, Sudden Death Mode, Survival Mode, Video Mode, and Tutorial mode. In Arcade Mode, the player tries to achieve an “A” or an “S” rating on three consecutive songs, while in Home Mode, the player can choose any song they have available. Sudden Death Mode forces the player to perform a song flawlessly, while Survival Mode is an endurance test where the game keeps giving the players songs until their life bar is depleted.
Video Mode allows the player to just watch the videos for any song they've completed, and Tutorial mode teaches the player how the game works. The game also keeps track of the player's statistics, including rating grades for each song. The PS2 version features 101 songs, while the Xbox version contains 97 songs, with the option to download more.
The game provides a rating from one to twenty to inform the player on how hard a particular song is. Two dance mats are required for some songs that offer a freestyle option if the player chooses that setting.