The Bounty Board
Sometimes you get songs that just give you shit, no matter what they're rated. These are those songs.
Bomber Bomber - DJ Nagai (Expert 
x9 )
BPM: 193-97
Score: 7.51 (B+) (2 Feb 2022)
Score: 5.08 (B-) (27 Jan 2022)
Score: 3.83 (C) (25 Jan 2022)
Wanted for: Excessive skill checks
Expert Notes: This one tests EVERYTHING. Stepjumps into streams, 12th streams and 16th triplets, crossovers, long jacks, and all at 193 BPM. Except it's not, because the hardest parts are actually in the slowdown (those 12ths and 16ths are technically 24ths and 32nds). If you get tired for even a second in the prechoruses, kiss your score goodbye. I played this way more times than it looks from the scores and it took a miracle run just to get B+. Hope you like reading slow.
Unspeakable - Ace of Base (Challenge 
x9 )
BPM: 90
Score: 9.24 (A+) (24 Feb 2022)
Score: 8.58 (A-) (13 Feb 2022)
Score: 6.71 (B) (21 Jan 2022)
Wanted for: Making me feel dumb and stupid and dumb
Challenge Notes: It's like Secret Rendez-vous with more crossovers and much longer streams. It's still not quite a 9 on its own and I would've FC'd it ages ago. The problem is the mines after the freezes in the chorus. They're only a 16th after the freeze so you have to move your foot quick. They're so damn simple but I'm new to mines and I can't dodge them all no matter how many times I try. The ending has you do crossovers after each freeze and the mines make them hard to read.
POP - The Quick Brown Fox (Expert x10 )
BPM: 354 (177 in intro and bridge)
Score: 3.04 (C) (1 Feb 2022)
Score: -0.94 (D) (19 Jan 2022)
Wanted for: Fraudulent hope-giving
Expert Notes: I'm not sure if I should put 10's on here. They're supposed to be hard. But this one gave me easily my lowest score so far and I want payback. It's not even a hard 10, that's what gets me. Most of it plays like a 9, tons of crossovers but it's just 4ths. There's 8th bursts every other measure at the start of chorus 1 and the ending, and by the ending I don't have enough stamina to hit them all. The last couple measures are slightly more complex, but I can tell it's barely a 10 which is why I'm mad I don't have a higher score. The end of each slowdown is also BPM gimmicked. There's two big drumbeats and a stop. Count and hit the next note on three. Don't speed up until the third note after the stop. If you listen to the song the first one starts at 0:19, if you're playing it starts at the down-left jump. I didn't know all that until I looked at the chart to make this entry, so the gimmicks tripped me up. Also there's no way Nerve's Ending turns 5 next month. None. It's way younger than the old-school stuff I wasn't there for, but that's only 6-8 years old, right? I know I listened to POP in junior high, I don't care. Where did the time go?
Blackjack - Airbourne (Challenge x9 )
BPM: 185 (slows to 63 in last three measures)
Score: 4.89 (C+) (19 Jan 2022)
Wanted for: Multiple pattern possession with intent to distribute
Challenge Notes: It's a straightforward stamina chart but it has everything you can think of. Dozens of stepjumps, crossovers and jacks. Worse, there's mines in the chorus. They're not as hard to avoid as the Unspeakable ones since your feet are already moving, but it means I have to think during a very draining song.
NAMx ~Booty Heaven RMX~ - Renard (Expert x7 )
BPM: 166
Score: 6.83 (B) (17 Jan 2022)
Wanted for: Crimes against candles, gross playtesting negligence
Expert Notes: The whole song should be an 8 (a lot of it's mirrored or edited from the Challenge 9-footer), but in the "limb by limb" part it makes you do candles with one foot during the freezes, and the actual steps are all jacks. Maybe that'd be okay at 120 BPM, but 166? I got an A+ on the Challenge chart (again, two feet higher) on the first try. Here I had to goodflag everything else just to get a B. The worst part is this is EMMA'S CHART! She did this to her own song just to make us suffer.
You either die a gundog or you live long enough to see yourself become the hell dive
Be With You - MGD-Crew feat. Sprinkel Bunnies (Expert x9 )
BPM: 185
Score: 9.19 (A+) (13 Feb 2022)
Score: 8.56 (A) (12 Feb 2022)
Score: 8.32 (A-) (28 Jan 2022)
Score: 6.88 (B) (12 Jan 2022)
Score: 5.40 (B-) (11 Jan 2022)
Wanted for: Stepjump assault
Expert Notes: At first it's an ordinary streamy 9, with a couple stops in the jacks before the chorus. But it starts near the end of the chorus, eight seconds of a jump every 4 steps with only a couple split-second breaks. As you can see I grinded my way up to a good score for a 9, but it took a long time and I'm mindblocked on the very end of the last stream. Even after that you have some long (jump-free) streams, and if you're tired and don't take them seriously you can drop some combos.
Tick Tick Boom - The Hives (Expert x7 )
BPM: 135-134
Score: 9.65 (S) (5 Sept 2021)
Wanted for: Illegally long stops, inspiring my "only 3 plays" rule
Expert Notes: It has stepjumps and little 16th bursts, which makes it very hard to FC if you have any trouble with 7's at all, but I'm a lot better at stepjumps than I was when I played it. It's also one of those 7's with tons of little gaps so it's hard to keep your rhythm. The real problem is the stops at the end of the chorus. They last the entire "tick tick tick tick tick tick tick BOOM" line (about 3 seconds) and they're an instant before a note. Knowing the song doesn't help either; I've known it since I was six. 9.65 may not seem bad except I didn't have my rule where I only play a song 3 times in a row yet. I grinded this for an hour and couldn't FC.