Elite Beat Agents

"A fantastic semi-sequel that lives up to its semi-predecessor"

A little while back a silly and charming rhythm game called Ouendan came out for the DS. The game, which sold about five copies within Japan and was imported by about ten Americans, featured male cheerleaders whose goal was to provide help to those who needed it—with song! Featuring comic-like art and a good sense of humor, it proved to be very fun and surprisingly addictive world to step into. Well, Nintendo got the message, and soon enough Elite Beat Agents, a North American “sequel” of sorts, was announced. And here it is! Though there's a lot to be skeptical about, it is more of the same lovable, quality fun. It's a game to be enjoyed by both Ouendan lovers and those who have never even heard of it.

Gameplay – 10/10
This is good stuff. This is where it shines. Elite Beat Agents is the uncommon type of rhythm game; the type where you're doing things for a reason, as part of a story. You go through the game as the Elite Beat Agents (who will hereafter be referred to as EBA), a squad of…agents who help innocent civilians with their crises, big or small: helping a girl take care of kids and woo her crush, helping a director down on his luck, curing illnesses, saving Christmas, it's all here along with plenty more.

But what can some agents with some goofy hairstyles do? More than you might think. Through the power song and rhythm, the EBA help inspire and aid these needy folk and lead them to happiness. All the action takes place on the touch screen where numbered circles appear, called hit markers, which are ready to be tapped to the rhythm. Say you're looking at a circle with a 1 on it, which we'll cleverly title “circle 1”; well, outside of circle 1, the outline of a second larger circle will appear, shrinking, closing in, and when that outline becomes the size of circle 1 you tap it. There are a few different scores you get from tapping the circles on time, and the more accurate the timing the higher your health bar—which is constantly decreasing—stays. You'll mostly be working with strings of circles displayed in patterns all over the touch screen, which follow patterns in the music, but there are also two more major things at work: phrase markers, where you drag your stylus along a set path, and spin markers, where you violently and abusively scribble circles around the touch screen. It's quite simple, all of it, but it's continuously fun. This game especially, more than other rhythm games, is a treat to play over and over, even if you've beaten all the songs. Speaking of which, beating the songs is a challenging thing to do. The game offers a few modes of difficulty, with a perhaps too easy of an easy difficulty and a surprisingly hard normal difficulty already unlocked. From there, once you conquer the last song (which is quite epic, I must say) you will then unlock even more challenging difficulties. Though the game may be hard, maybe extremely frustrating at times, it's always rewarding to replay over and over, trying to reach the goal.

EBA also offers a variety of multiplayer elements, reaching up to four players for some entertaining co-op or verses (which can also be played against CPU). Though no Wifi is present here, the game still shines in terms of multiplayer, which simply adds to how impressively replayable this title really is.

Sound 8/10
EBA is made up of covers of popular US-friendly tunes, which are surprisingly all over the place, with newer hits that no one really asked for such as “The Anthem” and “Sk8er Boi”, some older hits like “Jumpin' Jack Flash”, “YMCA”, and “Highway Star”, along with a few other choices like “You're the Inspiration” and “Survivor”. The song choices have received a lot of complains, and I myself don't exactly love a lot of them, but the covers mostly sound quite nice. However, I'm one of the many that believe, musically, this game isn't as solid as Ouendan. While there are plenty of tunes I do like (including “YMCA”, which is surprisingly fun to play), many seem to fall flat. Now, I like Queen, I think they're plenty wonderful, but the cover of the Freddie-penned "I Was Born to Love You" just doesn't sound so good here. Like a few others ("Let's Dance", for instance), the song and how it's covered make it hard to follow, make it hard to tell (and possibly care) what's going on, and because of that it's hard to tell how the markers go along with it. There are only a few of these, and it may be just how the covers were done and/or how they were implemented into the game, but they hinder an otherwise workable, fairly enjoyable songlist. There's nothing that bad, nothing that makes the game unplayable or all that much less enjoyable, but it is a slight bit of a downer. Don't let that keep you from picking up this game, however.

Graphics – 9/10
The graphics, the art, all that good stuff, is all quite impressive in this game. Each level is introduced in the style of a comic book, where each panel slowly reveals itself to the player and a story is told, ending in a cry for help. The artwork, panels, and how it all plays out are all wonderful and work effectively, making it quite enjoyable to sit and watch. During the gameplay, when you're poking markers and keeping the beat, animations go about on the top screen based on how well you're doing, though you'll typically be too busy to even consider looking at them. Even on the touch screen the EBA themselves dance around humorously, but you'll be too busy to pay attention them as well. Still, you can watch them during replays, and it makes it a treat for others to watch you play.

Songs are broken up in the parts, and every so often you'll watch more of the story unfold in the aforementioned comic style; these are the parts really keep the songs from getting boring, giving you breaks and something fun to watch. The animation changes based on whether you were doing good or bad, giving you either a green check mark or a red X before continuing on. Kicked up a notch since Ouendan are the number of animations throughout the game, either in the comics or in the levels themselves.

Overall – 9/10
This game is enjoyable throughout, and, though short, it provides a staggering amount of replay value. For those who missed Ouendan, you'll find yourself a fresh new game that is consistently charming, challenging, and lovable. For those who played Ouendan, you should find yourself a worthy sequel, though if you find yourself a bit disappointed it's understandable; still, even if I wouldn't call the songlist nearly as good, even if I find that a bit of the charm has been sucked out, EBA is still a fantastic game injected with some new charm of its own.

I happily recommend this game to any DS owner who doesn't completely lack rhythm (and even some that do). It's one of the best DS games put out so far, and, for those new to it and for Ouendan lovers alike, it's a title that shouldn't be missed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06