Elite Beat Agents

"A quirky, yet suprisingly fun and addictive game."

When most people heard about the game EBA, their reaction was "WTF?", which is understandable, due to this game's quirky nature. In EBA, you play as an operative for a secret government agency called, surprise, the Elite Beat Agents. This agency's goal is to help those in need using a combonation of music, rythm, and dance to raise their spirits.

Now, if you're thinking, "Are you kidding me?", then you're not alone. But the story of EBA is more or less just an excuse (albeit a funny as HELL excuse) to tap circles, follow balls, spin wheels, and watch the EBAgents dance like fools while cheering people on through ridiculous predicaments. If you aren't saying WTF NOW, then, even though you have some serious issues, you will absolutely love this game. For the rest of you, you'll probably also love this game.

Now, to the nitty-gritty:

Gameplay

If you've never played a rythm/beat game before in you're life, then don't worry; you're not the only one. Don't worry though, since this is the first time North America has ever seen a game like this.

In this game, the action takes place on the bottom screen, while the top screen shows how the Agent's client is handling his/her problem. At the beginning of every level, there is a breif comic-like description of the client and his/her problem. After that, you'll actuall begin to play. But instead of directly controlling the Agents, you'll be keeping the beat of the level's song to help then dance away.

There are three types of actions you will do in this game. The first is a simple tap; you do this on circle icons, which have an outer ring that shrinks. When the outer ring encloses the circle, you simply tap the circle. The second action is a swipe, which you do on ball icons. These balls follow a path, and your job is to keep your stylus/finger/whatever on the ball as it follows the path. The last movement is a circle, which you do to spin a wheel to gain extra points. The faster you spin the wheel, the more points you get. Simple, right?

As you play through the level, each action you do will earn you points. You can get 300, 100, or 50 points, depending on how acurately you keep the beat. If you miss a beat entirely, or press the wrong beat, then you'll recieve an X, which takes away points. There are also certain beats that give you extra points, called, you guessed it, Elite Beats.

Beats also keep up your Elite-o-Meter, a bar on the top of the bottom screen. If you keep the bar above the red area, the client will be much more successful. If you keep the bar really high, then the client will do even better. But drop the bar into the red area, and the client will start to fail. If you reach one of the songs breaking points, and your Elite-o-Meter is below red, then you'll fail that particular segment of the song. You'll keep on going with the level, but your score will take a big hit, and the level's ending will be different. If your bar ever empties, then you're mission is failed, and you'll be given the option to either retry, quit, or review where you messed up.

While then game, overall, plays very well and rather franticly, sometimes there are just too many icons on screen, and it becomes hard to follow the song. The game also varies from being incredibly easy to frustratingly hard.

Gameplay score: 9.25/10

Story

As stated before, throughout the game you will control a group of Agents who helo those in need. If this wasn't odd enough, you should see some of the level's back-stories. They range from helping an ex-Big League Star fight off a giant golem to save a fan of his and get back into the game, to helping Leonardo daVince win the love of Mona Lisa so she will smile for his picture, to helping a magician drive a group of card-themed villains from the casino he was to perform at.

Basically, the game's stories are varied and off-the-wall, and nearly each is enjoyable.

Story score: 8/10

Graphics

While many games are trying their hardest to push the DS's grahical capabilities to the limit, (check out Final Fantasy III and you'll see what I mean) EBA proves a game doesn't need great graphics to be... well, great.

The overworld map of the game is presented in decent 3-D, keeping exactly with the game's cartoon-ish feeling. A the beginning of the levels themselves, there is a brief cinema styled after comics. These show you what your client's problem is, and usually end with him or her yelling "HELP!!!" At that point, the EBA Commander, Kahn, is shown staring at a screen with the client on it, and shortly afterwards, delivers the now-infamous line, "Agents are... GO!!!"

Then it shows your Agents fly into action. During the actual level, the Agents are displayed in the backround, in a truly DDR-style fashion. They're shown in full 3-D, and, while they are nothing to brag about, are very fluid and quite hillarious. When you do well, they dance to the music and follow the beats; when you screw up, they fly back, as if hit by a mallet, and slowly stand up. And, despite all of the beats going on on the bottom screen, they never slow-down, which is good, since that could easily ruin a game of this genre.

The top screen, as stated before, shows your client trying to solve their problem. It does this in an over-the-top anime/comic style, so expect white-eyes, huge mouths, and questionable antics.

Graphics score: 8.5/10

Sound

In a game like this, sound is a defining factor. The game boasts 19 tracks, (16 in the story mode with three unlockable) ranging from things like Y.M.C.A. and Canned Heat to songs like Sk8er Boi and The Anthem. Of course, reaction to the song selection will vary by opinion, so I won't comment on that. *CoughMaterialGirlCough*

However, while song selection may be something of opinion, sound quality is different. On the DS's speakers, the songs usually come through as a bit too quiet, with overly-loud sound-effects. (Of course, head-phones are always a great option.) Each song isn't taken from the original recording, but is instead recorded by different people so that the song synchs up perfectly with the beats.So while the sound quality is as good as, say, a CD's, it definitely gets the job done and then some.

The sound effects are a mixed bag. When you tap a beat on most of the songs, you'll hear a drum/symbol sound. While this works great with some songs, on others it sounds a bit out of place. But to counter this, on most of the songs, there are parts where the Agents will actually yell out when you tap a particular beat; these never fail to add a bit of personality to the game.

Sound score: 8.5/10

Replayability

The replayability of this game depends on how much you actually like it. If you love this game, then you'll be playing it for a long while. (With 19 tracks and four difficulty settings, there's a good bit to do.) However, there will be those who don't like the tracks, or just don't understand the game at all.

There is also a decent multiplayer mode. There is a Co-Op multi-card mode, where the players are assigned different colored beats and can only tap their own. There is also a single-card mode where up to four players go head-to-head to be the best at a song. (This mode dosen't offer every song if you only have one card.) You can also go against ghost data that you can save and trade after completing a song, so you can try to out-do your own score or the score of your friends, even when they aren't around. However, you can only save one ghost-data for every song, regardless of difficulty.

When playing multi-player though, there are occasional bouts of slow-down, which can mess up the whole session. There are also some quirks, such as shrinking the beat's size when you are losing, that come off as unpractical, and can mess up your rythm. That, and the lack of Wi-Fi support is also a bit hurtful, wince it could have been a fun experience to test your rythm against a stranger on a different continent. So, while multi-player is fine, it definitely isn't revolutionary.

Replayability score: 8.75/10

Conclusion

EBA is, at it's core, a light-hearted experience with fun gameplay and hillarious antics. While the songs are a bit hit-and-miss, the game, overall, is a great success for the Nintendo DS. If you like DDR, or love music, then I'd reccomend this game to you without a hint of doubt that you will enjoy it. For those of you that don't play video-games too much, I'd suggest you try this game, because almost everyone can find a song or two that they will enjoy, and the gameplay, though a bit hard to grasp at first, is fun and frantic.

Pros:
Fun gameplay
Funny story sequences
Unique presentation
19 Tracks
Men in suits dancing oddly = WIN

Cons:
Sound quality isn't great
Some songs are definite duds
Unrefined multiplayer

OVERALL SCORE: 9.25/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/06