Elite Beat Agents

"Best game on the system. I'm not kidding."

Elite Beat Agents is the best game on DS to date. Seriously. Okay, so it's not online. Doesn't matter. The game is so original, and so fun, that almost anyone could enjoy it.

Graphics

Elite Beat Agents has awesome, original, amazing graphics. The game is almost totally in 2-D. That's a good thing. The game has a graphic style all its own. The menus look sleek, everything runs smoothly, and slowdown is incredibly rare and minimal. Before each stage, you'll see a manga-style intro. Right away, you'll appreciate the stylized, over the top art. Once the gameplay starts, you'll see your EBA squad in sharp 3-D on the Touch Screen and the gorgeous 2-D action playing out on top. It's all flawlessly executed. The only problem is that sometimes, line thickness is inconsistent for some reason, and it can make things look odd. Not a big problem at all, though. Oh, and great character design really helps, too!

I give the graphics 9.5/10 points.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Elite Beat Agents is straightforward. You use the Touch Screen to follow along with the beat of the music. Tap on Hit Markers, Slide over Phrase Markers, and spin the wheel on the Spin Markers. Simple? Yes. Easy? NO. Lose the beat for even a little while, and Mission Failed! The game is very challenging. There are five difficulty levels, each much tougher than the last. You'll start with Breezin', the easiest mode, and Cruisin', the medium mode. They'll challenge you at first, but as you play, you'll get better and better. After you complete the first two difficulty levels, you'll unlock the hard mode, Sweatin'. Even after that, there are two more modes, still progressively harder!

In Single Player mode, you'll go from location to location on the cool 3-D map, playing through the Chapters. Keep your timing and get an Elite Beat and the characters will be succeeding, get a Beat and they'll be doing all right. Falter and get a 50 or miss in your string of Markers, and they'll fall behind. Keep the Elite-o-Meter high by keeping the beat going, and at the pause the characters will have success. Mess up and let it dwindle, and there will be problems. At the end of each level, the results of the story will depend on your success on each part of the level. Get the good result on each part of the stage, and you'll get the best ending clip. Mess up some, and it's medium. Fail each one, but without letting the Elite-o-Meter run dry, and the results won't be a failure, but not great, either. After the song is over, you'll get a stylish "Mission Complete" and then you'll see a chart of your performance, your score, detailed stats, and a letter grade. Beating your high score on each level and difficulty is always a fun challenge. Good luck getting an S Rank! On any difficulty, it's tricky to do that well. Your timing needs to be almost perfect.

Multiplayer options are pretty robust. You can broadcast the fun Training mode to your friends using DS Download Play, or you can send them a dumbed-down version of the first stage. But it certainly doesn't stop there! The game has three types of unique multiplayer play. If you have a friend with an Elite Beat Agents Game Card, you can play through Single Player stages in Co-op mode, alternating between taking control and watching the other person. It's a shame you can't do this via Download Play, but if you've got a partner, it's a fun mode.

And then there are battle modes. In VS Ghost multiplayer, you can play against your saved Single Player Replay Data (which you can also send to other players, allowing EBA players to use each other's Replay Data). Playing against Replay Data is a great way to test your skills. Even better, however, is VS Player. In VS Player mode, one to four people (if you have three or more, you play on teams) can play the battle mode. Players can join via Multi-Card play, or DS Download Play, but with Download Play, song selection is limited. In the VS modes, you pick your songs (and characters and difficulty in VS Player), and then play through one of five corresponding stages, in which one character (or team of characters) faces off against the other. It works like Single Player, except you're competing for higher score, and if your timing is good (getting "Beats" or "Elite Beats"), you can launch an attack on your enemy, shaking their screen and shrinking their Markers a bit, or shrinking their Markers to tiny proportions, either of which can be very damaging. The only problem is that some of the VS scenarios are pretty dumb, especially the one where two supermodels face off in a beauty contest. UGH!

The gameplay is always fun, rarely frustrating, and incredibly innovative. Also, if you've got a Rumble Pak (which you should), it will enhance the sound with its charming hum, as well as give you a bit of rumble to enhance the feeling of the gameplay.

I give the gameplay 10/10 points.

Sound/Music/Voice

The game does an awesome job with all the sounds of the game, from the music, to infectious voice clips. All the music, save the menu, map, and Training music, consists of "real" songs. The songs are cover versions of songs ranging from "Canned Heat," the awesome old-school song Napoleon Dynamite dances to at the school assembly, to "The Anthem," a more contemporary rock song by Good Charlotte. The fact that all the songs are cover versions is good and bad. Some songs have lines cut, and sometimes words possibly replaced by mistake by similar-sounding ones. Some songs have different tune to them, or faster tempo. This can detract, but most cover versions are pretty good, and some possibly better than the originals. For example, you might hate Avril Laveign's "Sk8er Boi" or Madonna's "Material Girl," but the covers may make them easier on the ears. On the flip side, I, for example, hate what they did to "Canned Heat." They cut half the song, replaced "hey!" with what sounds like "hell," and messed up the beat of the song.

The sounds really enhance the music. When you tap a Hit Marker, you'll hear a sound such as a drumbeat sound, a "hey," a "yeah," and others too. Slide along with a Phrase Marker, and you might hear a drum roll with a cymbal hit at the end. It all goes along with the beat of the music to make it sound even better. One song, "You're the Inspiration," is far too slow and with too many pauses, but with the bells and techno bleeps mixed in, it sounds much better.

One major improvement of Elite Beat Agents over its Japanese counterpart, Osu! Takedan! Ouendan!, is the addition of cool voice clips. When Jane opens the door on the first stage (“Walkie Talkie Man”)'s intro, you'll hear a cute "Yes?". Throughout Chapter 14 ("The Anthem"), you'll hear baseball superstar Hulk "The King" Bryman say, "You bet, kid!" as he and a kid battle a giant lava golem. (This is the game's most popular quote. It sticks.) And, at each intro's end, an exasperated "HEAAALLLP!!" Hear it for yourself; you'll like it.

Music: 9.5/10
Sound/Voice: 10/10

Story

The Elite Beat Agents are a secret government organization consisting of agents that come assist people in need through the power of awesome looks and awesomer dancing. Each stage has a different person (or set of people) in need of a boost, and your squad (which is decided by difficulty level) makes a stylish entrance and inspires the target to success. Yes, it's crazy. But it's awesome. Very awesome. The only thing is that a couple of stages are just downers. It's all happy, funny, high-energy awesomeness, until Chapter 12 ("You're the Inspiration"). Chapter 12 breaks up the happy fun with its sad tearjerker story. However, this isn't so bad on a second playthrough, especially if you happen to finish the cake baking part with a low Elite-o-Meter. That's just plain hilarious. The other stage that bothers me is Chapter 14 ("Let's Dance"). An oil tycoon's reserves run dry, and his gold-digging, million-spending wife kicks him out. [SPOILERS] And when you complete the level, he's rich again, and hasn't learned a thing. Heck, he even buys that terrible woman her own freakin' island, made of gold in the "best" ending! It's just sick. [/SPOILERS]

I give the story 9/10 points.

Length/Replay Value/Cost-Effectiveness

With FIVE challenging difficulty levels, 19 songs (three of which are unlocked by getting your Rank to a certain level by getting higher total scores) great multiplayer, and a small price tag of $30, there's nothing at all to complain about.

There are only two decent reasons one could possibly have to not want to buy the game. If you can't stand anything with anything sad in it, then Chapter 12 is bad for you. Also, the game earns its E10+ rating very well; most notable for objectionable content are Chapter 10 ("Material Girl") for Suggestive Themes (In this level, two celebrities use their looks and... figures, to survive and get home from a desert island. Things bounce.) and Chapter 11 ("La La") for Lyrics (the lyrics of the song are quite suggestive).

I give the length, replay value, and cost-effectiveness a big 10/10!

Overall

Rhythm-action gaming at its finest! DS at its finest! Multiplayer at its finest! PLAY THIS GAME!

Overall, I give this game a big 9.5/10!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/07