Elite Beat Agents
Rockin' Out
Posted March 5, 2007
Undeniably unique to North American gamers, Elite Beat Agents is actually a partial sequel to a Japanese DS title released in 2005 called Osu! Tatakae! Quendan!. The developer, iNiS, changed the main characters from absurd male cheerleaders to slick super-agents to adapt the game for a Western audience. The agents are members of a governmental agency that responds to personal emergencies, large and small, for citizens around the world. These dancing men in black provide motivation through interpretive dance to help the citizen overcome their crisis. This handheld sensation captures the same rhythmic elements that make the Guitar Hero series so entertaining. It relies on timed touches in rhythm to popular music, mostly of the rock variety. 
The production value of the presentation is amazingly slick for a handheld title. Each song is accompanied by a humorous narrative presented in a comic book style slideshow covering both screens. While much of each story develops in brief breaks during the song, there is plenty of action going on while the player is concentrating on the actual game mechanics. This is one of the first games I’ve actually spent time watching the saved replays of the action, simply because it’s so darn charming.
Gameplay:
The directional pad, bumpers, and buttons can be ignored entirely as only the touch screen + stylus are needed to play. Once a player has chosen one of the two available difficulties (2 more are unlocked later), they are transported into a rotating, global view for selecting missions. Missions & songs can be previewed before leaping in and players have a selection of three or four at any given time.
As a song begins, the Agents will count down the start and hit markers will start to appear on the screen. Hit markers are numbered to by hit in a certain order and timed by collapsing circles. As the circle closes around the marker, players should time their taps at with the combination of perfect musical timing and visual cues. The opening difficulties of the hit markers are fairly simply to tap, but the later difficulties become ultimately frantic when racing across the screen to the steady beat of the music.
Once a hit marker is tapped correctly, a point value is assigned to your successful hit. The closer you are to the center with the correct timing, the higher the point value you will receive. A series of successful hits will increase the multiplier as well as providing bonuses to elite agents. The game will also launch into a bonus round occasionally during the middle of a song and always at the very end. The bonus round requires the player to spin the stylus in a circular motion around the screen to increase a power meter. If the meter is maxed out, points will rack up in 1000 point increments. It’s an insanely satisfying feeling when you can rack up 20,000+ extra points after a perfect run-through.
Once a song is completed, players will be treated to one of three possible end movies and a variety of statistics along with an overall ranking. The endings are specific to completing the goals throughout the song. If you managed to only keep up and fail one of more of the challenges, the most negative ending will occur. Average and Perfect endings are much more satisfying. The stats include how many hit markers you managed to grab as well as a measure of the point values that racked up. Rankings range from D to S, with S heralded as the highest honor.
Players can also rummage through the stats in the options menu as well as watching old replays of the songs. Additionally, the amount of points you have earned over all the difficulty levels will translate into your supreme military style ranking and dictate when three locked songs become available to you. Players can also change a couple customizable options including left or right handed preference. That’s a handy option for those showing off the game to a friend.
The multiplayer modes offer up a challenge to a gamer that has exhausted the nearly endless single player difficulty challenges. Up to 4 players can join up and compete for high scores against each other. Not surprisingly, only 5 songs are available for those who are using the Download Play function. But finding folks who all own a copy of EBA will allow all of the songs that the host has unlocked to be available for use. There is also an auxiliary co-op mode which alternates sections of a song between players, but it’s not as nearly as enjoyable as the competitive multiplayer mode.
Graphics:
Arguably, the cartoonish, comical appeal to the graphics will entice younger players, but several of the witty visuals will only be understood by an older generation. The colorful design definitely has eastern influence, but the characters models have western appeal. The developer’s usage of stop motion imagery when visually narrating the stories is certainly acceptable and adds to the quirky style. I also love that they included a way to skip past the opening cut scenes if restarting the song.
Audio:
The sheer multitude of songs will make you wonder how the developer fit everything onto a DS cart. The 16 main title tracks (along with the 3 unlockable tunes) are from current and older popular artists: Madonna, Sum 41, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Five, Good Charlotte, David Bowie, Avril Lavinge, Chicago, Hoobastank, Village People, Queen, The Stray Cats, Ashlee Simpson, Deep Purple, Destiny’s Child, Jamiroquai, Cher, and Earth, Wind & Fire. While the game sticks to their main hits, the inevitable popularity of such choices makes it much easier to follow the rhythm during each song.
Beyond the excellent variety of music, the game incorporates a multitude of sound effects for everything from musical instruments to character voices. While an occasional word is uttered, the sounds effects assign realistic auditory noises to their on-screen counterparts. My only minor complaint is that the timing could have been a bit quicker in during certain cut scenes, but it’s probably due to the constraints of the load speeds.
Overall:
Elite Beat Agents is simply one of the best DS games available for the handheld system, partly due to its unmatched nature. The snazzy presentation, addictive style of gameplay and seemingly endless replay value will offer up hours upon hours of pure single player, gaming satisfaction. It’s accessible to nearly anyone due to the simple game mechanics and offers up a nearly insurmountable challenge to the veteran player. The multiplayer could have used more of a song selection for Download play, but it still can be fun with the right group of people. Don’t hesitate to pick up Elite Beat Agents at full retail price and add it to your growing DS collection.
The production value of the presentation is amazingly slick for a handheld title. Each song is accompanied by a humorous narrative presented in a comic book style slideshow covering both screens. While much of each story develops in brief breaks during the song, there is plenty of action going on while the player is concentrating on the actual game mechanics. This is one of the first games I’ve actually spent time watching the saved replays of the action, simply because it’s so darn charming.
Gameplay:
The directional pad, bumpers, and buttons can be ignored entirely as only the touch screen + stylus are needed to play. Once a player has chosen one of the two available difficulties (2 more are unlocked later), they are transported into a rotating, global view for selecting missions. Missions & songs can be previewed before leaping in and players have a selection of three or four at any given time.
As a song begins, the Agents will count down the start and hit markers will start to appear on the screen. Hit markers are numbered to by hit in a certain order and timed by collapsing circles. As the circle closes around the marker, players should time their taps at with the combination of perfect musical timing and visual cues. The opening difficulties of the hit markers are fairly simply to tap, but the later difficulties become ultimately frantic when racing across the screen to the steady beat of the music.
Once a hit marker is tapped correctly, a point value is assigned to your successful hit. The closer you are to the center with the correct timing, the higher the point value you will receive. A series of successful hits will increase the multiplier as well as providing bonuses to elite agents. The game will also launch into a bonus round occasionally during the middle of a song and always at the very end. The bonus round requires the player to spin the stylus in a circular motion around the screen to increase a power meter. If the meter is maxed out, points will rack up in 1000 point increments. It’s an insanely satisfying feeling when you can rack up 20,000+ extra points after a perfect run-through.
Once a song is completed, players will be treated to one of three possible end movies and a variety of statistics along with an overall ranking. The endings are specific to completing the goals throughout the song. If you managed to only keep up and fail one of more of the challenges, the most negative ending will occur. Average and Perfect endings are much more satisfying. The stats include how many hit markers you managed to grab as well as a measure of the point values that racked up. Rankings range from D to S, with S heralded as the highest honor.
Players can also rummage through the stats in the options menu as well as watching old replays of the songs. Additionally, the amount of points you have earned over all the difficulty levels will translate into your supreme military style ranking and dictate when three locked songs become available to you. Players can also change a couple customizable options including left or right handed preference. That’s a handy option for those showing off the game to a friend.
The multiplayer modes offer up a challenge to a gamer that has exhausted the nearly endless single player difficulty challenges. Up to 4 players can join up and compete for high scores against each other. Not surprisingly, only 5 songs are available for those who are using the Download Play function. But finding folks who all own a copy of EBA will allow all of the songs that the host has unlocked to be available for use. There is also an auxiliary co-op mode which alternates sections of a song between players, but it’s not as nearly as enjoyable as the competitive multiplayer mode.
Graphics:
Arguably, the cartoonish, comical appeal to the graphics will entice younger players, but several of the witty visuals will only be understood by an older generation. The colorful design definitely has eastern influence, but the characters models have western appeal. The developer’s usage of stop motion imagery when visually narrating the stories is certainly acceptable and adds to the quirky style. I also love that they included a way to skip past the opening cut scenes if restarting the song.
Audio:
The sheer multitude of songs will make you wonder how the developer fit everything onto a DS cart. The 16 main title tracks (along with the 3 unlockable tunes) are from current and older popular artists: Madonna, Sum 41, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Five, Good Charlotte, David Bowie, Avril Lavinge, Chicago, Hoobastank, Village People, Queen, The Stray Cats, Ashlee Simpson, Deep Purple, Destiny’s Child, Jamiroquai, Cher, and Earth, Wind & Fire. While the game sticks to their main hits, the inevitable popularity of such choices makes it much easier to follow the rhythm during each song.
Beyond the excellent variety of music, the game incorporates a multitude of sound effects for everything from musical instruments to character voices. While an occasional word is uttered, the sounds effects assign realistic auditory noises to their on-screen counterparts. My only minor complaint is that the timing could have been a bit quicker in during certain cut scenes, but it’s probably due to the constraints of the load speeds.
Overall:
Elite Beat Agents is simply one of the best DS games available for the handheld system, partly due to its unmatched nature. The snazzy presentation, addictive style of gameplay and seemingly endless replay value will offer up hours upon hours of pure single player, gaming satisfaction. It’s accessible to nearly anyone due to the simple game mechanics and offers up a nearly insurmountable challenge to the veteran player. The multiplayer could have used more of a song selection for Download play, but it still can be fun with the right group of people. Don’t hesitate to pick up Elite Beat Agents at full retail price and add it to your growing DS collection.