Nintendo DS NintendoSpin.com / Reviews / Elite Beat Agents

Posted on January 5th, 2007 - 1828 Reads

Rated Everyone 10+ Elite Beat Agents Nintendo DS Review Silver Award

-- Written by Marc-André Sarrazin



 The music game genre has been evolving over the past few years thanks to Konami, and more recently Harmonix as well. While dance pads or guitar accessories are sometimes better suited for a specific music game, Japanese developer iNiS thought they could make something interesting with the DS's touch screen and it became the smash import hit Ouendan, a game that a got a lot of attention from importers globally. If you visit any import store it is still in the top 10 of the best selling games even after the US release of Elite Beat Agents, its US counterpart.

This game had to be localized for the US since it used Japanese pop music as well as other elements not common over here. Nintendo of America did a very good job, because in looking at the game I didn't see too much in common except for the gameplay mecanics themselves. Everything else has been changed, from backgrounds to game characters, and it works really well with the setting of the game.

So in this game you are the Elite Beat Agents, some kind of male cheerleader group who goes around and cheers people in difficult situations. The games story is told through cartoon animations and most of the stories are incredibly stupid, but they are funny nonetheless and you'll want to use the replay feature of the game to look at them properly as they happen at the same time you're playing, and since you need to focus on the gameplay aspect you can't really see what's going on in the cartoons. The stories range from a dog trying to find his way back home, to the planet being attacked by aliens, or two girls being lost on an island in the middle of the sea. There is a lot of diversity and most people should be able to find something they like in there since they are really funny and you can see a lot of time and effort was put into the drawings.

Of course, a song accompanies each stage and it includes various classics as well as more recent offerings. It ranges from skater boy from Avril Lavigne to YMCA or Jumping Jack Flash, even Madonna and Cher are in there. I thought the punk/rock songs were easier to follow and suited the game more, but some of the other songs, especially the one by Jamiroquai were incredibly difficult. I guess that each style of music lended itself differently to the game because they had to be adapted in a different way.

The gameplay itself is really simplistic. Circles appear on the screen in order, and what you have to do is hit them at the right time. At the beginning you only have series of 4 or 5 circles at a time, but when you get to the hardest difficulty level, you can have as much as 20 with series appearing on screen one after the other, and the can pop up anywhere on the screen. You also have to drag a ball in bars at specific speeds and also have wheels to spin a few times in a song. What makes this all work though is that each screen tap is made following the beat of the music so in the end it all makes sense and it is why you might be able to finish songs on your first time through if you really know them. There are 4 difficulty levels and it ramps up pretty fast, although it is still balanced and just hard enough that you will not get it the first time, but know that you can do it and will try again a bunch of times until you get it right. Since the songs never change, it is just a matter of learning everything by heart, and practice will make it perfect.

I never thought that Ouendan would make it over here, but thanks to NOA it did and I think every DS owner should be happy about this since it is one of the best games on the system and it has very good replay value. It is one of those games you want to bring with you all the time and try to unlock everything. Lets hope they cook us a sequel with a different set of songs, it would be cheap to do but definitely acceptable, as there is no reason to change a winning formula. All in all, I think that every DS owner owes himself to at least take a look at this game as it is one of the best releases the system has seen since its launch.

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