Elite Beat Agents is a wacky rhythm game designed by a Japanese studio with an obvious affinity for western culture. The game is a fun time, but the experience is ultimately carried by its absurdity rather than its rhythm gameplay.
As a trio of government agents, you are tasked with helping people across the world with their dilemmas. These dilemmas range from minor (e.g., helping a jock impress his babysitting high school crush) to world ending (the final level has you thwarting an alien invasion). The way you help these folks? By tapping along to the beat, of course!
In addition to the bizarre scenarios you find yourself in, the music adds another dose of strange to the atmosphere. Surprisingly, for a nintendo published title, the levels don't use original tracks. Rather, they use famous (covers of) western pop hits from across the decades, ranging from Avril Lavigne to Madonna. The pairing of the scenarios along with the off brand music is where I found the bulk of my enjoyment while playing this game.
Elite Beat Agents is competent and responsive when it comes to the gameplay, but makes some choices which I didn't find to be satisfying. EBA gameplay uses the vocal track as the basis for its rhythmic tapping. This made me feel like I was at a disadvantage when playing a song I wasn't already familiar with. To their credit, most of these songs are well-known and loved, but losing due to an unexpected vocal hook never felt great. Since the vocal track tends to be more unpredictable in its rhythm, I also found myself glued to the bottom screen most of the time, trying to figure out when to tap next rather than paying attention to the elaborate cut scene unfolding on the top screen. These gripes are by no means game breaking, but they did deflate the experience a little.
There are at least 4 difficulties to choose from and I found the middle 2 to be the most satisfying experience. The "easiest" difficulty was made harder by the need to simplify the vocal rhythms into fewer notes whereas the hardest difficulty (that I unlocked), would put me at risk of carpal tunnel syndrome if I kept playing. If you are looking to check this game out, I would recommend starting out on the 2 star difficulty and going from there.
Elite Beat Agents is not my favorite rhythm game on the DS (Rhythm Heaven forever!), but it's competent at what it does and unique enough that I would still recommend checking it out if you have the opportunity.
As a trio of government agents, you are tasked with helping people across the world with their dilemmas. These dilemmas range from minor (e.g., helping a jock impress his babysitting high school crush) to world ending (the final level has you thwarting an alien invasion). The way you help these folks? By tapping along to the beat, of course!
In addition to the bizarre scenarios you find yourself in, the music adds another dose of strange to the atmosphere. Surprisingly, for a nintendo published title, the levels don't use original tracks. Rather, they use famous (covers of) western pop hits from across the decades, ranging from Avril Lavigne to Madonna. The pairing of the scenarios along with the off brand music is where I found the bulk of my enjoyment while playing this game.
Elite Beat Agents is competent and responsive when it comes to the gameplay, but makes some choices which I didn't find to be satisfying. EBA gameplay uses the vocal track as the basis for its rhythmic tapping. This made me feel like I was at a disadvantage when playing a song I wasn't already familiar with. To their credit, most of these songs are well-known and loved, but losing due to an unexpected vocal hook never felt great. Since the vocal track tends to be more unpredictable in its rhythm, I also found myself glued to the bottom screen most of the time, trying to figure out when to tap next rather than paying attention to the elaborate cut scene unfolding on the top screen. These gripes are by no means game breaking, but they did deflate the experience a little.
There are at least 4 difficulties to choose from and I found the middle 2 to be the most satisfying experience. The "easiest" difficulty was made harder by the need to simplify the vocal rhythms into fewer notes whereas the hardest difficulty (that I unlocked), would put me at risk of carpal tunnel syndrome if I kept playing. If you are looking to check this game out, I would recommend starting out on the 2 star difficulty and going from there.
Elite Beat Agents is not my favorite rhythm game on the DS (Rhythm Heaven forever!), but it's competent at what it does and unique enough that I would still recommend checking it out if you have the opportunity.