Nintendo DS Review: Elite Beat Agents

Review by: Pierst179

Rhythm games were born during the Playstation era and since then have gained a enormous popularity due to titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band that are constantly on the top of any sales chart that is released. As it happens on most genres, developers try to be as creative as possible with those titles in order to provide gamers a different experience and the Nintendo DS is the platform where one of the best and most uncanny musical games takes place.

Elite Beat Agents' mechanic is as simple as possible, by using the Nintendo DS touch screen you will have to tap circles that appear on the screen to match the rhythm of the song. If your timing is extremely precise then you will get lots of points, but if you touch the wrong button at the wrong time your Agent Bar will decrease, once it gets to its lowest level is game over for you and you will need to restart.

Aside from the tapping circles there are also some tap-and-drag circles that you will encounter, although they are not as frequent. On those you will need to tap the circle and keep your stylus in contact with the screen until a rolling ball appears, when it happens you will need to follow the ball with your stylus. This gameplay makes the game easy to be enjoyed by any kind of person of any age.

Differently from most games of this genre, Elite Beat Agents features main characters and plot. The heroes are three dancing Agents that are summoned by people going through difficult situations such as being close to losing a job, or being lost on a tropical Island. Before each chapter of the game – that is represented by a song - you will watch a HQ-like cutscene that will present you the problem, the cutscene will always end with a person shouting out loud for help and the Agents appearing to save the day by dancing their way to victory.



Obviously a game that features heroes that dance and sing in order to save other people from doom doesn't make sense, and that's where the actual charm of the title lies. It was really bold of the developers to create a storyline for a game like this and fortunately it works, since you will find yourself laughing while watching cutscenes that are shown on the top-screen while you are tapping circles insanely.


The presentation of the game is close to flawless with its cartoony characters and HQ stories, it blends perfectly with the exaggerated drama of the plot. It is a clear sign that the game never takes itself too serious. The graphics are really sharp, and the simple fact that the developers even bothered to come up with animations that are displayed on the top screen while the song is played – a time where the player wouldn't even be able to watch it – shows how careful they were when trying to make the game look good.

The soundtrack is really good, but as it always happens on most rhythm games there is always a good chance that you will end up being disappointed with the music selection, but even if you don't like some of the choices you will still be able to enjoy the game. However, the fact that there are only eighteen songs available may diminish the replay value when you put this game against its console peers, there is always a good reason to come back and play the songs on four different levels and try to improve your best score.



I still feel that the game lacks some online features such as the ability to upload your scores and see how you rank among the world leaders of dancing. Perhaps the addition of downloadable songs would also be possible.

In a nutshell, Elite Beat Agents is one of the most unique rhythm games out there, its main shortcoming is that its replay value isn't as high as you would expect from a musical title. But while you are going through the single-player mode for the first time you will be experiencing one of the best games that the Nintendo DS has to offer.