Elite Beat Agents

Are you Elite?

Platform	Presentation	Controls	Variety	Audio	Depth	Value & Fun	OVERALL
Nintendo DS	8.00	9.50	7.00	10.00	9.50	9.00	8.64

General Information

Multiplayer Importance: Low.

Previously played game in the series: N/A.

NOTE: If you consider the song list a spoiler, disregard the audio section as it contains it. There is also a reference to a single song at the end of Value & Fun.

Gameplay Description

Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game in which you use the stylus to tap the beats in rhythm with different songs.

Dedication Meter	40.00
It's easy to jump in, and has a good quick tutorial to make you understand how to play the game. But if you want to get the most out of the game, you'll have to play through the various difficulties as not only does it make the game better, but you must do so to unlock all the songs. Ultimately, though, you can go in and out and have fun in a matter of minutes.

Presentation

8.00

I'll start with the game mechanics.   A series of coloured circles will appear on screen with a larger ring of the same colour around it that shrinks as time passes; when that ring is on the circumference of the filled circle, you tap it.  Each circle has a number on it for the order in which to tap them; when the colour of the beats changes (at a short interval between sections), the numbers start back at zero.  There are also some beats in which when you tap the circle, you keep your stylus on the screen and guide a ball down a tube, which is very well utilzed (mostly for when the vocal track holds a note).  The last mechanic is the spinner; this is a large disc that will occasionally show up (usually once or twice per song) and you just spin it.  Also, during each song, there are little cut-scenes that show up about 4 times per song.  As for how you succeed, there's a health bar that slowly declines during the song, but goes up when you do well and down when you miss.  It's split in half into Yes and No which, when you reach a cutscene, determines whether the character is successful or not.  In order to win, all you have to do is keep it from reaching the end entirely, though.

     The visuals themselves are excellent.  The sprites have a nice cartoon mixed with anime style that works perfectly.  The way the wacky stories are told is ranges from hilarious to surprisingly touching and heart-felt.  The stories are mostly completely inane and illogical (at one point apparently the agents travel through time and help Leonardo Da Vinci create the Mona Lisa) which is actually fine for the game.  The characters in the little stories will dance and have little animations before and during the song that help get you right into the song.  The agents themselves are rendered in 3D and dance on the bottom screen.  What's great about the dancing is that it's synched with the tempo of the song, so they pretty much are dancing to the beat of the song.

     Where there are some issues, though, is in the actual way the game mechanics are presented to the player.  When you start getting into challenging difficulties and songs, you'll begin to get clusters of beats that are very close together which causes the outer rings to overlap the other beats making it quite difficult to read the numbers and consequently tap the beats in order.  With the tube beats, the circle actually appears slightly before the tube section (which indicates whether to keep your stylus down or not) and in harder difficulties I found myself tapping the beat before I even recognized it was a tube one and because of that lifted and got a miss.  When you only have a split-second in which to read and tap each beat, having any clarity problem can be devastating to your success.  The cutscenes also drag on a bit in songs leaving too much time doing nothing (and you can't skip them as you'd be skipping part of the song).

Controls	9.50
The controls are simple but effective. Detection on each beat is, well, perfect. When keeping your stylus on the ball in a tube, it's a little flexible, which is a good thing, as I still found myself missing sometimes in the hard levels. The only detractor is if you're overly hectic on the spinner it will hardly spin at all and it can feel unresponsive.

Variety

7.00

The variety in songs is excellent, and is really the stand out in the variety category.  This combined with two initial difficulty levels and two more unlockable ones makes for what you can expect most of your play time to take place.  For additional modes, there are Versus modes for single-card, multi-card and against saved ghosts. Additionally, there are also Replay mode to see replays that you've saved of songs you've completed (you can save only one per song), Gallery where you can view the cutscenes, Rank where you can see your current rank (based on cumulative high scores, and of course High Scores where you can see not only your high scores, but your letter grade for each song and whether or not you had you score bar in the Yes range for each cutscene.  The cutscenes are also incredibly varied in content, theme and emotion.

     Ultimately, however, the only modes worth playing is the single player campaign.  The Versus mode style is a decent idea but poorly implemented.  I'll note that I did not test the multi-card play.  The single-card play has a selection of five songs on two difficulties, with each player playing the same difficulty.  Given how intense the game gets in higher difficulties, hte two lower levels will be a walk-in-the-park before long for the experienced player, and obviously if it's single-card play, the other person doesn't have the game and won't be experienced.  As for versus Ghost, it works like Versus multiplayer, except against a saved replay.  The problem with this is that not only are the frame-rate issues, but there are specials activated when you get on a good streak that causes the beats to shrink and the screen to shake.  Since you're playing a replay, it doesn't affect your opponent, who is your best score prior on that level, and makes it even harder.  And the kicker is if you win (which isn't even based on score, but rather your life bar at the top) it won't save any new high score if you set one.

     Replay mode is a nice addition to the game, though.  Due to the frantic pace and excessive difficulty by the end, being able to show off your amazing run is a great bonus.

Audio

10.00

As I said, the song selection is excellent in its variance.  There are 19 songs from many genres, eras and artists, and most lend themselves incredibly well to rhythm games.  While each song is a cover version, the covers are beyond reproach; I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference from the original. For one song, I thought to myself, that sounds like Freddie Mercury (of Queen), and in fact the song was by Queen, only it was of course the cover version.

Here is the complete song list:
       1. Walkie Talkie Man - Steriogram
       2. ABC - Jackson Five
       3. Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
       4. I Was Born to Love You - Queen
       5. Rock This Town - Stray Cats
       6. Highway Star - Deep Purple
       7. Y.M.C.A. - Village People
       8. September - Earth, Wind and Fire
       9. Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
      10. Material Girl - Madonna
      11. La La - Ashlee Simpson
      12. You're the Inspiration - Chicago
      13. Survivor - Destiny's Child
      14. Without a Fight - Hoobastank
      15. Believe - Cher
      16. Let's Dance - David Bowie
      17. Jumpin Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
      18. Makes No Difference - Sum 41
      19. The Anthem - Good Charlotte

But the audio isn't all about the music.  There's a lot of other sound in the game.  There are little audio clips and sound effects sprinkled throughout the cutscenes, which helps add to the weird nature of them.  Most importantly, though, are the instruments hits that play when you tap each beat.  Usually drums, but there's some variation, they work near flawlessly to add a sense of tactility.

Depth

9.50

It's hard to evaluate depth in a genre that is as simple as rhythm games. However, Elite Beat Agents manages, for the most part, to keep the beats with the music yet keep it very challenging. In that, there's not a lot more one can ask of a game. Unfortunately, though, there are some instances where the beats switch from vocals to instrumentals to just random points for no discernable reason, although these instances are rare.

Value & Fun

9.00

     Where Elite Beat Agents lacks in variety it very much makes up for it in its addicting nature and perfect learning curve.  Going through each difficulty level isn't really a decision, you just do it.  If you want to play a song, you play the next highest in the difficulty until you fail, practice up on songs you like and then go back at it.  There are four difficulty levels: Breezin', Cruisin', Sweatin', and Hard ROCK.  If you stop at Cruisin', you're just not going to get the most out of the game.  The thing is, it's doubtful you will.  The game does a great job of not only spreading out the notes on lower difficulties to be filled in on harder ones, but making you better as you do it.  Every song seems to get just a little bit faster and more complex and by the end, you don't notice how far you've come until you try and play songs you once thought challenging.

     The difficulty gets very hard on the harder modes, so one naturally calls it "Hard" as that is what they played.  However, difficulty is usually determined by its default difficulty, which isn't overly difficult, so that's why I peg it as "Just Right".  However, by recommendation, I'd suggest you aren't getting your money's worth not playing the harder difficulties.

     Where the game loses marks in value is lack of variety in modes.  It could have really used a practice mode and a better way of playing against a ghost, if not more.  Where the game loses points in fun while playing through the first time is the presentational qualms with clarity due to clutter and complications with the health bar.  The health bar has some strange properties, particularly that it is always declining.  If you miss a few right before a slow point in the song, you could hit every note in the slow portion and still lose.  The spinner is used to balance the slow portions, but I say it shouldn't need balancing at all.  There's also a strange glitch (I only noticed it in one song) in which it has actually gone down after hitting a beat.

     What it comes down to for myself, though, is that this is the only option on the system aside from its Japanese only predecessor, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, in terms of rhythm games, and it does a very commendable job.  And aside from that, it is a rare game in which I find myself not wanting to stop, even when failing repeatedly (if you plan to beat Jumpin' Jack Flash on Hard ROCKIN' mode, prepare to hear the song more than any Stones fanatic).

Overall	8.64
Overall there's just a lot to like about Elite Beat Agents. In every capacity the game is charming and delightful, even moving. Even songs you'd have never thought you'd like seem to surprise. While there are flaws seen throughout the game, there's also a great plus to overshadow it. Elite Beat Agents does what every rhythm game should -- make you want more songs.

Posted by Ellyoda Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:00:00

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