Metareview - Elite Beat Agents

by James Ransom-Wiley { Nov 9th 2006 at 5:00AM }

Purists may scoff at these 'men in black' who lack the flair of Ouendan's male cheerleaders. They may also wince at tracks like Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" and Ashlee Simpson's "La La," included for Western-aligned palettes. Alas, cultural transitions are often difficult, but at least the series' unique rhythmic core has not been tampered with.

IGN (95/100) - "Westerners who've played the original Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! might end up a little disappointed that the Nintendo of America version might lack the kitschy Japanese flavor ... [but] with new characters, popular Western tunes [IGN 'heart' Ashlee Simpson], and plots that actually make sense, Elite Beat Agents retains the awesome, addictive gameplay core."
GameSpot (89/100) - "One of the strangest things about Elite Beat Agents is its soundtrack. The grouping of songs that Nintendo has assembled here is equivalent to someone taking the individual music libraries of a teeny-bopper kid and his or her parents, tossing it all into a jar, shaking vigorously, and then scooping out a random handful of songs."
GameDaily (70/100) - "Elite Beat Agents is still a good game that deserves a shot with any music-loving Nintendo DS owner out there. It's a surprise Nintendo took the chance at releasing this game in the States, but it's as much of a surprise that it's actually quite good, and compares well enough to the import classic to make it a recommended buy."

[We recommend: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan]

Tags: Elite Beat Agents, EliteBeatAgents, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Osu!Tatakae!Ouendan, Ouendan

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

gamerx @ Nov 9th 2006 5:56AM

EBA is the portable equavalent of what Guitar Hero is for home consoles! this game is simply amazing.

Bravado @ Nov 9th 2006 6:15AM

It's a great game, I'm just ripping my hair out at the difficulty of Jumpin' Jack Flash.

=[`] @ Nov 9th 2006 6:35AM

It sounds like I'll be obtaining the import version of this.

I'd rather listen to strange Japanese pop that terrible American pop any day of the week.

I wonder if the European release has another soundtrack (fingers crossed).

Bravado @ Nov 9th 2006 6:46AM

It's not just terrible American pop. I know, I'm not a big fan of Avril Lavigne and Sum 41 but in the context of the whole game, you don't even notice it. Actually, since I've heard the songs so many times on the radio, the songs are easier to get through. I love it. Especially the Queen song, I Was Born To Love You. I grew up with that song and it's so awesome to play that level.

Amanda @ Nov 9th 2006 7:24AM

I think my favorite so far has been "You're the Inspiration"...it's a song I didn't expect to see in there and it's kind of relaxing between some of the other songs.

James @ Nov 9th 2006 7:33AM

Avril = lose.

Damn I hate that try-hard little whore.

> @ Nov 9th 2006 8:14AM

lol .. that summary from Gamespot is right on...

nim @ Nov 9th 2006 8:23AM

I picked this up last night. Very fun game, but pitifully short. :( Should have only been $19.99

nim @ Nov 9th 2006 8:25AM

P.S. - I'm not sure if "pitifully" is even a word, but if not it should be!

Rich @ Nov 9th 2006 8:48AM

@ Bravado, I just beat Jumpin' Jack Flash yesterday on "Sweatin'" and it gets freakin' crazy at the end, but so much fun. After playing that, I can definitely say that it beats the pants off of "Ready Steady Go."

@nim, you beat it on all difficulty settings already? Did you try the multiplayer? It's pretty fun.

Rich @ Nov 9th 2006 8:48AM

Oh and last thing, I think my favorite level is the Newscaster/"September" one. The story is funny (100% Rain!) and also rather touching in the end. And the song goes perfect with it. I was also surprised that the YMCA level was really fun to tap to. I don't like Sum 41 nor Hoobastank, but their songs on this game rock. The hardest level for me is the Ninja one. It's so hard to find the beat in the song.

Big Earl @ Nov 9th 2006 8:58AM

Half the songs are "meh" but it still beats J-pop. A fine rhythm game.

Kenofthedead @ Nov 9th 2006 9:15AM

The Japanese game had horrible pop to back it up, and so does the sequel that is Elite Beat Agents.

I still love the games, fun gameplay.

I'm happy owning both, as they are different games and well worth going through all the stories.

I am glad Elite Beat Agents has Rumble support though, it's quite nice. Hopefuly they release the DS Lite Rumble pack outside of Japan soon.
More people should have it.

xcb @ Nov 9th 2006 9:25AM

I'm no J-Pop aficionado, but after playing the hell out of Osu!, then watching the YouTube videos of the songs contained therein, my impression is that Morning Masume, et al, are the spiritual counterparts of Avril and the rest of the stuff on EBA.

Just because one can't understand Japanese doesn't make it brilliant.

Jamar @ Nov 9th 2006 10:50AM

I really liked the J-Pop better, but then again, I've never been a fan of American pop anyway. I was hoping, though, that this game would have an expansion cartridge for more songs, like Daigasso! Band Brothers did (is that game ever coming out in the US or what?).

Kevin @ Nov 9th 2006 11:12AM

This game is very good. Highly recommend it.

Kyou @ Nov 9th 2006 11:27AM

A 95!? That's seriously too much for that game...

Jewzilla @ Nov 9th 2006 11:31AM

Picked it up late at night Tuesday, and finished it on the cheerleader (4th) level yesterday afternoon. Jumpin' Jack Flash, as previously mentioned, rocks, and rocked me. I thought this was a great localization of Ouendan, despite a few songs that I could have really done without. More EBA please!

PS- I do believe I squealed like a little girl when I unlocked ABC by the Jackson 5.. ;D

Dallas @ Nov 9th 2006 11:35AM

Picked it up. Loves it.

The game is pretty short, but the 4 difficulty modes (which range from laughably easy to ARGHGHFGFGF), 5 secret stages that can only be unlocked when you play through these difficulty modes, and multi-player modes give it a hell of a replay value. I don't even mind the soundtrack that much. When you're having that much fun, who the hell cares if its Avril Lavigne or David Bowie.

Oh, and if stage 12 doesn't make you at least tear up, you're an inhuman monster.

Dallas @ Nov 9th 2006 11:47AM

Oh wait, there are 5 2-player stages and 3 unlockable single player stages. My bad.

SkunkZer0 @ Nov 9th 2006 1:20PM

This is a video my friend made of the JJF level on Sweatin' mode, got a rank S. He bought the game at a costco that messed up and shelved it too soon. This video was posted Nov 3. Anyway, its pretty sick hard and id suggest everyone to take a gander.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqTwCxe8_FQ

Keiichi @ Nov 9th 2006 1:38PM

@Dallas: feeling that, mate. And I'm 34.

I've never gotten the whole Nu/Plastic Punk thing myself - I gave a toss about Ouendan's music, but not EBA's. It's bad enough that they murdered Queen, Chicago and EW&F - there's only Jumpin' Jack Flash at the end that's Any Good.

My choices for songs in a sequel would be:
Follow Me - Beat Crusaders
(a nod to its J-pop roots - these guys sing in English)
Sugar-Coated Iceberg - Lightning Seeds
7Twenty7 - Roxette
Ready To Go - Republica
Feel Good, Inc. - Gorillaz
Are Ya Ready For Some Football? - Hank Williams Jr
* Somebody Told Me - The Killers
* Do Ya Do Ya - Franz Ferdinand
* Disco 2000 - Pulp

* Might be problems with these, as they've been in other games

DG @ Nov 9th 2006 3:33PM

What game has featured Disco 2000? I'd like to buy that game.

MetaHuman @ Nov 9th 2006 3:15PM

I can't believe that Nintendo hasn't decided to release Band Bros. here. It even had an English name (Jam with the Band). Though it's great EBA made it, I'll be sure to pick it up soon.

32_Footsteps @ Nov 9th 2006 3:32PM

I think part of the reason Daigasso hasn't mde it is because all the songs are MIDIs. You get much better music in general out of the mp3 files used for EBA/Ouendan.

Perhaps the easiest way to illustrate this is compare Ouendan's version of L'Arc~En~Ciel's "Ready Steady Go!" to the same song in Daigasso. The Daigasso version is vastly inferior to the Ouendan version, to the point where I could see it turning off alot of gamers. Even the songs that are rendered fairly well, like Every Little Thing's "fragile", take a noticable step downward in Daigasso.

I like Daigasso, don't get me wrong. But it has a long way to go before it'll be good enough to fly off the shelves here.

Keiichi @ Nov 9th 2006 4:51PM

I'm sure I saw it in one of the earlier cheapex DDR clones that were floating around...

Cherry Ghost @ Nov 9th 2006 6:07PM

@ Keiichi: Franz Ferdinand has never written a song called "Do Ya Do Ya" (you were shooting for "Do You Want To").

I love this game more than I can put into words. The lame teeny-bopper songs are horrible as music (if you can even call it that), but trust me, when you're playing along you don't notice it at all. It's almost like a cheesy 80's hair metal song (cough, put "The Final Countdown" by Europe in EBA: 2, cough), the "awesomely bad" effect.