Elite Beat Agents for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Review from w w w.smart-bombs.c o m

It seems male cheerleaders do have a place in the world (aside from stuffed neatly into lockers.) Elite Beat Agents puts a unique spin on the rhythm game genre by using simple touch controls and quirky, over-the-top presentation. Simply touch ordered dots in beat to the music, and drag across phrase bars to achieve success. Simple? Yes. Easy? No. Some of the later levels get pretty brutal, almost to a frustrating degree.

The eye-catching art style fits right in with the ridiculous concept. The scenarios the agents are tasked with range from absurdly awesome (helping a down-and-out baseball player defeat a fire breathing golem and save a carnival full of children), to heartwarming (helping a TV meteorologist blow away clouds so she can have a picnic with her son), to just downright serious (helping a little girl decorate her house for Christmas to help cope with the loss of her father). For the most part, the soundtrack is pretty good (but Sk8ter Boi, by Avril Lavigne? Really?), but the sound quality on the DS is less than stellar, and the annoying sound effects cover up the music.

The creativity alone might be enough to give this one a go, but a few strange design flaws and a short length (although you can replay songs to get better scores, and there's good reason to) holds Elite Beat Agents back from its full potential.

The stories are great, the art is nice and goofy, but what the game is based on, the beat, is off.
After being in choir for more than five years it has given me a good ear for a music beat.

No matter what the game says, it's songs and it's little circles marking the 'beat' are much less than perfectly in sync.
This could be because they are the beats of the real japanese songs the game was first made for with english songs just picked at random laid over them :P. In feels like they just pulled songs out of a hat, with the last songs being the worst for wear IMHO.