Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

If you asked me to describe this game in one word, my answer would probably be, "WTF." That's not a bad thing. On the contrary, I quite enjoy games that elicit such a response, such as Final Fantasy IX-my favorite RPG game of all time (of all time!). This game is insane. You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll RAGE; you'll scream; you'll jump with joy-I guarantee it. Just to provide some basic information, Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game. You have to use your stylus to tap the numbers as they appear, and you'll occasionally have to do other simple things, like sliding or spinning. The real challenge, just like in any rhythm game, lies in hitting/sliding/spinning exactly to the beat.

Storyline – 4/5:
Let's face it-many rhythm games get boring quickly. Why? Because there's only so much beat-stomping/tapping that you can do before you've had enough. Elite Beat Agents flips this trend on its head by incorporating a storyline of sorts into its game. You're sent around the world on missions to assist people in need. As an Elite Beat Agent, it is your duty to help teen couples babysit obnoxious kids, help crazy taxi drivers ferry pregnant women to the hospital, help stranded girls tame wild beasts and return home, and much, much more. Each mission is preceded by a cartoon-style story that details how your client got into his/her situation. During the mission, your agents dance in the background, busting out some crazy moves in the process. At the very end of the game, the world is attacked by the Rhombulans, who seek to eradicate all forms of music. But, in the right hands, even floating rhombus eyes are no match for the Elite Beat Agents!

Gameplay – 5/5:
The rules, as I've stated above, are very straightforward. Numbered bubbles show up, and you must tap and drag them in order. A bar known as the "Elite-O-Meter" tops the lower screen. The meter goes down with time and mistakes and refills with correctly-tapped buttons. Furthermore, it's divided into Yes and No zones. Each song is split into three to five sections. If your meter is in the Yes zone upon completion of a section, a short scene will play showing a favorable step in the right direction for your client. Otherwise, you'll get a scene showing a failed attempt by your client to achieve his/her goal. This system of breaking each song into segments is a great idea; not only does it give players a chance to take a short break, but it also provides them with a benchmark and smaller goal. It's much easier to take handle a song in 4 chunks than to trudge through the 3-minute thing all in one sitting. This is another edge that Elite Beat Agents has over other rhythm games.

Music – 4/5:
To keep players interested, one thing that's essential for rhythm games is a good soundtrack. Elite Beat Agents certainly passes this test, with songs from many different genres of music. From Pop to Hard Rock to…the YMCA song, Elite Beat Agents has it all. And while my personal taste in music is far from "good," the developers of the game chose good music to fit the purpose of their rhythm game, and I didn't despise any of the stages based solely on the music choice.



OVERALL – 9.5/10:
It's a fun game. It's addicting. It's one of those games that you can randomly play whenever you're bored. It does take a lot of repetition and failure to get to know each mission well enough to pass, but the satisfaction when you finally beat a stage is well worth the trouble.
I will say that one problem I often have with rhythm games is that they're not programmed precisely enough. Sometimes the beat is not in sync with the button, which proves troublesome and annoying. Elite Beat Agents did a fairly good job of not making this mistake…with the exception of one stage. Maybe I'm not as good at hearing rhythm as I think I am, but I could never feel the correlation between the buttons and the beat in the "Canned Heat" stage, which made it extra frustrating for me, even in the lower difficulty modes. Other than that, the game was well-made. I especially loved the "You're The Inspriation" mission for both its tearjerker quality and for using small chimes to represent each correctly-hit button instead of the normal clap noises.