Back when we were doing "Now Playing", I wrote a bit on rising import star Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. At the time I said rhythm game Ouendan was like "dancing with your stylus on the touch screen". And what a dance it was—Ouendan's numbered targets and sliding paths felt like I was doing steps I could never hope to master with my two left feet. It was an experience I would not soon forget, and I suspected it would never be topped. That is, until I laid my hands on Elite Beat Agents.
Elite Beat Agents is Ouendan remade for American and European audiences. In Agents, you'll tap, trace, and frantically spin wheels on your touch screen to help the titular Agents help people with problems all over the world. The patterns—"charts"—were the core of Ouendan, and in that game they were pretty good already. But what blew me away was the sheer refinement that the charts in Agents have apparently gone through. They are, as a result, an absolute blast to play through—and on the game's higher levels, highly challenging to boot.
Of course, no chart is going to be much fun to play without catchy tunes playing for you to tap in time to. Agents doesn't fail to deliver here. Much negative ado has been made about the song list on the Internet, but it's all for naught. Every song in the game, from universally-agreed-upon-good tunes like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" to highly controversial selections like "Sk8er Boi" is a treat to play in its own special way. The range of styles runs the gamut, offering a decidedly unique challenge with each new level. It's not just the performances, either; iNiS skillfully weaves story-appropriate sound effects with the music, creating some truly awesome sound design. I loved each and every song in the game (though I'm still struggling to get my score up on some of them, simply because the style isn't something that I easily tap accurately to).
As you play through the charts, your performance is reflected in an animated sequence playing out on the top screen. (Don't worry about not being able to focus on the top screen while you're actually playing the game on the touch screen—the important parts play out during breaks in the action.) Delicious humor not seen in many games reigns in these sequences for the most part, and iNiS has animated bits for several levels of success and failure. Beyond being funny, though, these stories can touch you too—illustrated exemplarily by one song I dare you not to cry to. You'll know which one it is when you get there.
Now that we've got a firm foundation for a fun game, Agents ramps it up by offering a great challenge. The variety contributes here, the excellently-scripted charts do their part, and the result is a game that's pretty easy to get into but rapidly shows you how weak you really are, even if you're an Ouendan veteran like me. But you won't want to give up. Agents has that elusive quality that makes you want to keep coming back, to keep trying, to keep working until you achieve the coveted "S" rank on the songs you're playing. Bonus songs are unlocked as you earn points, and clearing songs will also earn you new levels and some pretty funny bonuses.
I do actually have one small regret with the title. With some sections of the charts, it's not immediately evident what it is you're supposed to tap out, and due to the nature of the game, you must play through the entire song to retry that part, until you get it right. Agents adds a "review" mode if you've failed the song that lets you rewatch what you did wrong, but I suspect it would have been better adding a practice mode that let you run through a single segment of each chart as many times as you needed to before tackling the whole song.
It's really a very small issue, though—simply put, Elite Beat Agents rarely fails to impress. Since learning of the title at E3 2006, I've wondered if some of the joy of Ouendan would be sacrificed in the process of localization; but thankfully, that wasn't the case. Developer iNiS upped the ante, met and surpassed their target with Agents. The music is catchy, the sound design great, the charts challenging, and the stories entertaining. Elite Beat Agents is gaming perfection and deserves your purchase.
Elite Beat Agents is Ouendan remade for American and European audiences. In Agents, you'll tap, trace, and frantically spin wheels on your touch screen to help the titular Agents help people with problems all over the world. The patterns—"charts"—were the core of Ouendan, and in that game they were pretty good already. But what blew me away was the sheer refinement that the charts in Agents have apparently gone through. They are, as a result, an absolute blast to play through—and on the game's higher levels, highly challenging to boot.
Of course, no chart is going to be much fun to play without catchy tunes playing for you to tap in time to. Agents doesn't fail to deliver here. Much negative ado has been made about the song list on the Internet, but it's all for naught. Every song in the game, from universally-agreed-upon-good tunes like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" to highly controversial selections like "Sk8er Boi" is a treat to play in its own special way. The range of styles runs the gamut, offering a decidedly unique challenge with each new level. It's not just the performances, either; iNiS skillfully weaves story-appropriate sound effects with the music, creating some truly awesome sound design. I loved each and every song in the game (though I'm still struggling to get my score up on some of them, simply because the style isn't something that I easily tap accurately to).
As you play through the charts, your performance is reflected in an animated sequence playing out on the top screen. (Don't worry about not being able to focus on the top screen while you're actually playing the game on the touch screen—the important parts play out during breaks in the action.) Delicious humor not seen in many games reigns in these sequences for the most part, and iNiS has animated bits for several levels of success and failure. Beyond being funny, though, these stories can touch you too—illustrated exemplarily by one song I dare you not to cry to. You'll know which one it is when you get there.
Now that we've got a firm foundation for a fun game, Agents ramps it up by offering a great challenge. The variety contributes here, the excellently-scripted charts do their part, and the result is a game that's pretty easy to get into but rapidly shows you how weak you really are, even if you're an Ouendan veteran like me. But you won't want to give up. Agents has that elusive quality that makes you want to keep coming back, to keep trying, to keep working until you achieve the coveted "S" rank on the songs you're playing. Bonus songs are unlocked as you earn points, and clearing songs will also earn you new levels and some pretty funny bonuses.
I do actually have one small regret with the title. With some sections of the charts, it's not immediately evident what it is you're supposed to tap out, and due to the nature of the game, you must play through the entire song to retry that part, until you get it right. Agents adds a "review" mode if you've failed the song that lets you rewatch what you did wrong, but I suspect it would have been better adding a practice mode that let you run through a single segment of each chart as many times as you needed to before tackling the whole song.
It's really a very small issue, though—simply put, Elite Beat Agents rarely fails to impress. Since learning of the title at E3 2006, I've wondered if some of the joy of Ouendan would be sacrificed in the process of localization; but thankfully, that wasn't the case. Developer iNiS upped the ante, met and surpassed their target with Agents. The music is catchy, the sound design great, the charts challenging, and the stories entertaining. Elite Beat Agents is gaming perfection and deserves your purchase.