Elite Beat Agents
Elite Beat Agents is a video game that consists of 3 releases
Recent
Images
News
Videos
Community
Guides
In Elite Beat Agents, players take control of members of a fictional government agency called the Elite Beat Agents. Their mission is to help inspire those who have cried out for help in overcoming a crisis. The agents then arrive on the scene, attempting to cheer on the persons in need via song and dance. If the mission is successful, the agents have succeeded in inspiring their target to overcome their obstacle. Failure in either song or dance leaves those in need doomed to remain without proper inspiration, thus failing whatever task that was troubling them.
Each mission features its own song and stand alone plot, completely unrelated to the plots of the other missions (small cameos aside). The only exception is the two part finale. The actual story is carried out in a comic style on the top screen, while the gameplay is relegated to the touch screen, along with the dancing agents. A few scenes set up the story before the song starts, then unfolds as the player gets to work on the touch screen. Each mission features occasional breaks in gameplay, where the unfolding story on the top screen reflects the players performance. Good or bad things happen to the characters involved depending on the players' progress.
Elite Beat Agents is generally comical in tone, and uses randomness throughout the story to create humorous moments. For example, after a professional baseball player loses his spot on the team and is relegated to janitorial duty, a giant fire breathing golem comes out of nowhere and attacks the stadium. He calls for the agents' help in defeating the golem. Most of the stories are equally nonsensical, and radiate a generally quirky, lighthearted tone. However, to effectively break up the wackyness, in the middle of the game, the song "You're The Inspiration", provides a heartwarming, serious tale which nicely sets off the insanity of the rest of the game.
Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game, and focuses its gameplay on touch screen based rhythm actions. These actions attempt to time themselves with the song of the given mission. In essence, there are three different actions that the player must perform.
As players hit the various beats during the mission they receive points. A perfectly timed hit is worth 300 points, a mediocre hit is worth 100 points, and a sloppy hit is worth 50 points. Missing the beat earns no points. Connecting multiple beats in a row earns the player a multiplier that continues to build as the streak grows. Players can receive bonus points by scoring what is called a "Beat" or an "Elite Beat". All the beats are colored, and they change color every few notes. If the player hits every successive beat of one color with a score of 100 or 300 each, it is considered a "Beat". Hitting every successive beat of one color perfectly, scoring 300 on each beat, is considered an "Elite Beat".
A separate "Elite-O-Meter" is always present at the top of the touch screen, and represents overall performance. It remains filled if the player does well, but begins to empty as the player's performance drops. If the meter empties, then the player fails the mission. At the end of the mission, the player is rewarded a grade. From best to worst, the possible grades are S, A, B, C, and D. An S rank is extremely difficult to achieve, and requires the player to not only hit every single beat, but also score 300 points on a high percentage of them. There are also multiple endings to each story based on the player's performance, and the player's score from each mission gets culminated into an overall "Agent Rank". The player will earn up to three bonus songs as the "Agent Rank" increases.
Elite Beat Agents has four levels of difficulty, and also sports a replay saving feature. Players can save one replay per song, and these replays can be accessed at will, as well as shared between different players.
The main tracks are:
Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game for the Nintendo DS developed by iNiS Corp. and published by Nintendo. It is a spiritual sequel to the Japanese only Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and uses many of the same touch screen based gameplay mechanics.
Overview
Elite Beat Agents follows in the footsteps of the popular Japanese rhythm game for the Nintendo DS, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. Like its predecessor, Elite Beat Agents utilizes various touching actions on the Nintendo DS's touch screen to carry out the gameplay. iNiS has made this spiritual sequel entirely geared towards the western market, rather than making a direct port of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. As such, Elite Beat Agents features an overhauled soundtrack comprised of western pop music, as well as new characters and voice acting. The game has gone on to receive almost universally positive critical acclaim, and received a handful of 2006 gaming awards from various publications.Concept
Dancing government agents to the rescue!
Each mission features its own song and stand alone plot, completely unrelated to the plots of the other missions (small cameos aside). The only exception is the two part finale. The actual story is carried out in a comic style on the top screen, while the gameplay is relegated to the touch screen, along with the dancing agents. A few scenes set up the story before the song starts, then unfolds as the player gets to work on the touch screen. Each mission features occasional breaks in gameplay, where the unfolding story on the top screen reflects the players performance. Good or bad things happen to the characters involved depending on the players' progress.
Elite Beat Agents is generally comical in tone, and uses randomness throughout the story to create humorous moments. For example, after a professional baseball player loses his spot on the team and is relegated to janitorial duty, a giant fire breathing golem comes out of nowhere and attacks the stadium. He calls for the agents' help in defeating the golem. Most of the stories are equally nonsensical, and radiate a generally quirky, lighthearted tone. However, to effectively break up the wackyness, in the middle of the game, the song "You're The Inspiration", provides a heartwarming, serious tale which nicely sets off the insanity of the rest of the game.
Gameplay
Tap tap tap!
Touch Screen Actions
- Tapping - the player taps a small, numbered circle on the screen. The precise moment in which the tap is required is indicated by a larger circle that closes in on the smaller one. The moment when the two circles are the same size is the moment the player is supposed to tap. The numbers on the circles indicate the order in which they are to be tapped.
- Sliding - a slider appears on the screen with a small, numbered ball at one end. The player taps the ball in much the same way as was described under "Tapping" above, but then must hold the stylus on the ball as it slides to the other end of the slider. Occasionally there will be an arrow at one other end of the slider, indicating that the ball will turn around and traverse the slider again. This can continue multiple times.
- Spinning - a large spinner fills the screen, and the player must rotate the stylus on the screen as fast as they can. Faster spinning earns more points. This can be done either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
Scoring
As players hit the various beats during the mission they receive points. A perfectly timed hit is worth 300 points, a mediocre hit is worth 100 points, and a sloppy hit is worth 50 points. Missing the beat earns no points. Connecting multiple beats in a row earns the player a multiplier that continues to build as the streak grows. Players can receive bonus points by scoring what is called a "Beat" or an "Elite Beat". All the beats are colored, and they change color every few notes. If the player hits every successive beat of one color with a score of 100 or 300 each, it is considered a "Beat". Hitting every successive beat of one color perfectly, scoring 300 on each beat, is considered an "Elite Beat".
A separate "Elite-O-Meter" is always present at the top of the touch screen, and represents overall performance. It remains filled if the player does well, but begins to empty as the player's performance drops. If the meter empties, then the player fails the mission. At the end of the mission, the player is rewarded a grade. From best to worst, the possible grades are S, A, B, C, and D. An S rank is extremely difficult to achieve, and requires the player to not only hit every single beat, but also score 300 points on a high percentage of them. There are also multiple endings to each story based on the player's performance, and the player's score from each mission gets culminated into an overall "Agent Rank". The player will earn up to three bonus songs as the "Agent Rank" increases.
Elite Beat Agents has four levels of difficulty, and also sports a replay saving feature. Players can save one replay per song, and these replays can be accessed at will, as well as shared between different players.
Multiplayer
Elite Beat Agents supports multiplayer play. Up to four Nintendo DS systems can connect to each other using one or more game cartridges (more songs are available for multiplayer play if everyone has their own copy). In this mode, each participating player plays the same song simultaneously, competing for the higher score. There is also a "star meter" that players can fill up by completing "Elite Beats". When a player fills the star meter they unleash an attack on their opponents, shaking their screen and making the beats shrink, thus becoming more difficult to hit. At the end of the song the player with the highest score wins. This mode can also be played in single player against a saved replay. There is also a separate cooperative mode, in which players alternate who's playing during the song. In this mode the score is shared, and if one player fails, everyone fails.Characters
The Elite Beat Agents agency has many members, which the player can control access at some point in the game. They are:
Agents are... GO!!
- Agent Morris - background singer on all but the highest difficulty
- Agent Derek - background singer on all but the highest difficulty
- Agent Spin - lead singer on the easiest difficulty
- Agent J - lead singer on the second easiest difficulty
- Agent Chieftain - lead singer on the third easiest difficulty
- Elite Beat Divas - the three singers on the highest difficulty. Led by Agent Starr.
- Commander Kahn - the leader of the Elite Beat Agents. He assigns the missions, and is also an unlockable playable character.
Soundtrack
Elite Beat Agents consists of 16 main missions, and 3 bonus missions. Each mission has its own song, making 19 total tracks. All songs in the games are covers.The main tracks are:
- Steriogram - "Walkie Talkie Man" (by Jason Paige)
- Sum 41 - "Makes No Difference" (by Vinn Lombardo)
- Avril Lavigne - "Sk8ter Boi" (by Angela Michael)
- Queen - "I Was Born To Love You" (by Paul Vician)
- Stray Cats - "Rock This Town" (by Mark Latham)
- Deep Purple - "Highway Star" (by Kaleb James)
- Village People - "Y.M.C.A." (by TC Moses)
- Earth, Wind, and Fire - "September" (by TC Moses)
- Jamiroquai - "Canned Heat" (by Jason Paige)
- Madonna - "Material Girl" (by Melissa Garber)
- Ashlee Simpson - "La La" (by Laura Jane)
- Chicago - "You're the Inspiration" (by Julian Miranda)
- David Bowie - "Let's Dance" (by Delaney Wolff)
- Good Charlotte - "The Anthem" (by Kevin Ridel)
- Hoobastank - "Without a Fight" (by Kevin Ridel)
- The Rolling Stones - "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (by Billy Fogarty)
- Cher - "Believe" (by Lynn Ross)
- Jackson Five - "ABC" (by TC Moses and Brittany Kertesz)
- Destiny's Child - "Survivor" (by April Harmony)
| Game Name | Elite Beat Agents |
| Platform(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
Add a new genre
|
| Themes | |
| Original US Release |
Nov. 6, 2006
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | EBA |
| BBFC |
BBFC: PG
|
| ESRB |
ESRB: E10+
|
Thousand Master
a list of 117 items by 5parrowhawk
a list of 117 items by 5parrowhawk
My DS Games
a list of 50 items by benHaskett
a list of 50 items by benHaskett
My Favorite Games of All Time
a list of 7 items by MB
a list of 7 items by MB
