148. Elite Beat Agents (iNiS, DS, 2006)

Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game that follows the exploits of the titular team, a group of very professional cheerleaders who respond to people in need by providing musical encouragement. One level might have you helping a babysitter put some kids to sleep so she can ask a guy to go out with her, another sees the agents in 15th century Florence helping Da Vinci successfully convince Mona Lisa to let him paint her. The scenarios are very played up and wacky, but it fits with the semi-anime art style.

Elite Beat Agents is another DS game controlled entirely by stylus. Round icons appear on the screen with shrinking circles around them. Tapping the icons to the beat gives you points and keeps your combo going. There are also icons where you have to slide to the beat, or just spin the stylus in a circle rapidly to accumulate big points. It's all very typical rhythm game stuff, and thankfully the timing window is pretty generous. Rhythm sections are nicely punctuated by quick cutscenes showing how you did in that section of the song (each section can be passed or failed), and it gives the gameplay a nice back and forth rhythm to it.

All of the music in the game is licensed popular music, with mostly modern (for 2006) songs, but also a smattering of classics (they even got Earth, Wind & Fire). One thing that kind of brings the game down for me is that all of the songs are covers. The selection is not bad, and I noticed songs that I knew well were much easier to figure out the patterns for. I don't know if music licensing has gotten easier or video games have just become more legitimate, but the mid 2000s had a lot of cover versions of popular music in video games. It wasn't until 2008 that Guitar Hero and Rock Band had fully original soundtracks with no covers.

Elite Beat Agents was actually a kind of spiritual sequel to a Japan-only DS game released the previous year with the same basic premise, (but with Japanese music) and knowing myself, I know I would prefer that version. iNiS was also the developer of Gitaroo Man, one of my favorite rhytm games, but I think Gitaroo Man is leaps and bound better than Elite Beat Agents because of its serial-style story, cooler art design, and original music.

4/5, an exciting rhythm game, I just wish the music was better