Elite Beat Agents (DS) – Review

The surprise success of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! as an import title for the Nintendo DS spurred into motion into getting a regional release of the game for the States as well as other regions around the world; unfortunately, the title, produced by iNiS (who have also produced Gitaroo Man), is rather solidly tied to Japan due to the music and story presented; even a translation would have been difficult to accomplish. Instead, they have decided to reversion Ouendan into “Elite Beat Agents”, which provides new songs and new stories and visuals, while still keeping the same great gameplay and overall approach to the game.

Elite Beat Agents – Initial Impression

When I  got the import title  Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for the DS and played through it, I figured that this game  had potential for sequels – the game concept is  definitely non-culture specific , though the stories told in OTO are mostly in Japanese and have heavy cultural references.    However, the music,  while mostly J-pop, could easily be done using newer American bands, as long they had a lot of good rhythm.

Enter Elite Beat  Agent, done by the same people, which is definitely not a translation, but a reversioning of OTO for American audiences.  The gameplay is exactly the same, the only difference is that the stories are  geared towards the states (such as a babysitter trying to score with her bf while  trying to tame the kids she’s tending, or a taxi driver getting his  9-month pregnant fare to the hospital on time.

So far no problem with the  songs  – while I’m not a big fan orf Avril Lavigne,  “Sk8ter Boi”  actually works for the gameplay of EBA.

If you like music games, and haven’t had a change to grab OTO as an import, you’ll definitely find EBA to a great rhythm game for the DS.