So I’ve been playing a game for the past day or so called “Elite Beat Agents”. I imagine there’s an article like “the” which is supposed to come before the title “Elite Beat Agents”, but I’ll be damned if I can see one… anyway, EBA is basically [url=http://www.ddrfreak.com/]Dance Dance Revolution[/url] for the Nintendo DS.
Don’t know DDR? Okay… what about [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero]Guitar Hero[/url]? Every bloody generation, there’s a new version of these games for the new consoles. Not very hard in principle, but definitely fun puzzlers.
Anyway, the game is basically an electronic comic with music. That doesn’t really make a lot of sense so I guess I’ll explain it as such:
The game has three guys which look like they’re from a division of the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_Black]Men In Black[/url]. Let’s just say that these MIB-Wannabe’s actually come from an elite division of hip-hop-funky-freestyler-dancers called the Elite Beat Agency. Their mission is this… to help people out of completely fucked up situations by… dancing.
Oh yeah, I know that when I’m trying to impress chicks, there’s nothing I like more than three suited men to come along and start bustin’ some beats to jiving music to help me win her heart. Except they’d go home with them. All three of them. Fuck. My girlfriend has just gone home with three of the EBA’s. Now that would be one fucked up orgy. It’d sound good, though.
Anyway, you as an EBA, get sent to help these people in their problems… like helping a taxi driver speed to a hospital because the girl in the backseat is about to give birth on the fucking leatherette, and you just had that shit waxed. Or helping a weatherlady-mum make the rain go away because she promised her son that she’d go on a picnic with him. Or even helping a future-car-owner get back the plans for making their new kickass car from the Moo Moo bloody car maker that competes with them… by using your ninja skills.
[b]Remember kids: you can use your ninja skills to get almost anything done these days. Why you can even open jars with them![/b]
Anyway, when you arrive on the scene, [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lufagCtQXTk&mode=related&search=]you’ll be busting bubbles with numbers in them[/url] and spinning random wheels around all to the beats of your favourite songs.
And when I say your favourite songs, I really mean Inis’ and Nintendo’s favourite songs. All that said, [url=http://au.ds.ign.com/articles/739/739259p1.html]the soundtrack is actually really good[/url], with music coming from artists like the Stray Cats, Ashlee Simpson, Jamiroquai, Earth Wind & Fire, and more.
So it works like this: you hear the song, and you hit the number as it corresponds to a beat. It’s actually more complicated than that, and one of the quibbles I have with this game (especially the last level in it) is that the numbers and bubbles aren’t actually occurring where the beat structure should be. As a musician, this is pissing me off and I’m sitting here attacking the console with a tenacity that’d make Furious George want to go back to being Curious George again.
But here’s the clincher: [i]it actually doesn’t get boring.[/i]
As much as I’d like to give this game up, it’s replay factor has you constantly just wanting to beat it or not give up on things you suck at. It’s got a great soundtrack and I just want to get better at the tracks I’m not getting, or play the ones I’ve got so I can play them again.
The themes in this game are actually pretty interesting as well.
You see, they’ve got Manga comics with different stories of the events you’re sent in to help with (with your wild-assed beat munching, of course) and the events actually match the events to a degree.
For instance, when you’re [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQVc2BZaHSo&mode=related&search=]beating up your console when Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” is on[/url] (and it feels sped up to me), you’re the mum trying to get a sunny day so she and her son (and sun) can go on a picnic…
…and when you’re a sea-captain who’s been cast off of your ship and you can’t find any treasures (so the EBA come and help you), [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er8Ety_X1x4&mode=related&search=]you’re actually playing The Village People’s “YMCA”[/url].
[b]Wait… what?![/b]
Ok… I’m not actually sure if Inis, the developers, purposely linked up The Village People with a story about seamen, but that’s the only linker I can come up with…
Anyway, it sounds great, looks great, plays great… it’s just one of those games that is great.
To me, it rates up there as one of the better DS games on the market. Definitely something to look at even if you’re not normally a rhythm gamer.