I’ve been playing Elite Beat Agents which is a rhythm game where you help random people with their problems by cheering them on. It makes no sense but a lot of these games ported from Japan don’t make a lot of sense anyways.

Rather than translate the Japanese version to English, Elite Beat Agents updates the music and random people stories so that they are familiar with American culture. The songs are radio hits, from artists such as Avril Lavigne, Madonna, and Jamiroquai; but have been re-recorded by imitation artists so that the licensing is cheaper.

There are two levels to start off, Breezin’ and Cruisin’. I started off at the harder of the two because I’ve had experience with rhythm games, and it wasn’t too bad. Although I did have to play some of the later songs 10s of times before I passed them. Finishing the game unlocks the next difficulty (Sweatin’) which I’m in the progress of working through. It’s a lot harder now, but more fulfilling because you now actually play in time with the music (and lyrics).

One problem with the NDS’ speakers is that, while better than a Game Boy’s (as well as the sound chip and storage capacity), it’s still lacking for this game. You really need to hear the intricacies of the instrumentation in order to play properly at high levels. This has led me to plug in my Sony cans in order to play, which doesn’t make the game very portable. But it’s fun to play (at least if you’re at home).

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: games, nintendo