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Elite Beat Agents

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Elite Beat Agents
File:Elite Beat Agents Cover Art.jpg
Developer(s)iNiS
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Artist(s)
Platform(s)Nintendo DS
ReleaseUnited States November 6, 2006
Genre(s)Rhythm
Mode(s)Single player
Multiplayer

Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game developed by iNiS for the Nintendo DS. It is a spiritual sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, a Japanese rhythm game released in 2005. The game was released on November 6, 2006 in North America.

Elite Beat Agents is being released under Nintendo's Touch! Generations label, which markets games to audiences outside of the traditional gaming community.

Background

Due to the surprisingly high import rate of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Nintendo and iNiS began discussing the possibility of officially exporting the game to other regions. However, as Keiichi Yano, vice president of iNiS and director of the game explained in an interview with 1up.com, selling the game at retail in western markets would have been infeasible due to the game's innate reliance on Japanese popular music and cultural references.[1] It was due to this fact that when Yano and iNiS began work on the North American version, the black-clad cheerleaders of Ouendan were removed and replaced with a trio of men styled after government agents, using distinctly American references such as the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and Men in Black for inspiration.

Gameplay

A scene from the second level of Elite Beat Agents

The stages of Elite Beat Agents are presented in a comic book fashion. After the introduction to a character and their problem the agents are deployed and the action begins. The play mechanics involve performing one of three actions with the stylus in various combinations.

  • Hit Markers - Operated by tapping numbered circles.
  • Phrase Markers - Operated by tapping and holding the stylus on a ball within a circle while following it along a path.
  • Spin Markers - Operated by spinning the stylus around the on-screen disc until bars on either side light up.

To successfully perform each action one must complete it as a timed circle converges on each main circle. The timing follows the rhythm of the music. The Hit and Phrase markers must be hit in numbered sequence (the markers are arranged in 'tracks' which range from one to about fifteen markers in length). Success is monitored by the "Elite-O-Meter", a gauge at the top of the touch screen that is constantly draining. Successful actions, such as tapping the Hit Markers in sync with the music, will keep the gauge filled.

Each stage is divided into multiple gameplay sections separated by story sequences, the specific number of which varying by stage. If the Elite-O-Meter is in the yellow when the player reaches one of these breaks, the story will depict the person in need making significant progress towards his or her goal. If it is in the red, the scene will instead depict the person encountering a setback. In between breaks, during the gameplay, the top screen shows the person attempting to accomplish what they need to do at that time. The scene depicted changes every beat, or when the markers switch color, depending on the player's progress. If the player scores an 'Elite Beat'(perfect 300 score on all makers), then the person makes a lot of progress very enthusiastically. If the player scores a 'Beat' (no score lower than 100, but not all 300), the person will be shown making average progress on their goal. However, if the player does not score a special beat bonus at all (by scoring a 50 on a beat or missing it entirely), the person on the top screen will encounter difficulties and setbacks. The player will receive bonuses to the final grade and unlock artwork for completing a stage with all breaks successful.

Each stage has three possible endings for its story. The ending depends on the number of gameplay sections passed. If all gameplay sections are passed the story will have the best ending. If at least one section is passed, but not all of them, then the story will have the average ending. If all sections are failed, however, the story will have the worst outcome.

High scores are acquired by achieving combos, or stringing together a series of successful actions. The longer the player is able to maintain a combo, the greater the multiplier applied to each successful action. Should the player miss a marker completely, the combo will end and the player must start a new one.

To achieve an S-rank in a level (the highest possible rank), at least 90% of all beats must be 300 and the remaining 10% must be at least 50. The player cannot reach the S-rank if any of the beats are missed.

Story

Elite Beat Agents is a spiritual sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. It is not a direct translation of the original, but rather a completely separate production which simply utilizes the same gameplay as Ouendan. The main characters of Elite Beat Agents are members of a fictional government agency responsible for helping those in need. Through the dancing of the agents, people in need are instilled with motivation that helps them overcome various obstacles.

Several of the levels in Elite Beat Agents are thematically similar to those found in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan; for instance, a level where the agents are tasked with helping a white blood cell named Cap White eliminate a virus inside of an athlete's body shares similarities to a level where the cheer squad (the main characters of Ouendan) must assist super-heroesque medicine as it fights a virus in a violinist's body. In addition, some of the story characters from Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan show up in the stories for Elite Beat Agents.

Agents

Agent BA-2 "J"
The playable agent on the normal difficulty setting (Cruisin'), J is distinguished by his massive pompadour and by his appearance as the central figure on the game's cover art. He corresponds with Ryūta Ippongi from Ouendan.
Agent BA-4 "Derek"
One of the male backup agents. He is found in the Easy, Normal and Hard modes. He is easily distinguished by his large, red afro. He corresponds with Suzuki from Ouendan.
Agent BA-3 "Morris"
One of the male backup agents. He is found in the Easy, Normal and Hard modes. He is easily distinguished by his black afro and fedora. He corresponds with Saitō from Ouendan.
Agent BA-5 "Spin"
The newcomer to the Elite Beat Agents. He is the playable character on the easiest difficulty setting (Breezin') and is distinguished by the headphones he always wears. He corresponds with Hajime Tanaka from Ouendan.
Agent BA-1 "Chieftain"
The playable agent in hard mode (Sweatin'). Chieftain features a muscular frame and wears a cowboy hat. He corresponds with Kai Dōmeki from Ouendan.
Elite Beat Divas
The all-female squad of the Elite Beat Agents that becomes playable on the most difficult setting (Hard Rock). They correspond with the Cheer Girls from Ouendan. The Divas names are (from left to right): Missy, Starr, and Foxx, corresponding with Aoi Kanda, Sayaka Amemiya and Anna Lindhurst respectively.
Commander Kahn
The leader of the Elite Beat Agents. He briefs new players on how to play the game in the tutorial and makes appearances at the beginning and end of each mission. When every level on all difficulty settings have been completed, players have the option to use Commander Kahn instead of Starr in the Hard Rock setting (although Kahn still uses the animations from the female models). Commander Kahn corresponds with no Ouendan character specifically, but his role in the tutorial mimics that of Kai Dōmeki's in Ouendan.

New content

File:Eba.JPG
Elite Beat Agents has the ability to save replays, and shows how many Elite Beats and Beats one hit during a song.

iNiS added a great deal of content to Elite Beat Agents that was not included in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, such as the ability to skip the opening sequence, saving a replay of a level, a finger in the first three levels of Breezin' mode which shows when to tap, single-card multiplayer, and more.

Track listing

All of the tracks that appear in Elite Beat Agents are cover versions (cover artists in parenthesis).[1]

  1. Steriogram - "Walkie Talkie Man" (by Jason Paige)
  2. Sum 41 - "Makes No Difference" (by Vinn Lombardo)
  3. Avril Lavigne - "Sk8er Boi" (by Angela Michael)
  4. Freddie Mercury/Queen - "I Was Born to Love You" (by Paul Vician)
  5. Stray Cats - "Rock This Town" (by Mark Latham)
  6. Deep Purple - "Highway Star" (by Kaleb James)
  7. Village People - "Y.M.C.A." (by TC Moses)
  8. Earth, Wind and Fire - "September" (by TC Moses)
  9. Jamiroquai - "Canned Heat" (by Jason Paige)
  10. Madonna - "Material Girl" (by Melissa Garber)
  11. Ashlee Simpson - "La La" (by Laura Jane)
  12. Chicago - "You're the Inspiration" (by Julian Miranda)
  13. David Bowie - "Let's Dance" (by Delaney Wolff)
  14. Good Charlotte - "The Anthem" (by Kevin Ridel)
  15. Hoobastank - "Without a Fight" (by Kevin Ridel) /The Rolling Stones - "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (by Billy Fogarty, these two songs together are on the final level)

The following three songs are unlockable within the course of the game by achieving cumulative high scores across all difficulty levels and stages. As certain high score totals are reached, the player will move up in rank, and by achieving certain ranks, a bonus stage and song is unlocked. In the order in which they are unlocked, they are:

  1. Cher - "Believe" (by Lynn Rose)
  2. Jackson Five - "ABC" (by TC Moses and Brittany Kertesz)
  3. Destiny's Child - "Survivor" (by April Harmony)

Missing song

During development, 1UP.com listed Livin' La Vida Loca as one of the tracks included in the game [2], but did not appear. In the words of Chris Kohler, the writer of the previous article, "If you remember my E3 posts, you might also be saying, 'Where the hell is "Livin' La Vida Loca"?' A fair question. Near as I can figure, the song was dropped from the game. Blame it on the confusion of E3. I'll try and fix the internet."

Reception & awards

Elite Beat Agents has an average review ratio of 86.5% on GameRankings, including such web sites as IGN (9.5/10) and GameSpot (8.9/10).[3] The game has also been received well on reputable UK gaming websites, such as Gamestyle(9/10). The game also scored well on TGZ(9.0/10).

Elite Beat Agents has the distinction of being the first winner of GameSpot's Best Rhythm/Music Game award, handed out for the first time as part of GameSpot´s 2006 Best and Worst Awards [4]. The other games nominated for the award included Guitar Hero II, Gitaroo Man Lives!, and SingStar Rocks!.

From the date of its release to November 28, 2006, Elite Beat Agents sold 120,000 copies. Reggie Fils-Aime has stated that while sales were strong, he was disappointed that they were not better, having expected 300,000 copies sold in light of critical acclaim. He has also stated that he hopes that Nintendo can work with iNiS on a sequel.[5]

  • IGN awards:
    • 2006 DS Game of The Year [6]
    • Best Music Game [7]
    • Best Artistic Design [8]
    • Best Story [9]
    • Most Innovative Design [10]
    • Best Licensed Soundtrack [11]
    • Best Developer [12]
  • GameSpot awards:
    • 2006 Best Music/Rhythm Game of the Year
    • Best Nintendo DS Game of 2006 [13]

References

  1. ^ http://www.1up.com feature article: Cheer Squad: Why iNiS Wants to Make You Happier Accessed 19 September 2006
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