Elite Beat Agents is a a rhythm game where you play as the Elite Beat Agents, a secret organziation of dancing agents. Your goal as the Elite Beat Agents is to help anyone in need no matter how bizarre it is. And believe me, it gets bizarre. So, somehow you solve these problems dancing to songs like "YMCA" or "Canned Heat".

THE GOOD:

Rhythm gameplay doesn't get much better than this. Elite Beat Agents has a very complitcated and innovative gameplay system but I'll try to explain it. The basic notes are spheres and there is an outer circle around it which closes in on the sphere. The key is to time your tap perfectly so that the circle is about to close in on the sphere when you tap it. The longs notes are played out the same way but once you hit the note you must slide your stylus along a ball that appears. And then there is a huge spinner that takes up the whole touch screen in which you must spin until the gauge behind it fills up but you must do this before the outer circle closes in on the spinner. Sound complitcated? Well, don't worry. It isn't. And it works great.

Now for the story of Elite Beat Agents, oh, lord, where do I start? Ok, well I'll start with the first level where you must help a babysitter put the child she is sitting to bed so she can ask her boyfriend to go steady with her. Sound strange? You havn't heard anything yet. How about helping a washed up baseball player save an amusement park from a fire-breathing golem? Is that strange enough for you? And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The cutscences are just so ridiculous and funny that you just can't help but burst out laughing when you see them even if there is no voice acting. A rhythm game is only as good as its music. Well, music in Elite Beat Agents may not be your style (it is not by any means mine) but it fits perfectly. The game features mostly 80s-early 90s pop songs such as YMCA, Canned Heat (the song at the end of Napolean Dynomite) and even a Madonna song. The songs are not done by their original artists but they sound accurate enough that they still seem pretty authentic. Elite Beat Agents is a very short game, only about 4 or so hours but the game offers a mess of replay value. You start the game off with two difficulty levels, Breezin' and Crusin' with Breezin' being the easier of the two. Once you beat Cursin', you get Sweatin'. And once you beat Sweatin', you get Hard ROCK!. Each difficulty has a different playable character including another playable character once you beat the game on every difficulty which means 5 different ways to play the game. So, 5 times 4...Come on, we all love math. That's 20 hours of gameplay in the single player. Not too shaby. But wait, there's more. There is also a multiplayer mode for multi-card and download play. The game offers co-op and one-on-one battle mode. So, if you have some friends, this should even more time.

THE BAD:

Ok, one question. Why the hell is The Anthem by Good Charolette in this game? Some of the songs are just so out of place and just so...well....dumb. For example, the first level is Walkie Talkie Man which doesn't fit the story or the game at all. And I think the most out of place song is Sk8ter Boi. I never wanna hear that song. And I especially don't wanna hear it while I'm helping a taxi driver get a pregnant woman to the hospital. Some of the songs just seemed to be put in to catch the mainstream audience.

So, now I mentioned those 4 difficulty levels right? Well, they are all very, very hard. Even the easiest difficulty level is painfully difficult. There really isn't much I can say about the difficulty except it's hard and practice makes perfect. And believe me, it will take LOTS of practice. Overall, Elite Beat Agents is a very welcome first rhythm game for the DS and hopefully will lead to more DS rhythm games in the future. Maybe Elite Beat Agents 2 for the Wii? Huh? Huh? Maybe?