Full Review

8 July 2007 - Available on the company's handheld console, the DS, the aim of Elite Beat Agents is to tap the screen in time with the music, but is this enough to get you excited? We get tapping to find out.

In what has to be the most craziest storyline we've seen for a long time, you play three secret agents tasked with turning up, dancing their way out of trouble and hopefully completing missions else Commander Khan, a crazy Military type, won't be happy.

It's like the FBI or the Special Branch coming around your house and then turning out to be Take That putting on a performance of Joseph; it's bonkers.

According to Nintendo "Elite Beat Agents features ordinary people in a variety of crazy situations ranging from directing a movie to painting a 15th Century masterpiece! As their situations take a turn for the worse, a group of special agents known as the Elite Beat Agents are summoned to rescue the day using their musical skills".

Just like those dance mat games, Elite Beat Agents is all about rhythm and sees you having to tap ever-decreasing circles just at the right moment else you lose. Get your tapping spot on and in time with the music and you win points and time, get it wrong and you lose time, if your time goes down too much before the end of the song then that's it, game over.

To break up the taping, there are three types of markers that players must watch out for: Hit markers, Phrase markers and Spin markers, all of which require the players to tap or draw out the rhythm with their stylus as the on-screen prompt appears.

Like the dance mat games, it can be incredibly frustrating and challenging as you have to get into the rhythm of the music to succeed. That said, when you do, it's vastly satisfying.

Broken into two main areas, the main mode in Elite Beat Agents features 19 different songs (or missions) and include a real mish mash of tracks by Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Freddie Mercury, Ashlee Simpson, David Bowie, Destiny’s Child and many others for you to tap along to.

'70s classics like the Village People's "YMCA" and Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" are joined by modern pop rock songs like Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" and Ashlee Simpson's "La La." The good news, is that it means there is bound to be a track you know.

The Multiplayer Mode allows up to four players to have a head-to-head dance off. In this mode, whoever finishes with the fullest elite-o-meter when the song ends is the winner.

VERDICT
Nintendo has always been known as a great innovator when it comes to games, and Elite Beat Agents is no exception.

As a rhythm experience Elite Beat Agents is highly addictive and although at times we struggled with getting the tapping right we found ourselves coming back for more and more every time - it's that good.

If you enjoyed those dance mat gaming on the PS2 and want the same experience on the Nintendo DS this will give you your tapping fix.