Elite Beat Agents - Nintendo DS Game

There are some games that are produced for Nintendo gaming systems that are incredible.

Elite Beat Agents is a fun game for anyone that enjoys music. You really can't tell from the package just how much fun it is to play this game.

You might have to get over the cheesy story lines that go with each mini music game, but they are so cheesy that you can't help but laugh sometimes.

In essence, there are destination where you need to dance with your Nintendo stylus with the music and the beats in the measure that the game shows you on the screen. There are a few variations to what you need to do to hit the bit (or up-beat) or dance with a long section of music.

Hey, and you can't knock a game too much that has Men at Work's YMCA on it!!!

But I do have some problems with game play, the opening tutorial and content.

The opening training/tutorial section doesn't take you through the experience very well, in fact the only thing you'll really know how to do is the spinning you do for bonus points.

Game play is great! If you have a really good sense of timing. There are two levels of game play, but I think they get things a bit wrong on the lower level of game play. Specifically, they reduce the number of times you have to tap the screen to the beats, but this doesn't necessarily make it easier.

I suspect the answer to both of my points is to have a tutorial mode, where you are hitting on the beat for the most part, like we do when we're just bopping around to music or something to get in to the habit or style of playing and listening to the music.

Please NOTE! The game asks you to listen to it, I suggest you do what it says! If you play the game watching the circles closing in on the circles, you are sure to miss a lot of beats.

My 4 year-old son loves this game, but he can't play it. There is no child mode which would be incredible to have. I'm sure he'd be in to this for hours trying to get everything just right. Now he just gets frustrated and wants to watch me play it.

I'm hoping that they get more titles like this - perhaps Elite Beat Agents 2, 3, 4 or different themes and music. Once they have the primary engine down (and they do, game play works flawlessly) it should be a simple matter to port more music over and the comic art intros and action shouldn't take too long to create.

It is an opportunity for a lot of rich content that shouldn't cost a lot to make, but that I think people would be willing to pay for.

At least I would be willing to pay for it.