Elite Beat Agents facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Elite Beat Agents
The European box art for Elite Beat Agents, from left to right are characters Agent Morris, Agent J, and Agent Derek.
Developer(s)	iNiS
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Keiichi Yano
Producer(s)	Masako Harada Shinya Saito
Designer(s)	Keiichi Yano
Artist(s)	Risako Watanabe
Writer(s)	Koji Ito Kishiko Miyagi
Engine	Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan engine
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release date(s)	NA November 6, 2006 AUS May 3, 2007 EU July 13, 2007 KO October 11, 2007
Genre(s)	Music video game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Elite Beat Agents is an exciting music video game made by iNiS and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in North America, Europe, and South Korea. This game is like a follow-up to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, a Japanese rhythm game from 2005. Both games share many fun features.

In Elite Beat Agents, you tap and drag on the touch screen of your DS. You do this in time with the music to earn points. On the top screen, you see cool comic-style scenes. These scenes show the "Elite Beat Agents" cheering on people in tough situations with their awesome dance moves. This game also added improvements that were later used in the Japanese sequel, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2.

Elite Beat Agents was part of Nintendo's Touch! Generations series. This series aimed to bring games to more people, not just traditional gamers. Even though sales weren't super high, critics really loved the game. It even won several gaming awards in 2006!

Meet the Elite Beat Agents

The main characters in Elite Beat Agents are super-trained spies. They work for a special government agency that helps people in trouble. When someone is really struggling and cries out for help, Commander Kahn sends the agents.

The agents don't directly solve the problem. Instead, they encourage the person through their amazing dancing! This motivates people to overcome challenges. How well the person succeeds depends on how accurately the Agents dance. Each story has different endings based on your performance.

Fun and Fantastic Stories

Just like Ouendan, the stories in Agents are mostly funny. The individual stories are not connected to each other. Some characters might appear in more than one story, but each song has a new main character.

The first few stories are pretty normal. For example, you might help a babysitter handle three wild kids. Or you might help someone ask a crush out. But as you play more, the stories get much crazier!

For instance, one later stage features a baseball player. He has to rescue a young fan from a fire-breathing golem at a theme park. He even battles the golem using baseball moves! There's also a sad level called "A Christmas Gift." In this level, the agents help a young girl reunite with the spirit of her dad. This mission uses a slower, calmer song called "You're the Inspiration".

Saving the World with Music

The main adventure ends with a huge planet-wide crisis! The Agents, along with everyone they've helped, face an alien invasion. These aliens, called Rhombulans, hate music. They use a special ray that turns people into stone to stop all music.

This final part has two levels. In the first, the Agents help prisoners start a riot against the aliens. But then, the Agents get turned to stone themselves. This leads to the final level! The people who were sad about the Agents' sacrifice get their courage back. They work together to reverse the stone spell. Then, they launch a huge musical attack against the aliens. They send a blast of spirit energy into the sky, destroying the alien mothership!

Some levels in Agents are similar to those in Ouendan. For example, there's a level where you travel back in time to help a famous historical person. There's also a level inside the human body and a very emotional level. Plus, some characters from Ouendan make quick appearances in Agents. In the last two stages, just like in Ouendan, all the characters you've helped throughout the game show up again!

Songs and Scenarios

Elite Beat Agents has fifteen main stories and three extra unlockable ones. This means there are a total of nineteen music tracks! The songs in the game are performed by cover artists. Most songs are also shortened to about three minutes long.

How to Play the Game

A scene from the "Makes No Difference" level on the Cruisin' skill level. The agents must assist a Hollywood director in creating a blockbuster.

The way you play Elite Beat Agents is very similar to Ouendan. Each stage in Agents looks like a comic book. First, you meet a character and learn about their problem. Then, the agents are sent out, and the fun begins! You use your stylus to do three main actions.

• Hit Markers: Tap numbered circles when a timed ring shrinks onto them.
• Phrase Markers: Tap and hold your stylus on a ball. Then, drag it along a path. Some can even reverse direction!
• Spin Markers: Spin your stylus around a disc on the screen. Keep spinning until bars on both sides light up.

You need to complete each action right when a shrinking circle meets the main circle. This timing follows the rhythm of the music. Hit and Phrase markers must be tapped in the correct numbered order.

Your success is shown by the "Elite-O-Meter" at the top of the screen. This health bar slowly drains. Hitting markers correctly fills it up. Missing a marker makes it go down. If the meter completely empties, the stage ends, and you fail.

Difficulty Levels and Agents

There are four difficulty levels in the game. The first three levels of "Breezin'" difficulty (the easiest) show you the order to hit markers. The difficulty level also decides which Agents are sent on missions:

• Breezin' (Easy): Agent Spin (BA-5) leads the team.
• Cruisin' (Medium): Agent J (BA-2) is the leader.
• Sweatin' (Hard): Agent Cheiftain (BA-1) takes charge.
• Hard ROCK! (Expert): The Agents are replaced by the cheerleader-like Elite Beat Divas! This level makes the game much harder. It flips the beat maps, speeds up timers, and shrinks hit markers.

Only Breezin' and Cruisin' are available at first. You unlock Sweatin' by beating Cruisin'. Then, you unlock Hard ROCK! by beating Sweatin'.

Story Progress and Endings

Each stage has several gameplay parts separated by story scenes. If your Elite-O-Meter is in the yellow during a break, the person you're helping makes good progress. If it's in the red, they face a setback.

During gameplay, the top screen shows the person trying to reach their goal. The scene changes with every beat, showing their progress.

• If you get an "Elite Beat" (300 points on every marker in a beat), the person makes super enthusiastic progress!
• If you get a "Beat" (no score lower than 100, but not all 300s), they make average progress.
• If you score low (50 points) or miss a marker, the person faces difficulties.

You get bonuses and unlock artwork if you finish a stage with good outcomes at all breaks.

Each story has three possible endings:

• Best Ending: If you pass all gameplay sections, the main character fully succeeds!
• Average Ending: If you pass some sections but not all, they succeed moderately.
• Worst Ending: If you fail all sections, the main character still finishes but doesn't succeed.

Missions are grouped into "acts." In acts with multiple missions, you can choose the order you play them. But you must clear all missions in an act to move to the next one.

Scoring and Ranks

You get high scores by making combos. This means hitting many markers in a row without missing. The longer your combo, the more points you get! If you miss a marker, your combo breaks, and you start a new one.

The game saves your high scores for each stage and difficulty. It also tracks your total high score, which affects your "Agent Rank." Your Agent Rank is a special title like "Soldier of Song." It changes as your total score reaches certain milestones. You unlock three bonus stages by reaching specific Agent Ranks.

Your performance in each stage gets a letter grade, from "D" (lowest) to "S" (highest). To get an S rank, you need to hit all markers and score 300 points on at least 90% of them. You can't score 50 points on more than 1% of them. A "Perfect" means you hit every single marker.

Playing with Friends

You can play Elite Beat Agents with up to four players! You use the wireless feature of the Nintendo DS. Each player needs a DS console, and you can play with one or more copies of the game. The same songs are used, but the stages are set up for competition.

Only songs that the "host" player has completed are available. Each player tries to play the song like in single-player mode. There's no Elite-O-Meter here. Instead, everyone's score is tracked. At breaks in the song, the screen shows who is ahead.

During the song, players can fill a star meter by getting "Elite Beats." When your star meter is full, your opponents' screens will shake! Their markers will also shrink for a short time, making them harder to hit. The player with the best score at the end wins!

If only one game copy is used, only five songs are available on Cruisin' and Breezin' difficulties. If all players have a copy, all songs and difficulties are available.

There's also a cooperative mode where players take turns. Each player needs their own copy of the game. Songs use the same scenarios as single-player. Only stages the host has completed are available. Both players share one Elite-O-Meter. If one person fails, the game ends for both! Players take turns playing different parts of the song and Spin Markers. When it's not your turn, the markers are grayed out.

How the Game Was Made

People in other countries really liked the Japanese game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. So, Nintendo and iNiS thought about releasing it outside Japan. But the game used a lot of Japanese pop music and cultural references. This made it hard to sell in Western countries.

So, when they started making the North American version, they changed the characters. The Japanese cheerleaders were replaced. At first, they thought of "Disco Rangers," dancers like the Village People. But they changed it to government agents. They got ideas from movies like Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers, Men in Black, and Austin Powers.

The Agents were first called "Super Sonic Agents." But this name was changed to avoid confusion with Super Sonic. The idea for the Elite Beat Divas (the expert difficulty characters) and Commander Kahn came from Charlie's Angels. Commander Kahn, who isn't in Ouendan, was added to give the Agents a reason to help people.

When choosing songs, the creators looked for ones that would be fun at a party. They wanted songs from different music styles and time periods. They planned for twenty songs, but the final game had nineteen. One song, "Livin' La Vida Loca", was removed due to licensing issues.

What's Next for the Agents?

Possible Future Games

One month after the game came out in North America, Nintendo hoped Elite Beat Agents would get a sequel. They wanted it to become a whole series! However, no sequel has been made yet. Ten years later, the game's director, Keiichi Yano, said he would love to make a sequel. But it would depend on what new Nintendo consoles could do and how well the game would fit them.

Other Appearances

• The Elite Beat Agents appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a trophy and on some stickers. Characters from Ouendan also appear. The Agents and Divas, along with their Ouendan friends, later appeared as spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• You could get special character skins for the Agents and Divas. These were limited-time downloadable content for Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2. This game had the same improvements as Agents. You can also unlock these skins with a cheat device now.
• In 2022, Nintendo bought an animation studio and named it Nintendo Pictures. Some people noticed this is the same name as a fictional company in the game's second stage! That company was where film director Chris Silverscreen worked.

See also

In Spanish: Elite Beat Agents para niños