It’s certainly becoming tiresome seeing developers play safe and continuously make world war FPS, social-life sucking MMORPG’s or the Chav desiring driving simulators and virtual football. However somebody has dared themselves and here making use of Nintendo’s touch screen interaction. Another spice to the growing trend of music and rhythm gaming (one of my favourite genres), Europe has it’s own version of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. Brilliant, I can finally understand what’s being sung and don’t worry I still hold the Orange Range and Asian Kung Fu Generation albums in my mp3 player. It’s nice to see somebody out there can understand Europe needs to witness the great Japanese anime style of humour.

The result? Elite Beat Agents, a highly comical and light hearted game which reminds gamers that we love having a break from all out action-packed serious plots. This game brings us back to the original purpose of DS gaming and boy, it’ll get you bopping your head, singing along and tapping away!

Okay I’ll admit that the theme is totally camp. We have three suited and booted, cheer leading men known as “the Elite Beat agents” and they are called out to rescue those stuck in a dire situation. From a troubled babysitter who has three demonic children causing rampage, a director pressured to produce a Hollywood hit, a lost dog trying to find his way home, a painter who falls head over heels in romance and many more. With plenty of manic episodes playing Elite Beat Agents is as enjoyable as your favourite daily cartoon. The power of singing and dancing is never fails to save the day. The game will have you hyping up to the excitement of the next missions and shouting out alongside the agent’s boss (Commander Kahn) “Gooooooooooooooooo!”

How do you play it? Easy, all you need is rhythm and your stylus. Literally you’re tapping to a combination of the beat and syllable of the song, occasionally you’ll have to spin a crazy giant wheel for power momentum. Those bits can get annoying sometimes, especially with such short amount of time to work out which rotation fills up the meter faster! Careful now, don’t scratch your DS touch screen!

Perhaps it’s a question of cartridge capacity or maybe I was enjoying it too much but E.B.A is short. The little longevity lies on the difficulty settings so it’s more joy for a beginner to conquer the hardest mode. As for veteran players… well nothing left to do! However like most musical games this is one that you can dig out from time to time when your inner mojo urges you to. Okay developers, are you sure you couldn’t have fitted in more songs? If we see another volume of E.B.A in Europe I’m sure as hell going to get it! This game is one of many that I consider as a wonderful spurt of DS gaming and VERY underrated! So I expect you to have played it should I meet you for a gamer chat!

They brought you the Nintendo DS, a marvellous pocket-sized entertainer. Great for portable versions of legendary franchises such as Sonic, Zelda and Mario. But you wanted something different right? So take my recommendation, if you want a new experience to DS gaming have a go at Elite Beat Agents!