11-21-2006, 07:02 PM
finally, my 1st review since i started checking games out from GameStop. i'll try to make this as painless as possible for you readers.
the basis of Elite Beat Agents (EBA) is a rythm game. as a ring shrinks down onto a circle, you must press the circle with the stylus just as the ring hits the circle. there are also instances when you must follow a moving ball across the screen with you stylus or spin a disc on the screen with the stylus. the presses end up being in rythm to the music. the interesting part of this is that the presses are not based on just one aspect of the music, such as the singing, percussions or guitars of the song, but are really just thrown in where ever they fit. the game also rates how closely you press the circle, giving you either 50, 100 or 300 points multiplied by your combo streak number. the Beat Meter determines if you're completing or failing the level. press the circles correctly and the meter fills up. miss circles and the meter empties. meter empties completely and game's over. the odd thing about EBA is that the meter slowly empties throughout the song even if you're not missing any presses. this means it is impossible to beat any song without letting your Beat Meter lower at least a little. this usually isn't an issue though. the comic book-esque cut scenes and cinematics are actually entertaining as well...when you can watch them. i don't understand the point of showing you humorous activities on the top screen while trying to press 400 circles on the bottom.
the first few songs of the easy setting are really just to get the player used to the mechanics of the game. these songs even feature a hand which taps the circles when the player should press the circles with the stylus. after getting used to the mechanics, the game pretty much throws you in the lake to teach you to swim. the rythms start getting much quicker to press, the presses start coming up whenever the developers want them to (not really following anything in the song except the beat) and the presses appear all over the screen. sometimes there's not even a real flow to the presses, which is really just a cheap way of making the final levels extremely difficult. the last several songs really started being based of memory of where the presses came up the last time you played the song and lost, and luck; just press a circle and hope it's the next in line to be pressed. it doesn't help when the player is trying to press circles on one side of the screen while the other circles are popping up where your hand is covering the screen. the hardest difficulty gets extremely frustrating as well when the Beat Meter depletes faster than you can replenish it in parts of the song. there were some instances that even though i hadn't missed a press in awhile, the meter was still falling fast enough to put me in the red. in the last few songs, it even started occuring where the meter would drop so fast that i would lose the song while in the middle of a fast paced combo. i did not get to beat the last song because i literally had to press every circle perfectly to keep from losing. after putting in over 6 hours on this song, i eventually had to return the game so could not finish it. sorry guys for the incomplete review. tried my best.
it may have taken quite a while to play through the game (spending upwards of 6 total hours on beating one song), but i did have fun with the game almost the entire time, except for those songs which i had to play through for 3-5 hours or more to complete. i would say this game rates up with the most difficult of rythm based songs, but is just as fun as any of them.
Rating: 7.75 / 10.0
thanks for any feed back for me or if there are questions about the game i didn't answer in the review. lemme know how to make the reviews better or other suggestions for games.
the basis of Elite Beat Agents (EBA) is a rythm game. as a ring shrinks down onto a circle, you must press the circle with the stylus just as the ring hits the circle. there are also instances when you must follow a moving ball across the screen with you stylus or spin a disc on the screen with the stylus. the presses end up being in rythm to the music. the interesting part of this is that the presses are not based on just one aspect of the music, such as the singing, percussions or guitars of the song, but are really just thrown in where ever they fit. the game also rates how closely you press the circle, giving you either 50, 100 or 300 points multiplied by your combo streak number. the Beat Meter determines if you're completing or failing the level. press the circles correctly and the meter fills up. miss circles and the meter empties. meter empties completely and game's over. the odd thing about EBA is that the meter slowly empties throughout the song even if you're not missing any presses. this means it is impossible to beat any song without letting your Beat Meter lower at least a little. this usually isn't an issue though. the comic book-esque cut scenes and cinematics are actually entertaining as well...when you can watch them. i don't understand the point of showing you humorous activities on the top screen while trying to press 400 circles on the bottom.
the first few songs of the easy setting are really just to get the player used to the mechanics of the game. these songs even feature a hand which taps the circles when the player should press the circles with the stylus. after getting used to the mechanics, the game pretty much throws you in the lake to teach you to swim. the rythms start getting much quicker to press, the presses start coming up whenever the developers want them to (not really following anything in the song except the beat) and the presses appear all over the screen. sometimes there's not even a real flow to the presses, which is really just a cheap way of making the final levels extremely difficult. the last several songs really started being based of memory of where the presses came up the last time you played the song and lost, and luck; just press a circle and hope it's the next in line to be pressed. it doesn't help when the player is trying to press circles on one side of the screen while the other circles are popping up where your hand is covering the screen. the hardest difficulty gets extremely frustrating as well when the Beat Meter depletes faster than you can replenish it in parts of the song. there were some instances that even though i hadn't missed a press in awhile, the meter was still falling fast enough to put me in the red. in the last few songs, it even started occuring where the meter would drop so fast that i would lose the song while in the middle of a fast paced combo. i did not get to beat the last song because i literally had to press every circle perfectly to keep from losing. after putting in over 6 hours on this song, i eventually had to return the game so could not finish it. sorry guys for the incomplete review. tried my best.
it may have taken quite a while to play through the game (spending upwards of 6 total hours on beating one song), but i did have fun with the game almost the entire time, except for those songs which i had to play through for 3-5 hours or more to complete. i would say this game rates up with the most difficult of rythm based songs, but is just as fun as any of them.
Rating: 7.75 / 10.0
thanks for any feed back for me or if there are questions about the game i didn't answer in the review. lemme know how to make the reviews better or other suggestions for games.