Yes, yes and YES!

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the better part of the last year and a half, Ouendan is the smash hit action-music game published by Nintendo but developed by Inis, the same good folks who created the highly sought after Guitaroo Man for PS2. In Ouendan, you take on the role of Japanese male cheerleaders who cheer people on to help them succeed at otherwise mundane tasks in their daily lives. Sound wierd? It is, but the game play is frenetic yet highly addictive as you are required to use the stylus to keep to the rhythm with precision taps on small circles as they appear on the touch screen. Ramping up the replayability, the game includes multi-cart download play for up to four-player cheer-battle action.

So how is Elite Beat Agents different? At its core it isn't. You still have music. You still have rhythm. Who could ask for anything more, right? Agents are GO!!!!!!!!!

So if you just watched the two 30 second clips, you might have noticed a few differences. J-Pop has been replaced American pop rock. Taiko and whistle sound effects have been replaced by tinny drum samples. And of course, male cheerleaders dressed in black have been replaced with disco-dancin' men in black. But beyond the obvious, how do these two games differ. In this article we explore some of the major differences between these killer titles.

Songs and Stages
As anyone who has received the surround sound Ouendan demo at Pink Godzilla Seattle can attest, the sound in Ouendan is pinkin' awesome. From the foot-tappin' tracks to the taiko and whistles, Ouendan is by far one of the best sounding games on the NDS (especially when wired into a surround sound system).

Does EBA hold its own in the sound department? Jumpin' Jack Flash anyone!?!?!?!? To be honest, the song selection contains a few duds, but for the most part is solid. Our biggest gripe is that the drum and cymbal effects don't sound that great when you crank up the volume on the surround sound, but if you are just playing through the tiny NDS speakers these drum effects are servicable.

The stage selection in EBA definitely one-ups Ouendan. In addition to the dynamic 3D map on the stage selection screen, EBA boasts four more tracks than Ouendan. And Pink Godzilla's policy towards rhythm-action games is always the more songs the better. The two-track end stage is simply icing on an already sweet EBA cake.

The quality of the sound and the tracks in Ouendan best EBA, but with its larger track list and and awesome final stage EBA squeeks out a tie in this category.

Challenge

Ouendan has resulted in many a fits o' rage and broken touch pens - and that was just on the hard difficulty setting. Only the bravest of the PG Satori even dared to bring it on extreme. Not only does Ouendan's extreme mode feature scantily clad American cheerleaders to distract you, but the circles are about half the size and appear less than a second before you have to tap them. Making matters worse, strings of 100's and 50's just don't cut it. Unless you nail each tap with a 300, your rhythm meter will deplete.

So how does EBA stack up? For one, there seems to be a sliding scale of difficulty for the disk spinning. In the early stages, it is possible to crank out a 20 whereas in the Elite Beat Divas levels the spinning difficulty seems to be on par with Ouendan. Speaking of those Elite Beat Divas, while they may be more scantily clad than their Ouendan counterparts, they certainly don't bring it like the cheerleaders. The extreme mode in Elite Beat Agents is much more forgiving than in Ouendan - you can actually miss a couple of beats or run a string of 100's without failing the stage. That said, the hard level in EBA, especially on those tunes with the off-beat rhythms (i.e. Survivor), presents a greater challenge than Ouendan. And if you thought Ready, Steady, Go! was tough wait until you encounter the fifteen hit combos of Jumping Jack Flash.

Overall, Ouendan is probably the more challenging of the two, but EBA certainly has its moments.

Multiplayer

One of the little known secrets of Ouendan is that the game supports multi-cart multi-player. Why is this a little known secret? Well, unless you read Japanese, or you have a friend with her own copy of the game, you might not have ever discovered the wonders of Ouendan rhythm battles. Bring it!

In Ouendan, two to four competitors can face off in any of the fifteen songs from the single-player game. Rather than simply rehash the same stories, however, the multi-player mode features its own off the wall line-up such as monkeys racing to save the princess. Other unique features include the earthquake blast, which you can unleash on your competitors after you run a combo string to cause their screens to shake.

While the multi-player mode is arguably one of Ouendan's best features, it isn't without its flaws. First of all, there is no single-cart download play. Second, scoring anomalies are frequent, meaning Player A might beat Player B in every category only to end up losing the match.

So how is EBA different? Not only does EBA bring back the multi-player goodness, but it cranks the heat up a notch with some new features. For starters, EBA has single-cart download play! Yes! Yes! Yes! To top that, EBA also packs in cooperative play and unlockable characters in addition to the head-to-head action. Finally, the earthquake blast of Ouendan has been upgraded to the shrinky-dink earthquake blast. Uh, what? That's right, not only does your competitor's screen shake, but all of the rhythm circles shrink to microscopic proportions as well. While the scoring anomalies are still present, they aren't nearly as prevalent as in Ouendan.

EBA is certainly the more refined game and its polish certainly glistens in the multi-player modes. The nod definitely goes to EBA in this category.

Miscellaneous

Yes, EBA has more songs. Yes, EBA has single-cart download play. Yes, EBA has a co-op mode. Yes, EBA has the Elite Beat Divas. But wait! There's more. EBA allows you to save your replays and battle against your own ghost. You can also send saved replays to your friends to show off that "S" you scored in Jumpin' Jack Flash on extreme.

The Final Verdict

In 2005, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan was the best game on the NDS. In 2006, we have a new king. That's right we said it. EBA is a better game than Ouendan. EBA is a gas, gas, gas.