Since it is a music/rhythm game, those American tracks they picked would be a pretty important part of the game. So I definitely had to raise an eyebrow when I saw some of the songs from the set list:

Sk8ter Boi - Avril Lavigne
Y.M.C.A. - Village People
Survivor - Destiny Child
Believe - Cher
You're the Inspiration - Chicago
Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
Walkie Talkie Man - Steriogram
Without a Fight - Hoobastank
The Anthem - Good Charlotte

You get the picture. It certainly does not help sell this game (to me at least). When I played the game, however, the songs suddenly made perfect sense. These tracks, by all means, would never be found on my iPod, but they go perfectly with the game. Since the game is so ridiculous and over-the-top in its nature, the tracks aren't presented as "look how good this song is," but rather as a supplement to the tongue-in-cheek style of the game.

Each "stage" is a story about somebody in a tough situation, such as being stranded on an island, needing to have a blockbuster film, or even a retired baseball player who must use his worn out skills to fight off a giant lava monster who's invading a circus fair. (yeah, you kind of see what I'm saying about the ridiculous part now...)

The Elite Beat Agents jump on the scene and use their dance moves to help get these people out of their troubled situations. Depending on how you do on the bottom screen changes the way the story plays out on the top screen through clever and well-animated sprites.

You control the game by simply touching the numbered circles in order at the correct time. An outer circle closes in around the numbers, and when it directly overlaps is when you're supposed to press it. Generally, you start to figure out the rhythm of the song and don't need to focus exactly on when you see the circles close in, but it is a helpful visual.

Agent Spin on the left is the easiest of difficulties.

There's not a whole lot else to do in a song besides tapping on the circles, but they do throw in some curveballs with circles you have to drag from one to another, or a giant full-screen wheel you have to destroy your DS screen with by spinning it as fast as you can.

The stories are presented with amazingly well-drawn sprite animations and it's clear they put a lot of work into them. Honestly, the stories are clever and funny - and obviously not serious in any way. Plus none of them are from the original Japanese game, keeping the two titles as separate ones rather than similar copies.

The game starts out really, really easy, and gets extremely difficult later on. But the final difficulty isn't necessarily "harder" than the one before it as far as rhythms go, it only shortens the length of time you see the upcoming circle before you have to touch it. It just makes it a little more difficult to see things coming than it does making them harder to master.

Elite Beat Agents is a pretty crazy little music title. Even though I can't say I listen to "Y.M.C.A." during the walk to my classes, I certainly enjoy the song in the game. It just fits so perfectly - as does most all of the music in the game. But this still doesn't explain why Inis couldn't have used better music with these same characteristics. When you play the stage using the the song Napoleon Dynamite danced to in his film, you'll see what I mean. It's a pretty neat song.

Nintendo has made a smart move by labeling this title as one of their "Touch Generations" games, which means anybody with or without a video-game background can pick it up and play it. Just make sure you've got a little bit of rhythm in your soul and the Agents will do just fine.