Elite Beat Agents track-list

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 October, 2006

Bowie, Madonna, more.

Elite Beat Agents - the Western take on brilliant Japanese DS rhythm-action import Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan - is due out on 6th November in the US and finally we have the track-listing.

It is, according to designer Keiichi Yano, who spoke to Wired, based on the concept of "roaring songs you would want to hear if you went to a college frat party", offering a mixture of "oldies but goodies, great new songs, and a wide array of genres". There are 19 songs at this point, although they're not revealing the final song.

  • Walkie Talkie Man - Steriogram
  • ABC - Jackson Five
  • Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
  • I Was Born to Love You - Queen
  • Rock This Town - Stray Cats
  • Highway Star - Deep Purple
  • Y.M.C.A. - Village People
  • September - Earth, Wind and Fire
  • Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
  • Material Girl - Madonna
  • La La - Ashlee Simpson
  • You're the Inspiration - Chicago
  • Survivor - Destiny's Child
  • Without a Fight - Hoobastank
  • Believe - Cher
  • Let's Dance - David Bowie
  • Jumpin Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
  • Makes No Difference - Sum 41
  • The Anthem - Good Charlotte

Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, in case you haven't been keeping up, see little icons appear on screen with shrinking rings around them, where the idea is to tap the icons with the stylus as the rings shrink to fit the outline, all in time to the music. It's very fast-paced, with icons dotted around the screen and variations that have you dragging the stylus back and forward along short arching pathways to match the beat, along with some hilariously quirky background imagery. It's an incredibly addictive and well balanced challenge, and probably the best new rhythm-action game since Gitaroo Man, iNiS' last effort. Even the multiplayer mode is rather excellent.

Anyway, for all Yano-san's explanations, there's likely to be a bit of grumbling about the absence of Japanese music; Ouendan was comprised entirely of really good facsimiles of J-Rock tracks, with the occasional stirring J-Pop melody to even things out, and it really did the trick. Still, that's all the more reason to dig the original out again - or buy it anew, if you haven't already, since it's fairly cheap and perfectly playable in Japanese.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dbeamish #1 5 years ago

    what an "ecclectic" mix

    read - shit.

  • Wrestlevania #2 5 years ago

    The peaks and troughs in the quality and consistency of that selection are extreme. About the only track I'd get excited about would be Bowie's contribution.

  • The_Aardvark #3 5 years ago

    Scratch one from my christmas list.

  • Machiavel #4 5 years ago

    Where is Ouendan 'fairly cheap'? About time I picked that up.

  • UncleLou #5 5 years ago

    Mind, this isn't really about the music - I apologise to all J-Pop fans, but I found the music in Ouendan to be positively awful, yet I still loved the game.

  • mr_chimp #6 5 years ago

    LINDA LINDAAAAA...

    It's not about the music, it's about the Ouendan.

  • UncleLou #7 5 years ago

    ...Linda Linda, LindaaaaAAAAH!

    Exactly. Bit hard to explain to someone who hasn't played it, but complaining about the music really misses the point a bit. :)

  • Tonka #8 5 years ago

    Yep, it's supposed to be cheesy innit?
    I still havent gotten over the chock of this getting a western release.

  • djchump #9 5 years ago

    Argh - I love Ouendan and was really looking forward to this.
    Half of me thinks that Ouendan is exactly the kind of game that *needs* a ridiculously cheesy tracklist because the jap game is nuts cheesy j-pop, but the other half of me is loathe to buy a game that has Cher's "Believe" on it...


    :-(

  • Zomoniac #10 5 years ago

    But the songs in Ouendan that I enjoyed playing the most are the songs I actually liked; Melody, Ready Steady Go and Over The Distance. Of that list I can imagine ABC and Sk8er Boi being quite entertaining to play in the context of Ouendan but there isn't a single song on there I would consider to be great.

  • Darkedge #11 5 years ago

    college frat party?
    Oh god the game is as mental as it's creator obviously..

  • UncleLou #12 5 years ago

    This game should never have been made. Half the charm of the original is the mad music.

    Don't quite agree with this, the music isn't particularly mad, it's just cheesy, and I am pretty sure the music chosen here can compete in cheesyness. :)

  • Ciaran #13 5 years ago

    When's the Euro release then? I vaguely remember rumours of December but can't find confirmation. Anybody?

  • Spanky #14 5 years ago

    So since this imo ruins the whole jig for me is the jap one actually playable without a ounce of jap understanding?

  • djchump #15 5 years ago

    @Spanky - yes, the japanese game is great and made all the more great by it's bonkers japanese-ness :-)
    The missions/songs themselves are easy to follow what is happening with the cartoon/manga cutscene action on the top screen, and once you've figured out the menu layouts from the translation FAQs readily available at GameFAQs, the lack of English is certainly not a problem.

  • #16 5 years ago

    I listen to the ouendan 'soundtrack' in my car quite a lot. Cheesy J-Pop FTW!

    Sure, some tracks arn't as good as others, but that's far from the point. I can look down this tracklist and KNOW that it'll be great fun to tappy-tappy along to these songs.

    Hi-profile artists too - I take it they're re-recorded for cheapness?

    Ouendan is simply a great game mechanic. And it'll be just as fun to tap along to these as it is to worble along to the awful songs in singstars.

  • Ciaran #17 5 years ago

    IMO rhythm and music games are almost purely about the gameplay anyway. As another forumite put it: 'Press these buttons, do it in this order and if you get it right, be rewarded with music'.

    And anyway, when you see how much monstrosities like More than a Feeling get picked in GH when I've got friends over, you just stop worrying and embrace teh ch33zzz. ^_^

  • varsas #18 5 years ago

    I agree with jamesphilp about the track listing. They certainly fit in the mold of the songs on the Japanese version and appear to be perfect choices for the funny stories that the focus of the cheerleading in the game! I really don't see how tracks from Artic Monkey, Razorlight etc. would fit into the style of the game unless they completely changed the tone of the game i.e. the fun, bizarre and wacky nature of cheerleading to e.g. help someone pass an exam or make better noodles!

  • consignia #19 5 years ago

    The last song wouldn't happen to be "Ready Steady Go", would it? The game would be a cinch without it.

    Personally I'm not really enamoured with the playlist. It doesn't give the same vibe as Ouendan's playlist. It would be difficult to make it exactly the same, but they could have done better. Still, I really would like to play it, as I need more Ouendan style madness.

  • dr_faulk #20 5 years ago

    Will these be the *actual* songs, or 'facsimiles' (as Eurogamer so well put)? "Let's Dance" by Bowie? Oh man, I'm seriously sold.

  • asphaltcowboy #21 5 years ago

    Erk! Not sure about the track listing! :/

    /loves Ouendan

  • Spanky #22 5 years ago

    Cheers DJ Chumpingtons!

  • AFX #23 5 years ago

    Hmm, I'm quite a fan of Ouendan! and I think the track list for the US game doesn't sound too bad. It's best to just treat them as 2 completely seperate games with the same game mechanic.

  • ruckus #24 5 years ago

    Why screw with the tunes - I want quirky Japanese game, not shit music fest. I'll have to import (which I never do) so cheers you localisation fuckwits.

  • Feanor #25 5 years ago

    Way to totally miss the point.

  • varsas #26 5 years ago

    For those deriding the track list...give us a quite list of some that you think would work for the game?

    I'm assuming you guys have actually played the Japanese version and know what sort of songs to consider...

  • consignia #27 5 years ago

    Well, personally, I was thinking something like Franz Ferdinand's Matineé would be quite fitting. The sort poppy-rocky sort of music of recencey. Not total pop of yesteryear. To be fair not all of it is that bad, but to be more fitting of the music from Ouendan, I think it could have been a lot better.

  • some1 #28 5 years ago

    or how about: leave the original track list as it is, and release it with menus localised in english
    Edited by 1 at 17/10/06 @ 16:46

  • spongebob #29 5 years ago

    Mainstream music sucks, yeah.

    I am just wondering about the sound quality. How's it on the original Japanese version?

  • haowan #30 5 years ago

    Samba De Amigo proves that it's not the songs that matter so much as the game. This will will be awesome, even with sk8er boi as the backing track. And I hate that song. With any luck the story that goes alongside it will tell the same story as the song. Ace!

  • haowan #31 5 years ago

    The music in the original isn't "jap-madness", it's pop. The only reason it's acceptable is because you're not used to hearing it in the charts and on kids phones. This edition is also pop. Enjoy!
    Edited by 1 at 17/10/06 @ 18:13

  • PinkSpider #32 5 years ago

    ^ I agree, as a fan of Japanese music it sounds relatively normal. And the bands 175R, ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION and nobodyknows+ are all excellent (and are currently mixed in with my english/ american faveourite bands on my mp3 player).

  • haowan #33 5 years ago

    It will will be awesome!

    He was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?

  • Bates #34 5 years ago

    Haha, I can see that listing working really well with the game if it's anything like Ouendan. Neat :D

  • Sl1pstream #35 5 years ago

    Eek! Someone get that Ashley Simpson out of my Ouendan sequel.

  • ProtoformX #36 5 years ago

    I prefer J-Pop to this stuff, myself, so I will be picking up Ouendan at some point. However, I see this game selling very well. This could be another of those games that hits the female market. From what I've seen your stereotypical girl is into dance mat games, as well as actual dancing. So a little beat matching game they can carry around I think would go down well. Now, I know you shouldn't stereotype, but Nintendo ran the risk with pink consoles to start with and they turned out to be right.
    I just hope it has the Ouendan box art. :-D

  • romanista #37 5 years ago

    yuck