You have to hand it to Nintendo. Although their DS portable system has been called a license to print money, the company still brings creative and original games to the platform. Elite Beat Agents is one of these original games that sounds silly on paper but is a total blast to play.

The Elite Beat Agents are a group of people that go all over the world to save the day for ordinary people with such problems such as a girl who wants to “go steady” with the star football team captain. If only there was a way to make a relationship like a football game… Enter the Elite Beat Agents; by using the power of music and dancing, the Agents will solve this quandary and have the football player going steady with the girl in no time.

You control the agents dance moves. You do this by solely using the stylus, and touching “hit markers” that are lit up when it’s time to touch them. Each hit marker has a number and you must hit the markers in sequence in time with the music.

The song list is pretty diverse, boasting nineteen songs in all. Unfortunately the limitation of the Nintendo DS cartridge is evident here – I’m sure there could be quite a few more if the system used a different type of media. All of the songs are covers…some good, some not so good and some remixed completely from the original. Most of the songs are probably familiar to anyone with a passing interest in Top 40 over the past 30 years from “Rock This Town,” to “Sk8er Boi,” from “YMCA” to “Survivor,” there’s a great selection.

While the scenarios of the Elite Beat Agents are rather silly, the premise works well. During the song “Material Girl,” you have two young women who use their charms to get whatever they want from guys, courtesy of the Agents. The geek in me wishes the girls didn’t get what they want, but oh well. One of the soul-searching levels involves the song “You’re The Inspiration.” My first though was my gosh, why is this song in this game -- but seeing the Christmas story of the father coming back as a ghost to his family at the holiday is quite the tear jerker. Okay, not really, but I have to give the developers credit for trying to expand the universe from beat heavy techno games.

The game starts off relative easy and if you have any knowledge of the songs, it makes it very easy to tap to the beat. The “hit markers” coincide with the beats of the song. The closer you tap the markers to the actual beat, the better your score is.

Each level is comprised of a few mini-episodes. You must complete all three episodes to clear the level. In between each level you are shown part of the story. The story can be silly but it works.

As you progress to higher levels, hit markers get more challenging. Hit markers will be placed under one another so when you see a “1” and a “3” you’ll probably know that marker “2” is underneath…the way the hit markers work is that a circle moves closer to the marker when you are supposed to hit it. Eventually, in later levels your touch screen just becomes a mess of circles and you really have to concentrate to hit the right marker at the right time. In addition, some markers require you to “roll” a ball between them. It’s a cute idea but frustrating as you have to roll at just the right speed. If you don’t roll at the same speed the ball is moving, you’ll lose points.

There’s a meter at the top of the screen that shows you how well you are doing. if it drops too much to “no” you’ll lose the level and it’s game over. You are allowed to keep retrying the level as often as you like and the game saves your progress all along.

At the end of the level there’s an ‘elite spin marker’ which is a giant spinning wheel that you need to rotate by using the stylus. The faster you spin, the more the meter is filled and the more bonus points you score. My first thought on this was, “wow, what a way to ruin the touch screen.” You just have to be very gentle when you crank that wheel up.