Elite Beat Agents (Nintendo DS)

In ELITE BEAT AGENTS, players tap and rhythmically drag the DS stylus on the touch-sensitive screen. The zany premise is that there's a secret agency called the Elite Beat Agents (EBA), which exist to help the downtrodden. Think Men in Black meets John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever. When the agency detects a plea for help, three agents appear and, with the players' help, dance their way to solving the problem.

Each of the stories is presented on the top screen in the form of a manga-style comic strip. Each episode has three possible endings, which relate to the amount of energy produced in terms of points. The most common move involves tapping a sequence of numbered dots corresponding to the beat of the music. How well you execute these moves affects how you fill your Elite-o-Meter -- if the meter runs out, the good-deed-doing is over, and the EBA fails at their mission.

Reading the witty dialogue and watching the charismatic agents dance greatly contribute to this title's fun. It does a good job of tying in both oldies and current pop songs (from the Rolling Stones to Sum 41) to the storylines. The game also offers longevity: In the single-player mode, players can explore the 19 songs in three levels of difficulty. The multiplayer mode lets players cooperate or compete.

The easy level is accessible to anyone, but the harder levels are devilishly challenging. This game is best for kids 10 and older, because the humor will be lost on younger kids. Also, some of the story lines are inappropriate for younger kids because they feature scantily glad women with jiggling breasts, and the loss of a parent. For DS owners, this unique title brings the funk -- rock out and save the world!