Elite Beat Agents is one of my favorite games ever. It's probably the best rhythm game ever made, and arguably one of the best games ever made. But, tragically, a sequel was never realized. So in my infinite autism, I began thinking...what if, in some alternate reality, Elite Beat Agents 2 was revealed at the Nintendo Conference 2010, and released as a 3DS launch title in March 2011?
This caused me to dream up a setlist. But I couldn't just fill it with hits. The tracklists in these games are constructed as if they're compilation albums. Some contemporary Top 40s, some classic hits, some deep cuts, and a big finale at the end. How many songs? Well, the original Ouendan games had 19, but now that we're on 3DS, we can fit in a few more. The best Greatest Hits album of all time, Green Day's "God's Favorite Band", has 22 tracks. That's also how many songs are on a typical Now That's What I Call Music release. I think 22 is a good number.
I also have some principles that I wanted to adhere to, to make it authentic. The first EBA released in 2006, and there weren't many rhythm games at the time past the first two Guitar Hero games. But by 2011, the market was flooded with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and their various spinoffs. So on this setlist, I decided that there couldn't be any songs that were used in any of those games (up to March 2011; not counting anything released afterward would be way too hard). Artists used in the first game, like Deep Purple, Queen, and Rolling Stones can't be used. Artists like Green Day, AC/DC, and Michael Jackson are also off-limits, for various reasons.
As for the plot? Well, the original game had agents going up against aliens at the end, which is very fitting for the theme. Ouendan 2's story was a bit more involved, with a rival group coming in and the groups resolving their differences to save the world. What if we combine the two concepts, and have a rival group for the agents...consisting of robots? Perhaps a group of robots are attempting to replace the agents over the course of the game, and the finale is when they start to take over the world.
I'd like suggestions for songs to add. Remember, they also can't have strong swearing or sexually explicit lyrics, and they need to be songs that you can dance to. Here's what I have so far in terms of music:
This caused me to dream up a setlist. But I couldn't just fill it with hits. The tracklists in these games are constructed as if they're compilation albums. Some contemporary Top 40s, some classic hits, some deep cuts, and a big finale at the end. How many songs? Well, the original Ouendan games had 19, but now that we're on 3DS, we can fit in a few more. The best Greatest Hits album of all time, Green Day's "God's Favorite Band", has 22 tracks. That's also how many songs are on a typical Now That's What I Call Music release. I think 22 is a good number.
I also have some principles that I wanted to adhere to, to make it authentic. The first EBA released in 2006, and there weren't many rhythm games at the time past the first two Guitar Hero games. But by 2011, the market was flooded with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and their various spinoffs. So on this setlist, I decided that there couldn't be any songs that were used in any of those games (up to March 2011; not counting anything released afterward would be way too hard). Artists used in the first game, like Deep Purple, Queen, and Rolling Stones can't be used. Artists like Green Day, AC/DC, and Michael Jackson are also off-limits, for various reasons.
As for the plot? Well, the original game had agents going up against aliens at the end, which is very fitting for the theme. Ouendan 2's story was a bit more involved, with a rival group coming in and the groups resolving their differences to save the world. What if we combine the two concepts, and have a rival group for the agents...consisting of robots? Perhaps a group of robots are attempting to replace the agents over the course of the game, and the finale is when they start to take over the world.
I'd like suggestions for songs to add. Remember, they also can't have strong swearing or sexually explicit lyrics, and they need to be songs that you can dance to. Here's what I have so far in terms of music:
- Katy Perry - Hot N Cold
- Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams (Come True)
- ???
- ???
- Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
- Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
- Bowling for Soup - 1985
- Kesha - Die Young
- Huey Lewis & The News - Hip To Be Square
- ???
- ???
- ???
- Ballad: Journey - Open Arms
- The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
- ???
- ???
- ???
- Finale 1: My Chemical Romance - Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back
- Finale 2: Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
- Bonus 1: Ricky Martin - Livin' la Vida Loca
- Bonus 2: Rick Astley - Together Forever
- Bonus 3: "Weird Al" Yankovic - Hardware Store
