Song selection highlights American Elite Beat Agents

As a lover of both video games and music, I get a certain thrill when they come together just right. Nintendo's Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo DS, the English-speaking world's remake of the smash Japanese hit Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, gets the formula just right with an inspired track list of 19 songs covering everything from Earth, Wind & Fire to Good Charlotte.

What seemed at first to be the result of some corporate executive's compromise of his own iTunes library with what he thought his children listen to turned out to be a brilliant strategic move to populate a rhythm game with at least one song that could appeal to anybody.

Ouendan's 15 songs are entirely J-Rock, and even though they range in mood from power ballads to in-your-face power chord love fests, I got the feeling there needed to be more diversity in the game's hour of music. After all, music drives these games; their tap-in-rhythm gameplay doesn't make sense with the volume down.

Thankfully, the choice of songs in our localization is just as wacky and addictive as the gameplay, which itself feels fresh on the DS. Now if only I could get "Sk8er Boi" out of my head...