Prerelease:Elite Beat Agents

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Elite Beat Agents.

To do: Will probably need to be better organized at some point. There is also an early version of Highway Star from around E3 time floating around and minor Ouendan carryovers (flames appearing behind the Agents during a combo, for example) that will need to be looked into

Initial Plans

With the success of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! in Japan, the game's creator, Keiichi Yano, along with the game's staff, were interested in seeing how much potential the series had for an overseas launch. Due to difficulties in translating the various amounts of Japanese culture in the original game, it was decided that a more "American" sequel would be made instead of attempting to localize the game.

The first plans of the game that would later become Elite Beat Agents was a pitch for a group of singers modeled after the band, The Village People. However, although the Village People represented some of the themes that Keichii Yano wanted the game to have, he felt that no one would actually want to play as the band, leading to this idea quickly being scrapped.

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  The original Village People inspired cast, and a mockup of how the game would look.

The creation of the Agents

Keiichi Yano's next idea for the game was formed from a combination of movie references. He decided to combine Ghostbusters (guys to call for help), Men in Black (agents arriving in a car), and the Blues Brothers, the latter being the most important inspiration for the style he wanted the agents to have.

Since he wanted to create a different type of game for the new audience, it was decided that the agents needed to be cool, to offset the hot-bloodedness of the previous game's ouendan theme. Inspiration was taken here from Austin Powers, with (in his own words) the agents now having a "mission from God" (Blues Brothers) and a "mission to groove" (Austin Powers). However, the team felt incomplete, so taking inspiration from Charlie of Charlie's Angels, the leader of the Elite Beat Agents, Commander Kahn, was created, now giving the agents a third and final mission, a "mission from Charlie". The Elite Beat Divas were also created from this same Charlie's Angels inspired idea, along with the call of "Agents are go!" being inspired by Thunderbirds and NASA's launch sequence.

The team of agents were originally called the "Disco Rangers", but, expressing embarrassment over this idea, Keiichi Yano decided to change the name to its current form, "Elite Beat Agents".

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  The original concept for the Elite Beat Agents, still using the name "Disco Rangers".

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  Concept art for Agent J.

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  Concept art for Commander Kahn.

(Source: GDC 2007 coverage)

Scrapped Song

"Livin' la Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin was listed as a song that would be available in the game in pre-release information, namely 1UP.com's initial preview of the game. This would be confirmed by former iNiS programmer Robert Dieterich in an interview with Liam Robertson, as the song was initially planned to be used for the game's second stage. Footage of this version of the stage even made it into the game's E3 trailer. Ultimately, however, the song was scrapped due to licensing issues, and would end up being replaced by Sum 41's "Makes No Difference".

(Source: Liam Robertson)

E3 Press Kit Screenshots

To do: better integrate with E3 trailer section—chronologically, trailer coming before press kit makes more sense, but aesthetically the higher-quality screenshots being first feels more right. I'll make a decision later. also rewrite intro to this section

For E3 2006, Nintendo released a press kit with high-quality screenshots for upcoming games—an early version of Elite Beat Agents among them.

Press Kit	Final

• The Movieland sign was originally the Hollywood sign. This was likely changed due to the Hollywood sign being trademarked.
• 'And' is uncapitalized in the early cutscene—the final fixes this and adds an extra exclamation point for good measure.
• Chris gains a megaphone in the final cutscene, and the speech bubble has been moved to accommodate this.
• Chris's name, age, and occupation do not appear in the early cutscene.
• The bride refers to the groom as 'honey' in the early cutscene—for some reason, this was changed to 'darling' in the final.
• The onomatopoeia CREEEAK and BAM! have different fonts.
• 'UuuuGH!!!' is split across two lines in the early cutscene, but compressed into one for the final.

Press Kit	Final

• Multiple minor adjustments to font size, word bubble size, and capitalization.
• The exclamation point over Chris in the first panel is different.
• 'FIRED!!!' loses an exclamation point in the final cutscene.
• Mr. Fanny's arm goes behind the left panel in the early cutscene; he remains fully in the foreground in the final.

Press Kit	Final

• Chris's expression in the early screenshot is a bit less...extreme.
• The cry for HEEEAAALP! was originally stylized as H-E-L-P!!! and had a different font.
• The background is much closer to the bright-red-and-black backgrounds from Ouendan, with no purple flash behind Chris.

Press Kit	Final

• The Agents use the standard badge-holding pose seen in many stages, but in the final version of Episode 2, the Agents use an unique pose on jetpacks. It is unknown whether this screenshot is showing a different stage or if the jetpack intro was not yet implemented.
• 'At Your Service!!' is displayed prominently on the bottom screen, but is nowhere to be seen in the final game.
• J's badge reads SA2 in the early screenshot—a holdover from the game's early title of Super Sonic Agents—and is thusly changed to BA2 in the final game. The top of the badge also lacks the blue outline and J's photo in the early screenshot.
• The star emblem on the bottom of the badge is far less detailed.
• The score display has a darker, boxier font.
• The 'Yes' on the Elite-o-Meter appears to have a slightly different, rounder font with a much larger Y.

Press Kit	Final

• 'Are You Ready?' seems to be narrowed in the final (note J's finger on the 'r' of 'Are' in the press kit screenshot, but on the 'A' in the final).
• The backgrounds are quite different: the early screenshot shows a flash of white-blue light from the bottom-center of the top screen (while the bottom screen is oddly entirely black), while the final game has a column of blue light spread across the center of both screens.
• The Agents appear to be sliding into position in the press kit screenshot, but are already in position in the final.

Press Kit	Final

• The early DASHHHHHH! font was much thinner and was arranged in a wave pattern. The final font is bigger, bolder, and blocks out most of the cameraman.

E3 Trailer

To do: rewrite to list format like press kit section

The game was officially revealed at E3 2006, with a trailer showcasing the stage "Red Carpet Premiere! Smash Hit or Box Office Crash!!". Not only is the song's chart completely different from the final version (probably because, as previously mentioned, it was a completely different song!), but the trailer also shows a multitude of other miscellaneous changes. Note that any changes shown in the press kit screenshots are also in the trailer.

E3 Trailer	Final

Chris Silverscreen's last name doesn't appear on Commander Kahn's monitor--the monitor also seems to stretch further down into the bottom screen and lacks the green lights along the bottom. Commander Kahn's nameplate also has a different layout, with a (barely visible) star on the left.

E3 Trailer	Final

There is an odd frame of Commander Kahn swiveling in his chair before yelling "GO!" in the E3 trailer. The "Agents are..." scene is not present in the trailer, so it's possible this was intended to be the transition from the opening cutscene to the stage proper.

E3 Trailer	Final

Khan's introduction was redrawn and some details cannot be seen because of the cut in the screens.

E3 Trailer	Final

The animation that plays before each section of the song is still very similar to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan at this point, with the Agents jumping in and the main character striking a pose and zooming in. This was later changed to the main character performing the wave, with the Agents making no appearance. The text displayed also changed, both its font/color and its content (from 'Boooooom!!' to 'Wooooooh!!'). The star background also appears to be centered on the top screen, while the final game has it spread across both screens.

E3 Trailer	Final

The message that appears after getting all 300s in a series of Hit Markers originally said "Super sonic!!" before being later changed to "Elite Beat!!"

E3 Trailer	Final

a short gameplay short seen at E3 2006, unlike the trailer here there are sound effects, but the music is muted.

(Source: IGN)