You'll have this. I've felt spoiled lately, because many of the recent games that I thought were fantastic but with the potential to end up undersold somehow broke through. Katamari, LEGO Star Wars, these are games that you play... and then you want to make sure that others play them. It makes you happy because you feel like things are right in the world; good games rise to the top. Elite Beat Agents is one of these games, but it's not rising.

I think Nintendo let this one slip away, perhaps expecting it to ride the viral wave that took Katamari to critical and commercial success. It should have. Considering the weak stuff that Nintendo has dumped adverdollars on, it's a double shame that this one really great game got nothin'. The one thing they did for it was to put it in their DS Demo Stations, which was what convinced me to get it. Without that, I myself may never have tried it.

I've decided that the box art does nothing for it. It looks like Men in Black: The Animated Series. I suppose there's a slight American Idol vibe, with the microphone and the blue background, but then again it's that time of year and American Idol is unavoidable at the moment.

You would think they could have included a "FEATURING THE MUSIC OF" blurb. I know DS box space is at a premium, but something in the style of a movie soundtrack album would not have hurt at all. Seeing as this is a Touch! Generations title (no, I don't mind typing that), I may have favored the moldy oldie artists. "Featuring the music of Madonna, David Bowie, and the Rolling Stones," say. I'm sure I'm out of touch, but a couple of the newer artists are complete unknowns to me anyway.

Although now they're all on my iPod. I snapped up most of them on iTunes and made my own EBA album. These games have a way of making me enjoy songs I would normally avoid. For example, I have hated Rock This Town forever, because I consider the Stray Cats an abomination. But now, instead of growing annoyed by the 1980s faux do-wop revival garbage, I think of a cute story with a Vegas stage magician foiling a robbery by the Royal Flush Gang.

I also find myself mentally adding the Agents' audio "Whoo!" and "Yes!" as I'm listening to the songs in the car. "You bet, kid!"

So I'm telling you, this is the best DS game to date. And it's one I would rank high on any list of great handheld games. It's fun, challenging, and a perfect portable title. I've beaten every song on every difficulty and, after reading stories of people finding the game so hard that they physically destroyed their DS, I feel pretty good about that. Really dude, Let's Dance is one of the harder ones? Pshaw.

I'm importing Ouendan, the Japan-only proto-EBA, as soon as I can score a coupon for Play-Asia.