Dev behind Nintendo’s Elite Beat Agents toyed around with for new 3DS entry

Nintendo’s Elite Beat Agents series never left the DS, but fans might be interested to hear that the game’s developers tinkered around for a prototype on 3DS.

Elite Beat Agents is a bit of a niche franchise and hasn’t been seen for quite some time, so some Nintendo fans may not have heard about the IP previously. Essentially, it was a western version of iNiS’ rhythm game Osu Tatakae Ouendan.

Atsushi Saito, who led the original planning, character design, and animation direction for Ouendan, had this to say about the Nintendo 3DS prototype for Elite Beat Agents in an interview with Retro Gamer a little while back:  “I thought it was a good game, with the cheer squad popping out in 3D and a new rhythm gameplay system, but various things happened and it never made it to release.”

DidYouKnowGaming previously shared this nugget of information hidden in a video about the series’ history, but it went under the radar at the time. We also now have direct confirmation from one of the developers that the prototype did indeed happen, even if it didn’t go anywhere.

There hasn’t been a peep about Elite Beat Agents since the Nintendo DS era and that may not change anytime soon. While the series was well-received by critics and fans, it wasn’t a success in terms of sales. iNiS has also rebranded and its various developers have moved on to other companies.

Main programmer Norihide Okada also spoke about Elite Beat Agents with the magazine and commented on its personal impact. “It was the first game I worked on in my life, so it had a deep effect on me,” he said. “I remember going to the store to see the packages on the day of its release, it’s the happiest moment in game development.” 

Did you get a chance to play Elite Beat Agents back in the day? Let us know in the comments.