Elite Beat Agents - Completed Breezin' difficulty

Why didn't anyone tell me this game was so freaking charming?

I mean, wow, I must have smiled for at least half of the scenarios and two of them were downright touching.

I had heard that this was supposed to be a great rhythm game - and it is. The beats that you have to hit line up perfectly to the rhythm of the songs and feel like a part of it. You have to be quick, accurate, and with the rhythm.

So the whole rhythm part is good, but I never could have imagined how much I would enjoy the stories that accompany the songs. They are often relatively trivial things - a director is being pressured to make a hit movie, a dog is trying to travel home to get to its family, a washed-up baseball player is trying to save kids from a fire-breathing golem (okay, maybe that isn't so trivial). It is the way these stories are told in comic book-like panels with minimal, but appropriate animation and with little touches that just make you smile. Not since Parappa the Rapper has a rhythm game attempted such an endearing story. And this one may be better than Parappa's.

Heck, the game is so charming, it almost makes me forgive the inclusion of Avril Lavigne and Ashlee Simpson songs.