Elite Beat Agents, the endearingly goofy Nintendo DS rhythm game, has a surprisingly poignant Christmas level. Brought to life by a cover version of Chicago’s You’re the Inspiration, the level A Christmas Gift steers the Nintendo-published over-the-top dance adventure into tearjerker territory as it approaches the finale. It’s one of the few video games that feels like it’s attempting to capture the holiday spirit, not just the aesthetic.
If you missed the game when it launched back in 2006, the Elite Beat Agents were essentially Smiling Friends a decade-and-a-half before Smiling Friends. These goofy guys in suits were agents of a government organization that executed missions designed to help down-on-their-luck people accomplish a mundane goal, like helping a young woman get the kids she’s babysitting to behave long enough for her to have a romantic moment with her football player boyfriend. Unlike the Smiling Friends, the Elite Beat Agents accomplished this through the power of dance.
It isn’t really clear how the Elite Beat Agents’ dancing actually helps the characters involved in each mission. Moral support, I guess?
The Elite Beat Agents Are Here To Help
Most of the levels in the game skew silly, like one where the EBAs aid Leonardo da Vinci in convincing Mona Lisa to let him paint her and, if all goes well, marry her. Failing at one of this level’s stages causes Leo’s early flying machine to crash into the Tower of Pisa, rendering it the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the process.
But with A Christmas Gift, the game gets a little bit heartbreaking and a lot bit heartwarming. As the level begins, we meet a family of three, which title cards introduce as Matthew Stevens, 36, Laura Stevens, 35, and their daughter, Lucy Stevens, 7. Amid gently falling snow, Matthew is leaving on a business trip, but promises to be back in time for Christmas. When he returns, he vows that he will fulfill Lucy’s request for a “girlfriend for Teddy”, her stuffed bear.
Six months pass, the snow is gone, and Lucy still insists that her father is coming home. But her mother reminds her, “Daddy got in an accident. And he’s not coming back.” Lucy screams that “Daddy’s coming home! He promised!” but Laura shakes her and tells her to “forget about Daddy!” The Elite Beat Agents’ boss sees Lucy’s pleading, and sends the agents in to help.
The Agents dance to help Lucy and Laura through three phases. In the first, they’re cleaning Matthew’s room (which looks like an office or study) so that it will be ready for him when he gets back. In the process, they discover a picture of the two of them tucked away in his diary and feel encouraged that he is always watching over them.
All the outcomes I’m outlining here depend on you nailing the touch-based dance moves. If you fail, the story doesn’t get a happy ending.
Dancing For A Christmas Miracle
In the next scene, it’s Matthew’s birthday, so the pair bake him a cake, decorate it, and leave it out for him. The wind blows in through an open window, and extinguishes the candles, letting them know that Matthew is still there, at least in spirit. The third scene is the simplest, and has Lucy running after a figure who looks like her father as he walks away. Crying, she calls out to him, and he begins to turn around. She wakes up in her bed, and we see that it was a dream. Happy, she says, it’s almost Christmas.
In the final scene, Lucy and Laura decorate a Christmas tree as snow falls. But, then someone approaches. They turn to look… it’s Matthew! He has a gift wrapped teddy bear in his hand and a strange unearthly aura. As they embrace, it seems that their rituals have summoned Matthew’s spirit. But at the conclusion, we see that the teddy bear was actually real, and now rests next to Teddy in front of the brightly lit Christmas tree. It’s a Christmas miracle!
Most of the games that I think of as holiday classics largely earn that status by being set in December. Bully and Spider-Man: Miles Morales have great Christmas vibes, but they aren’t really exploring the idea of Christmas. Christmas movies usually do. The Polar Express is about holding onto the spirit of the season as you leave childhood behind. It’s A Wonderful Life is about the impact that one caring person can have on their community. Recently inducted Christmas classic The Holdovers is about the importance of found family.
I’m simplifying a bit, but the purpose of a Christmas movie is not just to represent the cozy aesthetics of the holiday, but to engage with what the holiday means, for good or bad, to people who celebrate it (or the outliers who refuse to). A Christmas Gift does precisely that, highlighting the way that the season can bring back memories of the people who we love, but with whom we can no longer share the holiday. If you’ve ever lost anyone important to you, it’s easy to see why, 18 years later, this goofy game’s Christmas level still resonates.
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Do You Have A Go-To Christmas Game?
Many people have go-to Christmas albums, others have go-to Christmas movies, but do you have a go-to Christmas game? Do you maybe sign into an MMO you play off and on to join in the Christmas events? Do you have a childhood game you play every Christmas?