"Not now, Mochi! I'm trying to beat this disappointing game!"

Contact is Sudo51's latest foray into the world of gaming. Leading up to its release was a lot of hype; some even went so far to hail it as the spiritual successor of Earthbound due to the promised quirkiness and humor. Alas, that is not the game the was released. While Contact does have an intriguing concept and quirky dialog, the game feels like it was rushed out to meet a deadline; what we're left with instead is a shell of a game that could have been so much more. That's not to say, however, that Contact is a bad game. While it does fail to live up to expectations, the game has its strong points to go with it.

Graphics: 6/10

Golden Sun meets Earthbound; that's the best way to describe the graphics. Basically, there's two sets of graphical presentation: first is the Professor, his space dog (that wants to be a space cat) Mochi, and the professor's ship, which are made up of classic 16-bit sprites. This is meant to separate the professor's world from Terry's world, and it works well. These 16-bit graphics are not the problem. No, the graphical shortcomings come with Terry's realistic world. They're not bad, but they don't really use the power of the DS to the fullest. Indeed, they resemble the graphics of the GBA's Golden Sun. Golden Sun's graphics may have been beautiful, but I'd expect something more from a more powerful DS system.

Sound: 8/10

Sound in Contact is hit or miss. Some tracks are quite catchy, while others… well, let's just say that the new Paris Hilton album would probably excite you more. Still, each piece fits the mood nicely; for example, the upbeat, peppy music in the more advanced island is spot on (and one of the best tunes to boot!). There are only two real knocks against the score. First, almost every piece sounds…metallic. I have a sneaking suspicion that all the sounds are meant to cross realistic sound with MIDI sound, but that metallic sound can grate on one after a while. Second, the music always chances to the same battle music when you enter battle. This really is only a problem because, once battle mode is exited, the normal music starts over from the very beginning. Considering that you'll spend a good amount of time in battle-mode during your trek through most dungeons, you'll find yourself listening to the intro to the same song over and over and over…

Story: 8/10

Here‘s a novel idea, you are you; the person holding the DS. You've been contacted by the Professor because he needs your help. Why? Because he needs your help (duh)! Anyhow, after a while, the Professor kidnaps Terry, (whom you'll control.. But without him knowing! Big Brother at its finest). I won't tell you anything more, but I will say that the story and concept of the game tie it quite well, almost to the point where you can forgive the faults of the game (almost…). The reason why this doesn't get a 10? Well, that's because the story slows to a crawl quite quickly, and doesn't pick back up until the game is near its conclusion.

Gameplay/Control: 6/10(gameplay)- 9/10(control)

This is where the game starts to feel shallow. Basically, you can control Terry with either the control pad or the Stylus. Fun stuff, this ordering about characters that aren't really you! Same thing for interaction with the world; either use the corresponding button or the stylus to make Terry do stuff. There are, however, a few spots where you'll have to use the stylus to interact with the world. This is used most often in special circumstances, the sole exception being the decal system. These are comparable to summon spells in the Final Fantasy series, although that doesn't do justice to the decal system. The idea is that you (as in your in-game persona…even though you're supposed to be you… yeah, you get the idea) peel the sticker (by the way, it's not a real sticker, it's an in-game one) from your selection, rub it onto the screen with the stylus, and watch the magic happen! Okay, the magic is about as exciting as watching a Martha Steward Marathon, but at least they're moderately useful. These decals that I speak of also come in the equip-able variety, which raise your base stats by some amount. The rub comes with the fact that you can only equip four at a time, and, while you can hold an unlimited amount of unopened stickers, once you open it, it's use it or lose it, baby! Not that this is an issue most the time, as you probably won't find all too many to begin with, and you usually won't be forced to make a difficult decal choice.

Which brings us to the stats… holy crap, there's a lot of stats! There's his basic attribute stats (strength, dexterity, stamina, etc), his defense stats, his weapon stats, his magic stats… and they all level to 100! Not that you'll actually get to 100, unless you're a level grinding maniac, that is. This is primarily because a) it takes a freaking long time to level to 100, b) you don't even need half those stats to complete the game, and c) the battle system can be god-awful boring. Which, conveniently enough, leads right into my next point;

THE BATTLE SYSTEM IS GOD-AWFUL BORING!
There, I said it. I'll probably be shot for that, but I don't care. Thankfully, this will be the easiest battle system to explain ever. When Terry is walking around, press the B button. Congratulations, you've entered battle mode! Then… watch as Terry kills anything that's near him! Yes, this includes NPC's (don't feel too bad, they all come back). In essence, by pressing B, you put Terry on battle auto-pilot. Of course, you're not totally out of control. The player still needs to input the command to use Terry's special skills (which vary from completely useless to godlike in power), and, of course, to use those aforementioned decals. To be fair, this type of battle system makes perfect sense in the context of the game, so I can't fault the gameplay too much over it. If you want something to compare the battle system to, then I offer you Runescape. If you liked Runescape's battle system, you'll love this. If you loathe Runescape's battle system… stay far, far away from this one. If you've never played Runescape, just read my previous paragraph again ‘til it makes sense.

Of course, you're now asking yourself, “Skills? What skills? I didn't read nothing about no skills!” Well, that's because I haven't talked about them yet, silly. Anyhow, there are two ways to gain skills. The first way is to level up a weapon type's stat; at certain levels, you'll learn new skills for that type of weapon. The second way is to make use of the various costumes throughout the game. You see, Terry happens to be a fashion bug of sorts, and, thankfully for Terry, there are a lot of people that want to take their clothes off (no, I'm not kidding). These clothes, aside from making Terry look a lot different, each have special attributes and abilities tied to them. For example, to cook, Terry must be in his cook's outfit. This outfit system is very cool for a while, until you realize the frustration of having to go back to the ship to change your outfit if you find you need to do a specific task (say, pick a lock). As they say, you have to take the good with the bad.

Speaking of bad things, I should the mention that insane amount of backtracking you may have to do. To be honest, if you pay attention to what's going on and stumble upon a few “secret” parts, you won't have to backtrack all too much, if at all. Naturally, that's not likely to happen, so you better get used to having to travel back and forth between islands. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if you could just select the island you want to go to and then, poof, you're there. Nope, not bad at all. What makes this semi-annoying is that you have to sleep in the bed to travel between islands, during which you'll be able to play with Mochi and listen to the professor's comments while you sleep. Of course, you could instantly wake up by pressing B or touching the alarm clock in the corner, and the Mochi mini-game is an easy way to power up a certain decal, but sometimes, you just want the story to go on.

Of course, if you're a real man, you'll do all the side quests that the game has to offer. Yes, this game does have a lot of side quests for you to partake in. Of course, they're almost all exclusively fetch quests (ie, get the item for the poor fool, and, in return, get a better item). Thankfully, they are all almost worth the headache to complete them, as they do tend to reward you with nice weapons and/or tons of cash. If you're a hardcore, Hulk Hogan type, however, you'll also collect all the items in the game, cook all the possible dishes, level up to 100, and do the optional battles that appear after you finish the game. Do you has what it takes? Do you? Cause I sure didn't.

For the sake of mentioning everything, I have to note that there is a multiplayer option of sorts. Using
Wi-Fi, you can connect with other owners of the game to have your friend's player information transferred to your game and stored on a place called Wi-Fi island. I can't comment too much on it, as I haven't tried to use it, but I'm just telling you that it's there.

Personal Experience (aka my biased thoughts on the game): 6/10

Finally! No more having to be “objective” and “unbiased” (oh, by the way, if you don't want any of that stuff, skip this section; it doesn't factor much into my final grade, anyway), just me ranting about the game. To be honest, I was disappointed. The only reason I got this game was because Sudo51 worked on it, and, after loving the story and presentation found in Killer7 (Sudo51‘s previous game), I thought that he would throw another gem my way. The story telling ability is still there, but man-O-man did the presentation fall off the face of the planet. Sure, the dialog's good, but it's not spectacular (it is better than most games, to be fair). The game isn't all that fun to play, and the story doesn't really drive you forward to play the game, save for the very beginning and the very end. It seems as if the middle of the game is filler to make the game longer. The saddest part, though, is that such a great concept was ruined by this shell of a game. The premise of breaking the fourth wall in video games is such a innovative idea, but the execution just doesn't make for great fun. The bland battle system, the rushed story, the lack-luster graphics… heck, even the interaction between the Professor and Terry's contrasting worlds seems to be a tacked on gimmick.

Final word: 6.5/10 (rounded up to 7 for Gamefaqs)

I'm going to be honest, Contact is a game that appeals to a certain niche of gamers. Specifically, those that love a whole lot of stats, side quests, and collectible items in their game. Also, despite how much I ripped the game apart, the story is rather good, and there are much worse games out there in the world. If you happen to be the type of gamer that likes grinding, side quests, etc… then I recommend you buy this game. Otherwise, rent it, beat it, and let your local video store file the game into obscurity for you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/08/06