"A review of Contact, hitting the ups and downs."

Alright, so here we are. Sitting at home with a Nintendo DS, eagerly waiting to play Atlus' new game, Contact. Such hype has been made, it has to be incredible!

Well, it almost is.

Contact has a very interesting storyline to it, at least at the start. With your run-in with the 8-bit professor, to controlling the main character Terry (who has no idea you exist), and the run-ins with the group CosmoNOTs. It throws many twists at you, and when you get to the very end, it just confuses you even more and leaves you wondering what the real meaning of this game is. (Earthbound fans will find solace in this.)

With many 'costumes' you can don on the main character, you are granted awesome abilities and skills, and as you level up stats such as strength, defense, fame, and elemental attributes (to just name a few), you find yourself getting progressively stronger and tougher, with noticable change.

Along with all this, there is a HUGE weapon listing, ranging between three main types: swords, gloves and blunt weapons. These can also grant you abilities as well later on.

So many innovative features show up in this game, such as the use of 'decals', which you, the user, 'rub' onto the game screen to cause effects. Other uses of decals affect the main character's stats as well. Of course, what about item use? The only real usable items in this game involve food, which you can cook up and find along your way, creating endless possibilities to what you can eat and do.

Now then.

All this sounds good on paper, but when you actually play the game, something just feels off. The presentation of all these ideas shows up well enough, but I find myself getting frustrated at how mundane it becomes.

Leveling stats becomes a chore after a while, as enemies don't give you experience the way you want, and increasing your special 'costume' stats becomes ridiculous. The special skills they grant are hardly used, as well. They're almost pointless if not for a few things you DO use them for.

Subquests abound, but they're mostly post-game material, aka you gotta beat the game first. And that doesn't take long either. The main story is fairly short and confusing as hell in some parts. There are so many loose-ends left, and as I said earlier, the ending leaves you wondering if the main story was really just a side-story for something else.

The weapons and cooking items are numerous, but hardly used effectively, and most just take up space in your inventory. Just a waste of space.

The decals have clever uses, but are a bit pointless as well. There are two that come in handy in the game. One returns you to a save point and rest area, while the other restores your entire health. Sure, the other ones come in handy as well but are unreliable.

Overall, I'm giving this game a 7/10 score. I will admit, I have played many many hours on it, and I enjoy it VERY much, but I can't deny the frustration and annoyance it brings. If you have patience and like the idea of perfecting a character, or spending hours on end grinding stats, then this game will suit you fine. Otherwise, you'll find yourself feeling that you made Contact with something less than great.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/06