"Far-Out Contact: ...not so great game..."

Outlandish: strikingly unconventional. That certainly describes Contact. In the same vein as Earthbound, Contact is an oddball of a game, where you fight ferocious vacuums, angry refrigerators and of course, anime nerds gone mad. Needless to say, that all sounds very interesting. Unfortunately, Contact might be quirky, but only in presentation.

The first few hours of the game are the definite best. I didn't get the storyline too well since it was so off the wall, but the main idea is that the Professor and his cat/dog Mochi make contact with YOU and need your help to recover gems to power-up their spaceship. They land on Earth and take Terry with them (more like a kidnapping if you ask me), the most normal boy you could find. According to the game, you're not playing as Terry. You're playing as yourself, and need to help Terry (through the DS, hence the "Contact" title) recover the gems on another weird planet that reminds of Earth, except even more bizarre. You'll be giving Terry directions and orders, but honestly, it plays like any other game on DS so it really still feels like you're playing as Terry. As the game goes, you'll almost forget you're playing as yourself as the "contact" dimension fades out. There isn't a lot of contact to do in the game.

The truth is that Contact is simply a normal hack 'n slash dungeon crawler. Sure you can touch fruits in trees to make them fall so that Terry can pick them up, but that's really the only contact you'll make. The game mostly consists of guiding Terry through bland dungeons, battling enemies, and then again not even really battling. Terry fights the enemies by himself, so you don't need to do much. Simply press the attack button and watch Terry do all the fighting, give all the hits while you just sit there and feel helpless. It's sort of fun when you're feeling lazy, but it's unexciting (not that Hack 'n Slash is exciting anyway). The dungeons crawl with monsters and treasures chests, and their design is pretty good (not always linear paths), but since you're not even doing the fighting yourself, it feels like you're not doing anything in there. Add to this that the monsters often outnumber you and take you out in corners with no way to escape them or even hit them, because Terry takes a break between each of his hits. You'll see how frustrating that is.

Moving aside from the boring dungeons, Contact doesn't offer much. Before each dungeon, you'll cross the seas to reach different islands where the dungeons are located. The islands are often very small, with few NPCs and sidequests. A few shops here and there, but the items are so expensive and the monsters very rarely drop money so you'll probably never really buy anything if you don't spend 100 hours on the game. And you most likely won't because Contact is a very short game, about 10 hours at best. There are a lot of items and stuff to collect afterwards, but it's uninteresting.

The leveling-up system is also pretty unusual, since Terry increases his stats by giving hits and receiving hits. The more he gets hit, the more his defense goes up. There are plenty of stats to increase, so much it becomes confusing, but it works well for the most part. The stats can also decrease, which adds a bit of attention to the whole thing since you need to be careful about it, but it rarely happens so it's not really a problem that could get frustrating (as I thought it would before I got the game). Another interesting idea is the costumes. Terry can find and wear different funny costumes, which give him different stats boosts (or losses). The costumes have different utilities, like allowing you to cook, fish and pick locks, but it's a little extra that's quickly forgotten. The cooking system, for example, which has you make your own HP replenishing dishes with ingredients dropped from enemies, is one good idea, but I never felt like taking the time to use this function because the rest of the game got so unappealing and tedious after a while.

Graphically, Contact is a stylish looking game. The top screen is made to look ugly on purpose, with NES graphics since that's the Prof's lab. It contrasts with the bottom screen, where you'll follow Terry's quest in a (sometimes) very gorgeous world. Some of the outside sceneries are very beautiful with lush vegetation full of little details in a style reminiscent of Shining Soul on GBA, but as soon as you step into the dungeons, it couldn't be more generic looking. And since you'll spend more time in the dungeons than on the islands, Contact doesn't come up as looking much better than a (good looking) GBA game. It fits with the style however, and so does the music, always very catchy and sometimes strange in a good way. As a whole, the game's presentation is very neat.

The issue with Contact is that once you get over the peculiar presentation, the game really is just an ordinary game. There is barely any "contact" whatsoever and there are countless of better hack 'n slash out there. The storyline is funny, the game tries to be original and some elements are pretty fun, but there isn't enough to keep you hooked. I stopped at the final boss and didn't bother beating him, as it would have required too much "leveling-up", and I certainly didn't feel compelled to spend hours watching Terry fight enemies in a bleak dungeon. If you can run through the game for the time of a rental, then do so, but a full price purchase of Contact doesn't feel satisfying.

6.5/10

Breakdown

Presentation 8/10
Gameplay/Controls 5/10
Graphics 7/10
Music 8/10
Replay Value 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/07, Updated 07/10/07