How many times can you play yourself in a game? And no, I'm not talking about creating yourself and putting them into a game, but rather you, that you reading this review right now, who would be holding the game, is actually a character in the story in a very Neverending Story way. Contact has been made.

THE STORY SO FAR
When you first start up the game, you'll get a screen with a white haired professor walking about a lab with his pet cat following at his heels. You'll sit there for a good minute or so, thinking it is a cutscene, but actually, the game is just waiting for you. Take that stylus in your hand and poke the friendly professor. Congrats, you are now a character in the game.

You see, within the game, you play this mysterious force who has somehow connected to this other place, and you can interact with its residents, by doing things like guiding characters to destinations or by touching things that should be interacted with. The game even goes so far as to talk to you about connecting to this world through a device called the "DS."

After you make contact with the professor, you'll stumble across Terry (name can be changed if you want) who finds himself thrust into an intergalactic conflict, as the professor finds himself on the run from mysterious forces, who shoot him down on a planet made of various islands. After waking up on the beach, you'll control Terry as he sets about to find the cells the professor needs. But you'll also know what is going back on at the professor's lab, as he is always at the top of the screen, except when you are asleep and you can play with his cat.

Once the game gets the initial plotting out of the way, there isn't much of a cohesive storyline, such as found in a game like Final Fantasy for example; there is no constant narrative. The locations aren't even that large for that matter, and are quite sparse when it comes to NPCs you can interact with or get quests from. There is a central story to be had and played out, but it just doesn't feel epic enough for a RPG.

GAMEPLAY
Unlike many games, since you aren't "really" controlling Terry but rather playing as yourself, being a guiding force in this young boy's life, instead you'll guide Terry to place through suggestion (of course really you are moving him, but give the game some credit for trying to be clever).

It is possible to control Terry through either the stylus or directional pad, though each system presents its own difficulties. The stylus is perhaps the preferred way the makers would want you to play the game, as you point to places on the screen and hold to make Terry walk in that direction, and you'll tap on Terry to bring up his inventory screen, use items, equip weapons, and select on objects in the environment to use, or clicking on an enemy to make Terry attack them. You can also access Terry's special moves by clicking on the enemy again and selecting a choice.

For directional pad control, the directional pad moves Terry around, while the A-button interacts with objects, the B-button takes you in and out of battle mode, Y-button brings up your special attacks, and the X-button brings up your inventory selection screen.

Both systems present problems, such as Terry not responding as well as you'd like when moving him with the stylus, or accidentally selecting something cause Terry or an enemy ran underneath the point of your stylus, while there are things like the decals, which you have to use the stylus for, meaning that if you are doing directional pad, you'll have to pull out the stylus for these moments.

Since you only influence Terry, he acts as his own character, meaning that he will fight by himself (run him up to an enemy and watch him smack away), plus he'll level up by himself, taking away the micromanagement of skills many RPGs get bogged down with on occasion. It kind of sucks that you can't easily see how much grinding you'll have to do to level up and gain some much needed hit points, but you get used to the system. You can, however, upgrade Terry yourself by equipping him with specialized decals, that can auto raise certain attributes.

The other big thing is the game's job class system, which comes from placing different clothes on Terry. Clothes not only change Terry's look, but affects how much HP he has, what special moves he has, and attribute points, like the Fly Boy costume allowing him to use air based attacks while the Aquashot focuses on water based attacks. It is a neat system, though swapping from a low HP outfit to a high one can be frustrating when your character doesn't auto go up, and you are forced to take a bath to regain those lost HP from the change (yes, you heal by taking a bath, plus you save by sleeping in a bed). Also, it can be tiring when all you want to do is try to grill some food so you have some healing items, but you must first change over to the cooking outfit to even start.

Another interesting gameplay decision is the items at Terry's disposal. The game features your usual selection of weapons, but there is no armor except for your clothing changes if you want to consider them armor. The real change is in the items, as most of them are food based. Now, eating some meat to gain 50 HP is usually no big deal, but in the game Terry has a digestion meter that goes up as he eats, and goes town as time passes. Small things like grapes don't take too long to digest, but giant slabs of BBQ do. So what is the problem? Once you get full, you can't eat anything else to heal you, which can be a really bad thing if you are fighting a boss, they are inches from death, but you can't heal up enough to help you survive the battle. I also found the game to be rather difficult and frustrating, with this being one of the major reasons.

GRAPHICS
I love the old school 2D of the professor's lab, as it looks as if it was ripped straight out of Earthbound, and though the environments are pretty nice on the bottom screen most of the time, the character and enemy models were completely underwhelming, as there is really no way to discern facial features (even thinking once I was looking at a guy when it was a woman), plus the enemies are rather droll too.

SOUND
The music samples are pretty nice, but without an orchestra backing them they lack that punch, plus there are no instantly memorable ditties that will be stuck in your head for days, like a great Final Fantasy song or even the catchy little number of a Mario Bros. The sound effects, such as Terry eating or slashing at enemies, repeat too often, no matter what type of enemy you are fighting.

IN CONCLUSION
Contact isn't a game that everyone will enjoy, and I'm not talking just the non-genre fans, as even RPG die-hards will struggle making up their mind about the game and if they are having fun with it or not. As it stands, Contact is a quirky little RPG that is sure to find an audience somewhere, though it won't be anything like a system seller, but could develop a cult if the right people find it. Love it or hate with really no in between, Contact is definitely unique, for better or worse.

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