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Contact: Reviews

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Game Score: 7/10

From the creators of the brilliant game Killer 7 comes and RPG that sets out to be different from the norm RPG's of late. This game is called Contact. The reason why it is called Contact is because you are making "contact" through your DS touch screen. What i mean by this is that you interact with the characters in the game, you are actually yourself in the game. The main character is Terry, and while you have full control over him, its because he listens to what you have to say. The basic story is that you must collect energy crystals before they fall into the wrong hands. Also, there is the Professor who lives in an 8-bit looking world that looks somewhat similar to Earthbound. Having said that, besides the look of the Professor and Mochi and the one room that they are in, and a little bit of the humor in the game, it has nothing to do with Earthbound, so don't let people tell you otherwise, because too many people seem to compare this game to Earthbound. So now that you understand the basic premise of this unique game, lets talk about the different aspects of it. (Also, i actually played the (U) version of this game and beat it, but I'm geussing the (E) version is pretty much the same thing with maybe a few minor changes and/or language differences.)

First, the graphics. The graphics for this game are quite great. They're somewhat different than a lot of the stuff that you see on the DS normally. The bottom screen is where pretty much all of the action takes place, and the graphics on the bottom screen are pre-rendered backgrounds with some decent looking characters with decent looking animation. The backgrounds are generally all nice looking except for a few, but they can sometimes get repetitive. Terry is always on the bottom screen, as well as all the enemies. So most of the important stuff happens on the bottom screen, you may be asking yourself "What is the top screen used for? anything at all? Well yes actually, the top screen is always active because the Professor and his space dog (whom wants to be a cat heh) Mochi are always on the top screen either giving you hints, progressing the story or just talking about random stuff. The top screen like i previously mentioned looks 8-bit and very Earthbound like. I personally really like this look, although its obviously not a technical achievement by any means, and some people may not like it. Overall the graphics are very good looking, and i give them an 8/10.

Now I will talk about the sound. The sound in this game was generally good, however not as good as i had hoped it would be. The music was sometimes catchy and atmospheric, however more often than not it was just catchy, and of course there are a few tunes that we could have done without. The bleeps and bloops that come from the professors room are nice and match very well in the context of that room and its graphical style. The sound of your weapons and magic is all very adequate, but nothing really stands out. There is no voice acting to speak of. So all in all i would say that the sound of this game is quite average, although i was hoping it would be better. I give the sound of this game an 6.5/10.

Gameplay. The most important part. Okay, so for the gameplay, the game wants you to believe that it is totally different than anything you have ever played before, and that there are no more random battles or anything like that. The random battles part is definitely true, however the fighting system really isn't that much different than other games, and its probably not as good as a lot of games. Basically what you do to fight is pick your target and choose what attack and just watch them battle it out. Its kind of MMORPG-ish, or Final Fantasy 12 esque, however its not as involving as an MMO, nor FF12, and with FF12 you control 3 people at a time, whereas you only control Terry in this. The battle system is kind of fun at first, and never gets ridiculously stale, but its not exactly innovative or amazing. There are also other aspects of battle, like the stamps that you collect, and use the touch screen to stamp them on the screen, but these are not used too often and don't add much to the game. Besides fighting you can fish, cook and a few other things. There are different suits that you obtain that give you different attributes such as higher magic or strength or health and whatnot. They also give you different abilities and magic spells. There is no real leveling in this game, your skills just go up as you use the different types of skills and weapons and such. An example is that if you use lots of swords your sword skill will go up and you'll do more damage with swords. The gameplay is quite good, and quite a bit different than most RPG's on the market, however it could have definitely been better, and honestly isn't as different as the game designers would have you believe. I give the gameplay an 7/10.

I will have a small story section because it is an RPG, so story is important. The story for the most part isn't too great or different, however the game has some great humor and the storytelling is quite good. I won't go into detail about the story, but i said the basic premise in my opening paragraph. I will however say that the ending is quite odd. I give the story a 7/10.

So all in all i say that Contact is a good game, and one of the best DS RPG's on the market right now.