Publisher: Atlus System: Nintendo DS $29.99ESRB: E10

Thanks to last week’s guest columnist, Conor Napier. I’d like to announce the winner of the VGC’s Spring 2007 award for Quirkiest concept in an RPG since Earthbound for the SNES, and the winner is (envelope please): Atlus Studios “Contact” for the Nintendo DS! Seriously, what the hell is up with this game?

Here’s the premise: The Professor is Floorying around in his spaceship with his space dog who wants to be a space cat, Mochi, doing whatever it is Processors do. Suddenly he is somehow able to make contact with some guy using some kind of a device called a DS (guess who that is). The Professor’s ship is attacked and he makes a crash landing on a strange planet and picks up a kid named Terry. Now the problem is that during the attack the Professor lost the energy cells for his spaceship and is stuck until he collects them again. So the Professor hides his ship in an abandoned pirate galleon while Terry is off to explore various islands and find the missing energy cells.

Now here is where the quirky concept comes in. The Professor knows that you (the player) are there and leaves it up to you to guide Terry, however he doesn’t want Terry to know that you are there. This is the ‘contact’ that the game gets its name from. This leads to events such as having to distract Terry with the stylus while the Professor gives you advice and also brings into question how in control anyone is in this game. The gameplay is both hands on and hands off at the same time. You guide Terry around the map with either the stylus or the control pad, you also decide when Terry will fight, however when you go into battle mode you just sit back and watch the fight unfold, all you can do is tell Terry to use special techniques. The stylus is also used to place various stickers you receive. First you have to peel them off, then place them either on the main screen for various effects or on Terry’s stats to give him a boost.

The setup of the DS’s dual screens works very nicely with the game and the idea that you are in contact with both the Professor and Terry at the same time. The top screen shows the inside of the Professor’s ship using a graphical style that looks like it was ripped from Earthbound with the Professor and Mochi puttering around with the Professor often singing to himself, talking to Mochi, or giving you advice. The bottom touch screen has the main action of the game and uses 3D style graphics and focuses on Terry and the world he’s exploring. So while you may be focused on the bottom screen, different things are happened simultaneously and you’re privy to both.

The game’s box does say that players may find the deeper meaning of life within. However, I find myself trying to find what kinds of drugs the game’s writers were using. He’s a sample of some of the dialogue from an NPC Terry runs into early in the game: “You remind me of me with clothes on”. That snippet came from a naked wannabe chef who was training by himself on a deserted island. Yes on one of the islands I discovered a naked little game sprite wearing a chef’s hat and covering his shortcomings with a frying pan. And what do I get from him? Chef’s clothes. Now this is actually pretty cool, by having Terry wear different outfits you find he gains different abilities and skills. By wearing a chef outfit for instance, he gains the ability to cook food, which can heal damage, and by wearing a blue ninja outfit he gets water-based skills.

Contact is something I’ve been waiting for a long time: an RPG with a modern day setting that plays fast and loose with convention. Not since fighting a ‘Smelly Hippie’ (actual monster) in Earthbound have I seen the like. Contact has been out for a while but forgive me, I just got a DS a couple weeks ago. Contact appeared with little fanfare and seemed to fall off the radar. This game needs more exposure, so do yourself a favor and rent it. Don’t worry, it’s short, like 3-day weekend short. So rent it, play it, bask in its glorious presence.