Hands on with DS' Contact

We've already expressed our interest in Contact, a quirky Japanese RPG that sees you taking the role of Terry, who's trying to fix a spaceship that's crashed on Earth, spreading its mysterious power elements all over the place, and maybe even into the wrong hands.

So we were mightily pleased to get our own hands on the game at E3 to attempt to find out exactly what treats lay ahead. And, as expected, it was all rather different to the usual stranded alien story...

For example, when you start out, the Professor (whose spaceship you're trying to fix) asks various questions so he can feed the information into his computer. From details such as 'name' to more personal issues such as 'favourite food', it's all part of building up Contact's game-within-a-game atmosphere.

And this is key, because the Professor (and his trusty space mutt, Mochi) hang out in your DS' top-screen in their lab, providing advice as you try to put his craft back together and get him off the planet on the bottom screen.

We're also guessing that as game progresses the Prof will use the data he's collected in interesting ways. He definitely has hidden depths (not least a bit of a grumpy streak).

There are various areas where your missions will take place, from the opening desert island to a castle and a military fortress. As you'd expect from such locations, combat plays a big part in the game.

It's pretty straightforward. You pre-select your attack moves from a detailed menu, then whenever Terry comes into contact with an enemy, he'll do his stuff automatically. You always have control over his movements, so if you want you can run away or even avoid battles in the first place by dodging around the enemies who – in the E3 demo at least – follow set routes and don't aggressively chase you.

This being a role-playing game though, you'll want to build up your experience points. And believe us, Contact has an enormous number of stats for you to fiddle with.

Another aspect to the game is item collection, with hundreds of objects available, including job-related clothes such as a pilot's uniform or a fisherman's get-up, each of which provides Terry with different abilities required to fulfil his duties.

Then there are the stickers, which act like a power-up system. You can slap them on yourself to buff up, or whack them onto enemies for added firepower. Sadly, however, we didn't get the part of the game where you can use a sticker to summon Mochi to help out.

What did impress us though was the bouncy animation of Terry as he wanders around. The graphics are great, and the personality of the Professor is sure to throw up some surprises. So although we can't pretend to understand a lot more about Contact than we did before playing it, our appetite has been whetted even further.

Contact still lacks a firm UK release date, but we're advised to expect an autumn delivery.