One of the GameCube's most original and flat out innovative games, despite its surprisingly poor sales, was the refreshing killer7 – a cel-shaded shooter directing the antics of a psychotic killer suffering from multiple-personality disorder. Now, with that in mind, take heed to the same glorious, if not a little twisted mind of Gouichi Suda – the director behind killer7 and of Grasshopper Manufacture fame (the developers behind this strange new title for the DS) and your interest in Contact suddenly deepens.

Contact is an RPG, and it doesn't take long to notice that the DS is a favourable host to RPG's. This begs the question why Grasshopper veered down this road of such wide competition. It seems they're confident they can make Contact stand out from the crowd and after killer7; it's hard not to believe them. True to this, Contact is, by anyone's means, a little unusual and most definitely interesting.

The story won't set off any alarm bells for spotting anything out of the ordinary at first however, RPG's are known to have wild imaginative stories and Contact's story is pretty text book. A professor known only as the… 'Professor' (the wily old braincase) is flying a space ship making use of an otherworldly crystal item known as the 'element'. Apparently somebody is after him and trying to attack his ship. They get their wish and the old man's space ship crash lands onto an unknown planet, scattering the shards of his power crystal element about that planet. Cue our hero, a chav-ish looking boy (seriously, earring and tracksuit in tact) getting caught up with the professor as he becomes in possession of a mysterious set of seals (magical stickers to you and me) and is forced to help the professor track down his missing crystal shards so he can power up his space ship again and also, intriguingly, prevent the crystals falling into the 'wrong hands'.

The professor and the boy must separate with each other however, and it then becomes your job as the player to provide the 'contact' between the two – see how that works? The professor will communicate with you via the top screen, and you control the boy on the touch screen. The first unusual factor of the game appears in its graphical style, or more suiting, its graphical clash. Atop the DS is the professor's lab which is stylised in an old-skool pixel-art fashion of the 8-bit days and down low on the touch screen is the more up-to-date, lush 16-bit graphical style of the boy's world in all its rendered luxury we are so accustomed to. The idea it seems, is to empower the ideology that these two characters are from very different worlds and also that they are far from within close contact with each other. When they do meet on the same screen however, the professor's presence in the boy's world is nothing short of bizarre – an 8-bit pixel model in a beautiful 16-bit 3D world is an original contrast to say the least.

Questing to find the crystal shards under the professor's supervision sees the boy using those seals to stick onto himself resulting in endowed powers. He can also use the seals to attack enemies and will also have weapon based skills. The professor will teach you new abilities as you progress including combat abilities like the 'power punch' you start out with to new pieces of kit and costumes that include that of a fisherman, a cook, a pilot and even a ninja it seems. There are 7 of these costumes in total… (hmm subtle killer7 reference there Grasshopper!). It's not known at this stage the abilities that the costumes will open up to the boy but you can expect there will be upgradeable abilities to the costumes as the game progresses.

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Progression in the game will see you advance your skills as you'd expect too, only battle is not your standard run-of-the-mill-RPG turn based affair, instead it is more real time. Sketchy details mention being able to toggle between a 'running' and 'combat' stance to incorporate this. In line with this real time essence is the upgrading of your statistics; during combat any points you are entitled to will immediately be updated so levelling-up your character will no longer take more time than needed.

So there are a few quirks we've seen to this game so far, but the most intriguing pull is with the professor character. It seems as the game progresses you and the boy will be swayed to question the motives of the professor, following his guidance and doing as he says soon becoming suss the more you learn. Why was he being attacked? What could these crystal shards mean in the wrong hands? Is the professor the right hands in the first place? Expect many other questions to be raised going by Grasshoppers reputation and going by their intriguing statement saying players of Contact will question if they are merely playing a game or something more altogether, it definitely leaves you curious. These guys are either completely crackers or they're onto something.

The game seems set in this beach like environment which includes a pirate ship though there is a shot of the boy at a music gig so it can be proclaimed the game will take place in numerous surroundings (hopefully with some kick ass music to dance to whilst your at the gig!). Navigation of your inventory and options will take place via the touch screen in a nicely laid out, page turning book manor to make things nice and easy. It is unknown of any microphone inclusions at this stage but I wouldn't rule it out but there is confirmed WiFi compatibility. How an RPG will burst onto the WiFi scene is certainly a brain teaser, nothing is confirmed other than the crisp statement that it will allow us to 'meet your friends'. Is this referring to some Animal Crossing style game play like visiting each others planets? Or maybe it's that of a co-operative mode? We'd offer likelihood to the latter and hope that if so it will be implemented well unlike many other co-op additions to games.

With an autumn release planned, the game is nearing completion and with a few questions unanswered, the secrecy surrounding Contact is reaching paramount in its anticipators. One thing is for sure, we have assured confidence that if anybody can make a refreshing change and an enlightening twist to the bog-standard RPG formula then who better than Grasshopper? Keep an eye on this; this could be quite a treat for RPG fans and newcomers alike.