All this week, the DS Fanboy staff is letting you in on a few of their favorite titles. Each day, a different member of the staff will present their personal top five DS games along with a snapshot of their gaming paraphernalia and habits, in an effort to provide our readers with a little more information on the tastes and personalities of our writers.
When my afternoons aren't busied by hours of photoshopping cat heads onto pictures of my friends, I pass the time with puzzlers and plumbers on my DS Lite. But those kitten-free days are few and far between, so I end up being able to only fit either the most polished or the most eccentric games into my packed schedule. Wario: Master of Disguise? Sorry, I've got things to do and feline faces to retouch. Lost in Blue 2? I'll have to pass -- I'm already lost in trying to get these whiskers to look perfect.
My collection is a mishmash of AAA titles and niche releases, their cases piled atop one another like a Jenga stack of mismatched blocks, threatening to topple over at any moment. Just pulling a game from the middle of the shaky structure is an act preceded by hours of anxiety and self-doubt. Having my wife provide commentary during the ordeal, remarking "Oh god, it's going to crash this time for sure, I just know it. Why'd you even try, Eric?! Game over, man! Game over!" as I tug out my copy of Advance Wars DS doesn't make the challenge any easier.
So when I do manage to put aside the pussycat photos and secure a game to play, it better damn well be worth it. Journey forth and read which of those titles have captured a place not only on my top five list, but in my heart.
Can you guess what title we're excited about this week? It shouldn't be too hard, since we have made it more than a little obvious that we're 
When you woke up the morning, your first thought was, "Man, I wish I had a whole bunch of Contact videos to watch." Right? That was you? Well, play along anyway. These videos, originally from GameSpot, offer a long and languorous look at gameplay and graphics, and we've embedded them after the jump for your viewing pleasure.
Better late than never, right? Rising Star Games has announced that they will release Grasshopper's RPG Contact in February of 2007 for Europe -- for those of you who haven't ordered it elsewhere by then. Despite 
Grasshopper Manufacture is certainly developing a reputation for unpredictability. Opinions on their last Nintendo foray, Killer 7, were all over the place -- some loved the twisted rail-shooter, others hated it, and many just scratched their heads and offered up a simple "wtf, mate?" Their new Atlus-published RPG Contact, while a little more straightforward, seems to be getting the same wide range of responses. As this is a metareview, Contact seems like a metagame; it's the little things that are praised, the inclusion of other games, references to games, influences from games, the touches from old school games. Unfortunately, the actual game seems to have suffered a bit -- even the most praise-worthy reviews indicate some gameplay issues.
Big week, Nintendo fans! Looks like the winter glut of games has begun ... and so many of us already blew our gaming wads for the month on Wii preorders! Guess it's time to start making some sacrifices, since this week brings us a new Nintendogs as well as the latest published by Atlus, Contact. Grasshopper Manufacture's new offbeat RPG is our pick for the game of the week, though there's a good possibility that anything with the 
Contact is one of those games that after reading tons of stuff about it, reviewing message boards and reading previews, you are still somewhat lost to what it is. IGN understands. In their preview of Contact, they immediately tell you that Contact is something you have to play to ever fully understand what it is about. This leaves us very confused, but intrigued.
A developer interview conducted by CVG reveals some interesting bits and pieces regarding the philosophy and design of Contact, soon to be published in the US by Atlus. It reveals that the game initially started out as a GBA adventure and that the Wi-Fi gameplay is a bit more unusual than you might have initially thought.
Gamebrink has posted a review of Contact, currently the most anticipated DS title that doesn't involve a duo of energetic plumbers. Instead, you get an eccentric professor looking for the parts of his downed spaceship in an original RPG that supports Wi-Fi play. The article praises the game for its unique story, excellent presentation and varied locations.
