Yoot Saito's Odama - Hands On Preview

When TVG first laid its eyes upon Odama back in 2004 the combination of a pinball simulator with RTS aspects seemed about as appealing as custard on your cornflakes; however E3â??05 presented us with a good chance to go Hands-On with the game, and once again Nintendo has left us dumbfounded in its sole pursuit of creativity.

For those that may have missed out on previous coverage, Odama refuses to be pigeonholed into a genre, instead billing itself as a â??military pinball simulatorâ?. Even slightly odder then the game itself is the fact that somebody has actually come up with a storyline behind the game; witnessing a legendary generalâ??s plans to avenge his fatherâ??s death through the invention of â??the most ingenious weapons to ever hit the medieval battlefieldâ? â?“ the Odama, essentially a gigantic ball that is powerful enough to destroy whatever it strikes, be it friend or foe.

Essentially players have to propel the Odama throughout the battlefield using giant flippers in an identical fashion to playing pinball, however rather then activating flashing LEDâ??s and annoying sound samples, youâ??ve got to pulverise enemy installations and wipe out soldiers while narrowly avoiding your own. The RTS like aspects come from how you instruct your troops, with commands such as â??chargeâ?, â??retreatâ?, â??defend positionâ? and many more issued by using the GameCube Mic. The overall goal of each stage is to advance throughout the stage, destroy the enemy gates with the Odama and direct a group of soldiers carrying a giant bell to pass through the opened gates â?“ however itâ??s not entirely that simple and isnâ??t helped by a 7-minute timer counting ominously down.

Odama is a devilishly tricky experience, but one that keeps you coming back for more and refuses to frustrate simply because itâ??s a lack of skill on behalf of the player rather then the system being cumbersome or complex. The E3 demonstration featured three different maps, each posing a varying degree of difficulty, although itâ??s fair to say that even the â??easiestâ? of these posed a challenge for even the most hardened gamer. The beginning stage introduces the player to new voice commands as progress is made throughout the stage, with later advanced options including the ability to send in reinforcements that are replenished by taking out enemy units with the Odama. Directing the units on the battlefield while keeping a constant look on those carrying the bell is the key to success; soldiers engage in mighty skirmishes while the playerâ??s troops advance up the field and the opponents attempt to work their way down to the flippers in the hope of clogging them up and thus making them impossible to use. Other noteworthy examples given the crazy nature of the game include the ability to collect a giant hamburger, which when used attracts the attention of enemy soldiers and allows the player to carry on unimpeded for a short duration.

Surprisingly the Mic does an excellent job of instantly recognising speech commands; as you'd expect Nintendoâ??s E3 stand was hardly the quietest on display, and despite the huge range of different people playing, we never once came across a situation where the game couldnâ??t recognise what was being said.

Despite gaining a good understanding of what Odama is all about, itâ??s fair to say that thereâ??s a lot we didnâ??t get the chance to sample in terms of power-upâ??s and various other features/aspects of the game â?“ certainly the game is much more then what the initially dubious concept alludes towards.

Given that Odama comes from the same people who gave us the whacked out Dreamcast half-fish/half-man simulator, SeaMan, itâ??s perhaps understandable that the game was easily the craziest on display at E3â??05. The surprising fact however is that what initially sounds like one of the worst combinations of genres actually resulted in one of the most addictive games at the show; we only managed to check out the game on the last day, but kept coming back for more...

In true Nintendo fashion, Odama dares to be different and is even more enticing because of that fact alone...