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GameCube | Simulation | Odama

Boxart for Odama
Odama 9 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.5
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 3.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.3
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.3

Review: Odama

Review by LongHairedOffender | 04/10/2006 | 14:05:14 PM PST

Pinball, samurais, and shouting, that's the nucleus of Odama. If there's one thing that can be said about Yoot Saito's strange videogame constructions, it's that they aren't just weird. They are also awesome to play.

Pinball, samurais, and shouting, that's the nucleus of Odama. If there's one thing that can be said about Yoot Saito's strange videogame constructions, it's that they aren't just weird. They are also awesome to play. If you remember a little Dreamcast title called Seaman, that was his.

In Odama you play as Yamanouchi Kagetora, a young general in feudal Japan, whose best chance at evening the score with those who killed his father, is by harnessing the destructive power of the Odama.

Unholy Roller
So what is Odama? It's a crossbreed of real-time strategy, barking out military orders with a microphone, and squishing everything on the screen with a massive cannonball/pinball called an Odama, whether its enemy soldiers, towers, forts, or your own men. As you improve your skills with the Odama, the number of your men you flatten with your magical ball of death will shrink, but friendly pulverizing is inevitable.

Odama, I Died Again!
To say this game is hard is incorrect. It is grueling to the point that it might take away from the enjoyment of the game, but the satisfaction you get from winning a battle, whether it's after the second or twenty-second attempt, is supreme and worth the time it takes to become comfortable with the game. Odama is not a game you can rent, play for an hour, and master.

Saito's silly sense of humor leaks into the game, and you'll notice it from the final words of soldiers, and from the way the omnipresent voice that aids you directly speaks to the player, saying things like "Hun? What!? I'm deaf! I...Oh wait. You've forgotten to insert the microphone into slot b....

On the downside, the levels are more or less the same. The terrain doesn't change much, and as you progress, levels are just crammed with more of everything. At some points you will loose the Odama in the chaos, not being able to tell what the hell is going on.

Odama is imaginative and is proof that you don't need to be more annoying than Jessica Simpson, like Katamari, to be a successful whacky videogame.


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