Okay, time to drum up my hate campaign against Odama.
IT SUCKS
Sorry. It does. The game plays like utter crap, and it looks about as good. I'm all for crazy games, funny games, games that use special accessories, etc., but they have to be fun and well designed. Odama is from the Frankenstein school of game design. You can't randomly paste together disparate elements and expect them to gel into a fun game without some serious balancing and testing. The microphone was clearly not the best feature to show off at E3, but even when it worked, it seemed to have little effect on the outcome of the game, because your troops will only carry out your order until they run into trouble, which happens constantly. The game moves at a snail's pace. The rules of the game make no sense and don't even seem consistent. (How am I supposed to roll over enemy troops but not my own troops when they are always mashed together in one big mob of soldiers?)
On top of all this, Odama has the worst pinball physics of all time. The ball is gigantic and slow, and it gets stuck on everything. During one session I played last month, the ball rolled up a mountain on the right side of the stage and just went right off the screen, never to return. The game didn't freeze or anything, but there was nothing I could do except bark orders at my troops, which is a futile effort anyway. Even if there were no bugs, the pinball action still feels completely wrong.
I hope Odama goes the way of Stage Debut, acting as a research bed for ideas that will move on to star in other, much better games. Without a major overhaul, Odama has no business being released upon the unassuming public. Wacky AND awful is not exactly a formula for success.
