Odama [With Microphone] [GC]

Even if you wrote every game concept you could think of on slips of paper, tossed them in a hat, and picked three without peeking, you still wouldn't come up with something as off-the-wall as Odama. This is a Medieval Japanese military pinball game that uses a microphone. When we did the ideas-in-a-hat thing, we just came up with NFL players in a kart racer that used the DDR dance pad for hitting the pedals.

It's tough to decipher which element is at the heart of Odama. Suffice to say, the game is pulled in more directions than a Hulk Hogan headband tossed out to a rabid audience at Madison Square Garden. The main control theme, though, is pinball based. Use flippers and a subtler version of Monkey Ball's map-tilting to guide the massive Odama ball around the battlefield. It will crush just about everything in its path -- from enemy soldiers to trees to your own allies (who won't take to kindly to your friendly fire).

The latter means you can't just trash the entire game board with reckless abandon. This is a military strategy title, after all. You usually have several goals to put your Odama aiming to the test. Floodgates need to be turned off so your troops can pass; keys and other items need to be found; and specific targets must be destroyed -- all with your rolling steel sphere. The physics are decent, but at times the Odama whirls at random. Being able to tilt the level helps push it where you want it to go, and is invaluable to any degree of success.

While that's going on, your throngs of followers are looking to you for commands. That's where the microphone comes in, and one thing that ties this to the developer's other U.S. release, Seaman, from the Sega Dreamcast days. Hold X and bark out orders in the mic: March right/left, fall back, or rally to a key location.

The microphone is novel, and you'll end up with a long list of orders. Most of them, when executed properly, go through flawlessly -- though this reviewer had a problem with subordinates understanding "March right." The fact that it works well doesn't make it more fun, though. Having to speak out loud limits the times when most people can play the game, and you can't help but feel stupid chanting "Press forward" over and over. You see, soldiers have short memories and need constant babysitting or they'll be lost -- meaning you will lose.