Upon walking past the Odama booth, the initial impression you get is that it's just another pinball game. A ball is bouncing around the level, creating sounds and animations as key points are hit. Then you notice more movement, and you see that the level is actually a battlefield, with men fighting each other, and all sides being crushed by the Odama ball. Then you stop and take a longer look, to see what else this game has to offer.

After watching a few minutes, I asked the woman working the Odama section of the Nintendo booth to explain the game to me a little. She said that levels vary, but on this one the objective is to get a large bell to the top of the map. The bell is carried by men, and must be protected by troops if it is to reach the top of the screen. A river runs across the map, and helps prevent most of the enemy troops from attacking the lower section of the screen. The Odama ball, controlled using the flippers, can be used to attack enemy troops, and trigger events on the map. The river can be dammed up and released by hitting a couple points on the side of the screen, and the doorway at the top of the screen must be opened for the bell to pass through.

While watching this, you then notice someone yelling for more men, but unlike most RTS games, they actually appear! This is because there is a microphone attachment that allows you to issue simple commands. Commands like 'charge', 'left', 'right', and 'more men' can be issued by holding down the X button and speaking the command. A practice mode lets you try this before starting the game.

Using the microphone is an interesting idea, as you don't have to remember which buttons issue which commands. The microphone mounts on to the controller, so you have to pull it to your face to issue commands. I'm unsure if there is a headset option, but I would assume there is. On a system like the DS the microphone is built in, making porting a game like this entirely possible.

I never asked about Nintendo's motivation for using the microphone to issue commands. There may be a lot of possible commands depending on the level, so having a quick way to issue them would be useful. Instead of having to move through all the menus, a whole team could be controlled quickly, even on a console where the lack of buttons can make menu navigation tiresome. With the microphone becomming a standard interface device for online gaming, finding new uses for it in offline gaming seems like a smart idea.

For more screenshots, visit our Odama Gallery.