Odama [Gamecube]

[Siren2011]

I just finished the last boss of Odama for Nintendo Gamecube. Basically, it's an Action Pinball game with voice command features. This is a great idea, but Vivarium executed it quite poorly here.

The game's objective could be summarized in the following way: guard your "Ninten Bell" and have your men escort it to the level's end, with different obstacles in your way each stage. You are given a moral meter (Red, yellow, and green) that changes based on how many commands you're barking out, the number of your casualties by the ball, and discharging more men (the former two having a negative effect, while the last one has a positive one). When the meter is at red, your men act like cowards and are too frightened to obey orders. If your bellmen are pushed by enemy forces down in between the space of your paddles, then you lose the round. The same will happen if you run out of time.

The biggest problem with Odama is the piss-poor ball and paddle physics, which basically destroys the whole immersion factor because the player will spend more than half of the time screaming at the screen and throwing his controller against the floor in rage. You can can tilt the board (or field, to be exact. Every stage is a feudal Japanese battle on land) with the analog stick, but this does not influence the paddle's accuracy in any significant way. I can hit the ball right when it reaches the very corner of the right paddle, for example, but if I were to hit it again when it reaches that exact pixel, the ball will be sent in another direction than it went before. I hope you can see how this would destroy the game, especially since you are timed and given multiple objectives (like commanding your troops to pick up a ladder and lay it over a river, which requires that you knock down said ladder with the ball, then trying not to accidentally open the floodgates and washing you men away to their doom-- but this is sometimes unavoidable, since the ball can ricochet off of a military structure that holds the ladder upright, and hit the gate valve without you meaning to). This fatal flaw makes it clear to the player that he has little to no control over where the ball goes, making skirmishes much more frustrating than they need to be. Sometimes, that one lucky hit when the ball is traveling at just the right speed will take it where you want it to go. But if you want to have complete control over where the ball goes, it's better to just play a pinball machine IRL.

Another noteworthy annoyance --and it is by no means a minor one -- is how objects such as trees, structures and so forth re-spawn constantly. There is nothing more irritating than trying to knock down a boss at the top of the field with the ball only to be blocked by a piece of rock further down field, hitting the ball again, only to destroy a tree, then hitting it against the tree again because it re-spawned. JUST GO TO THE TOP OF THE SCREEN, BALL! If simply destroying objects could clear the playing field, then the game would be much more tolerable. But this flaw insists that Odama adds insult to injury: not only is it ridiculously difficult to use the basic controls to make ends meet, but there is a perpetual force holding you back from accomplishing goals, thus eating away at precious time to complete the stage even over the simplest of tasks. This process is many things, but fun is not one of them. There is a feeling of accomplishment once you finally finish a stage that was giving you hell, yes, but the process you followed to get you there sucked balls.

Other problems include the ball getting stuck against the occasional object (WTF?) and the occasional insubordination from your soldiers when you give them a command on the mic. Moreover, half of the voice commands are either unnecessary or only used once.

The graphics look terrible, and the polygonal character models look worse than something you'd expect from a Sega Saturn 3D game (Think Wachenroder's 3D CG battle sequences).

The game is not completely bad. My favorite battle was against the giant spider with a human head. This unique arena level had four sets of toggles on each side of the area, and the viewpoint could be switched with the C stick. Your objective was to send the ball up the intricate hill paths in the middle of the screen, which path to send it on depending on where the spider had moved to. Once hit, he would tumble down the hill, which called for rallying your troops to attack him via voice command, depleting his health bar as fast as the number of men you sent after him. Making things seem more hopeless was the fact that enemy troops came in on all four sides of the area, giving you plenty to think about at once. This battle was as intense as it was nerve-wracking, but it was ultimately rewarding once its challenge was surmounted.

My favorite mechanic by far in this game is getting the super ball (which is acquired both by collecting a green orb from destroyed houses, and hitting the side of the bell with the ball --which also knocks over enemies in it's noise radius for a short period of time). Once activated, your ball will no longer harm your men, but destroying enemies with it will capture their souls, giving you more men to deploy for the battle, increasing your odds of success. This is very addictive.

In short, the game is very complex and relieving to beat, but the horrible physics ruin what would otherwise be a very pleasant experience. It is truly a shame that Vivarium could not spend more time on perfecting this aspect, as well as the graphics. I'm a strong advocate for challenge in games, but there is a difference between putting the player in a difficult situation with sufficient tools to get the job done, and handing him a water pistol to defend himself against Godzilla. The first of its kind (and most likely the last, ignoring hints of a sequel at the end game credits), Odama ventures to do something new. It just doesn't do a very impressive job.

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