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Vivarium.

Not a cache name for the gaming public. It's a bit like GameFreak, it's a company you know - you just don't know you know them. GameFreak is responsible for the ubiquitous Pokemon franchise. Vivarium you know from the "highly" unique game Seaman ("highly" is in quotation marks for two reasons. One, 'unique' requires no adjectives as it can only be used to describe one of something. Secondly because I'm sure whoever thought of the game was stoned).

In case you're not up to speed on your Dreamcast titles, Seaman is the pet-raising simulator where you breed fish/amphibians with human faces. So Vivarium is known for strange titles.

Now, Odama is a recent release for the GameCube. It's a self described combination of "pinball and military wargame". If that isn't strange enough, it also responds to voice commands. Hey! Now that's some good crazy!

The backstory to Odama is very interesting and entertaining. Suffice to say you're the commander of a grossly outnumbered army in feudal Japan. However, you have two secret weapons at your disposal. The Odama, a mystical sphere that was stolen from ancient China. It's believed to have sacred powers and can be used to lead an army to victory. Second, you have the power of "The Way of Heaven" known as NinTen-Do (Seriously, I'm gonna take a second to assure you all that if you haven't heard of this game... I am NOT making this up.)

Armed with the power of NinTen-Do and Odama your job is to breech the enemy defenses and march the NinTen Bell through the enemies gates.

Okay, we're gonna get the technical review part out of the way since a game like this requires so much verbage to describe, I'm gonna give the lowdown on the quantifiable first.

The graphics are nice, I was horribly disapointed by how low-poly the soldiers are. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this game was initially earmarked for the Nintendo DS (what with the voice commands and triangle counts). That said, the textures are quite nice, there's a good amount of visual pizzaz like shockwaves and fire, motion blur, etc. So while it's not a gorgeous game, it's no slouch by any means.

The audio is fantastic. I can't commend the localizer enough (I believe it's Nuance) for NOT dubbing the audio. The entire audio commentary is in it's original Japanese. And for anyone who has a passion for Japanese media, passing or otherwise, it can't be stressed enough how bad the US voice actors are compared to their Japanese counterparts. The dialog is intriguing, clever and very funny. Leaving the game on the 'retry, back, quit' screen for too long and your military advisor will chime in with "My Liege, are you there?" or "I'm too old for this". As well after repeatedly failing at the same stage the advisor is known to discourage you from playing. Very funny.

The controls are responsive, although I do find myself losing track of my 'cursor' since the joystick tilts the play field and moves your cursor. I think it would have been better to re-map one of those functions to the unused C stick. Also, sometimes it seems like my cursor crawls, other times it flies. Perhaps I have to get used to it.

Okay, more about the game itself.

As mentioned you control your troops with voice commands. You can issue commands such as "March Left" and "March Right", "Fall Back", "Press Forward", "Charge!" Needless to say you'll sound like an asshole to the rest of the house. I had   a little trouble with the voice commands, in so much as I'd issue them without a response. Although I'm sure in certain situations I wasn't talking very clearly so - fault can lay anywhere. Didn't hamper the playing of the game, so I've sorta taken to issuing commands repeatedly. Adds to the feel of the game, actually.

The "Rally" command is the only one I've truely had trouble with. In theory it should send your troops off to a certain point to complete an objective, such as picking up a ladder or a key. But - they will only rally to specific points that are highlighted with a flashing square. If you can move this square, I have no idea how.** So that's troublesome. There are a variety of other commands at your disposal. Honestly at this rate, I'm going to have to draw up a cheat sheet to remember them all.

The pinball aspect of the game is very clever. Fast flowing rivers serve to speed up your ball, houses and other structures act as bumpers and throngs of soldiers control the massive flippers. The pinball physics are highly tweaked, the ball is very 'heavy' near the flippers and you have a hard time throwing it towards the left with the left flipper and vice-versa. If there was such a term as 'arcade pinball' to oppose a 'simulation pinball' I'd offer this up to that catagory.

You must clear a path through enemy defenses so that your 'bell bearers' can carry the Ninten Bell through the field. On many tables, you must also strike objects with the Odama that will allow safe passage accross the field of battle (such as closing of rivers and knocking down ladder towers).

Your Odama can also recieve power ups that will allow you to convert crushed enemies into re-enforcements for your army (deployable with the Z button).

As well, striking the Ninten bell with your Odama will cause a chime (described as a 'miracle' in game text) that will flatten enemy defenses and allow your army to press forward quickly. Although be aware... as the Ninten bell is often in the middle of your troop formation, a miscalculation can lead to friendly fire.

The game is filled with cool little gameplay treats, such as enemy soldiers becoming stuck to the rolling Odama, like some sorta Manson Family Katamari. And as the enemy calvary charges your general (stationed behind the flippers) you can literally 'bowl' them over will a well placed Odama shot (accompanied by a bowling pin sound effect). Very clever and very funny.

Fail at keeping the enemy at bay, your commander has to engage in hand-to-hand. One or two enemies is fine, any more than that and you'll lose control of your flippers for a time. You have defenses agains this though, such as saving some re-enforcements (who also deploy between the flippers) as a last line of defense, or throwing out the RiceBall powerup which will draw starved enemy soldiers to it for a time. Just long enough for your to slaughter them with your massive iron balls.

Beyond all that, I did find myself having a terribly hard time with even the first board/table. After 5 times I achieved success, but the only problem is I'm unaware of what I did that made the difference! As best I can tell I performed the same each time but with a varied level of success. Again, it could just be beyond my perception at this point.

Although I'm a huge fan of shooters, the oft lamented "there's so few shooters released these days" comment can't even hold a candle to "there's so few pinball games released these days". I mean, even if you factor in the massively bad ultra-budget PS1 and PC games, there still aren't that many good pinball titles. For this current gen your choices are pretty much limited to Akira Psycho Ball, Pinball of The Dead and Odama. While I own the two latter, I have logged plent of time with Psycho Ball. I have to give the pinball crown to Odama. While it lies barely on the cusp of being a 'pinball' title, the execution and sheer level of fun can't be ignored. The best traditional pinball title of this generation still lies with Pinball of The Dead (which, in my opinion is only an 'okay' title) and the best pinball of all time is the official pinball of nfg.2y.net - the juggernaut that is Necronomicon Digital Pinball for the Sega Saturn.

Even still, again, Odama is the crown prince of this generation and with the way the Pinball landscape is shaped, I won't be surprised if it wins out the next-gen race thanks to the Wii's backwards compatability (short of a shocking release of a contender on Xbox live or Wii Virtual Console).

The game is a tisch expensive though still, seeming to defy price dropping that goes with a game of it's growing age. Most stores still carry it at the $42 range, although it can be had new at your nearest Best Buy for $29.99. It's a good game at $30, but it'd be an even better game at $20.

The depth and replayability Odama has... only the future can tell, but based off of what I've heard about the one Easter Egg* the game has - I'll be playing it for a while!

Odama. It'd be a good game, even if it wasn't the only game in town.

*Easter Egg not revealed on the off chance someone would consider it a spoiler, check out your freindly neighborhood gamefaqs.com for further details.

**Upon further review of the manual, this is accomplished with the control pad - I'm terribly happy with this discovery.

I think I need a copy of this game.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Beuller?

Looks like you can have it for about $34 shipped to AU if you bid now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-GameCube-ODAM...1QQcmdZViewItem

Again, the learning curve is a little high (it was widely panned as being too hard by the game media) but even if I don't understand exactly why I succeed or fail sometimes - I'm still having an absolute blast with it. I'm slowly learning more and more. I guess the in game tutorials have been a little lacking on what you can and can't do (for example the "Flank and Destroy" command should work when your forces out number the enemy, yet I've found myself at a 5:1 advantage and the technique fails.

I know you don't have a problem with games being difficult so, have at it.

If you don't mind paying retail, I'd be happy to pick you up a copy and ship it your way (My local Best Buy has at least 1 more copy).