Odama

Katamari's out, Colossus tops the charts, Phoenix Wright is around the corner and Chibi Robo is on its way in May. Publishers' willingness to put esoteric Japanese games on European shelves seems to be at an all-time high, but you still have to wonder if this voice-activated hybrid of feudal military strategy and pinball would be getting a global release, let alone a near-simultaneous one, if GameCube's schedule wasn't quite so desolately empty. Its creator Yoot Saito (also father of the

We love pinball. We love strategic battles. Nintendo is betting that when Odama combines the two, we'll love the new concoction as well. The game has been lurking in the file marked 'coming soon' for a while now, gradually gaining new features and visual polish. But the core gameplay, in which players use a giant metal ball to knock down enemies, looks so weird and addictive that the wait should be worth it. There is a story behind the strange proceedings; something about feudal intrigue.