If ever you could trust a gaming company to make a military pinball game fun, it would be Nintendo. We've seen some odd titles over the years (anyone remember Doshin the Giant? And of course Jungle Beat to name a few), but there's never been anything quite so off the wall, as Michael Jackson might say, as Odama. But hey, if anyone can do it, it's Nintendo…

The story is quite simple; two Generals, one murders another's father, war ensues. Luckily, you have the Odama on your side, a huge boulder used to obliterate your foes in classic pinball style. To be honest, it's all a bit deep for a pinball game; all you need to know is that they have lots of troops, but you have a wrecking ball to even things out. Also, quite luckily, all of the battlefields have an odd resemblance to a pinball table. What are the odds…?

It's strangely fun to knock down people with a big ball y'kno.

This time around E3 was showing off Odama's compatibility with the microphone used for Mario Party 6. While you might not think it would work, in the thick of a battle, focussing on ridding the field of foes with Odama, barking orders to your troops may well make things that bit easier. Hopefully, come the final version, you'll have a choice whether or not you want to use the controller or the microphone, but it's certainly an interesting addition to the game. You'll feel stupid enough trying to win a war with a pinball game, now even more so thanks to the frantic shouting that is required to win every given battle.

In all honesty though, there's something oddly appealing about Odama. Once you get past the weird premise and stop all your laughing, Odama looks stupendously fun to play, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out to be a bit of a cult classic. I mean, why not? It's not like you just have to randomly fire your pinball wherever you can to clear the battlefield, there are a number of obstacles to take into account that will alter the balls trajectory; streams, buildings, boulders... they all add up, so you not only have to be handy with a pinball machine, but you must take into account what's on the battlefield and make sure you're giving your troops the right commands at the same time. We can certainly expect some frantic gameplay once it finally gets released. It even looks as if the opposing army will have paddles to return the Odama back at you for a little bit of extra challenge, an intriguing new aspect of play that will surely greatly increase the difficulty. Perhaps it won't be quite as deep as most strategy titles, but it could end up just as fun as anything else Nintendo has made.

More tactical than you think. Trust me, you'll be cursing that ladder.

Since the last build we saw, Odama has changed very little in terms of visuals. The textures are solid, but it's not overly impressive; the character models seem fairly simplistic, as are the effects. It does its job I suppose, and will probably get a little more polish when it nears its release.

Not the most obvious of upcoming Nintendo games to watch, but with a title that could go so far on either side of the spectrum (great fun or complete disaster) it's hard not to be interested to see how things will turn out. So much could go wrong, but so far it hasn't. A 'wait and see' title if there ever was one…