It was by mere chance that I happened upon a little treasure at Nintendo's booth called Odama. Not a soul was playing it, mainly because it was hidden at the very edge of the floor. Beside the two kiosks: ancient samurai armor.

Being the responsible videogame journalist I am, playing it seemed like the only option. But this is where my curiosity met with a bizarre amalgam of ideas. Besides, what do you expect from the boys that brought you Seaman for the Dreamcast?

Think pinball meets real-time strategy. And believe it. The title stems from the ball itself, dubbed the "odama," being an ancient relic that has the mystical power to control soldiers' minds. It's a gigantic, metal sphere that is not unlike any other pinball you might have laid your eyes on before. What is odd is the table that it rides on. Rather than a typical assortment of bells and rails, you'll be guiding the odama over a battlefield cluttered with samurai.

On the mountain's ridge is Kendare, a general attempting to slaughter you troops. Residing below the flippers of the board is Kagetora and his men, your alleys in this game gone terribly weird. The object is to trumpet Kagetora's men up into the mountains to lay down a ladder, the one tool necessary before they can reach Kendare's base camp for invasion. The trouble is, the samurai gripping the ladder are completely defenseless, left open to attack from all sides… and that's not even counting if you accidentally nail them with the odama.

No worries, though, as your troops will recollect themselves appropriately and trudge on, but hitting them sets them back a bit. A neat trick of the trade is holding the "X" button down while flipping the odama, inciting it to turn red. Any enemy troops it happens to hit while maintaining its ferocious, heated state will switch sides to your army. However, doing this too often will upset your own troops, causing the "morale meter" to drop. As a result, they'll move a little slower when given orders. You'll initially start the round with 60 troops, deploying more with the tap of the "A" button. So enlisting new troops after others have died is a necessary strategy, but one that should only be used wisely.

Borrowing from the exteriors of Pikmin a tad -- and maybe even the design of the troops themselves -- the environments of the game have a very rural, natural feel. A waterfall rushes into a stream from the right side, flowing all the way into a larger river to the left. Mountains sprout in the back, while huge, wooden gates guard you ball from falling south. In fact, as odd as it is, it's quite a beautiful game.

Then again, after playing a few rounds, it's only odd in concept, but is quite easy to pick-up-and-play. Still, if history has told us anything, a game like this is exactly the type that Nintendo showcases at E3, then pulls from the U.S. release slate a year later. Hopefully Odama will make it to America, but at this point, it seems like a long shot.