Yoot Saito's Odama.

[Videodrone]

The bongos elemente is gone, its just controller and microphone.

[Clash!]

Well, they would have to either provide people with Bongos, making the game like $70, or expect everyone to have them already. Either way it makes the game cost more than usual, and thats not going to help a niche game sell.

[Frogacuda]

Well the bongos were an option always. It was something the second player would do to help out.

[Salsashark]

Honestly I think between using the controller and issuing commands into a microphone the player will probably be plenty occupied. The bongo idea is kind of neat, but also maybe too cumbersome and complicated.

And really, talking into a microphone in a room alone is going to have me wrestling with my dignity as is. Thankfully from what I've read it actually sounds like it's put to genuine good use.

edit: frogacuda rendered my entire post obsolete. what a jerk.

[Mikey]

(Fondles crystal ball) I predict this will be like Jungle Beat - A good game taken down a couple of notches by the forced use of an inferior gimmick control method. I hope I am wrong in this.

[Frogacuda]

(Fondles crystal ball) I predict this will be like Jungle Beat - A good game taken down a couple of notches by the forced use of an inferior gimmick control method. I hope I am wrong in this.

It's not really a gimmick. You still control the action with the controller, but you command your troops using voice, which is actually not a bad way of melding two disparate elements without making things hard to control. As long as the voice recognition is accurate and responsive, it's a great idea.

[Videodrone]

Well, they would have to either provide people with Bongos, making the game like $70, or expect everyone to have them already. Either way it makes the game cost more than usual, and thats not going to help a niche game sell.

As Frog stated the Bongos were only an option. A function that could have been turned off or emulated by a controller if you didn't have the actual Bongos would have been preferred as opposed to removing it all together.

[Frogacuda]

The bongo thing was kind of silly and peripheral to the game itself. The second player could use the bongos to play "war drums" to motivate the troops. It was a cute idea but hardly a selling point, or integral to the experience. I don't know why this is suddenly a big deal, like you were really going to have a friend drumming for you whenever you played.

[Beefy Hits]

I was hoping you'd use the bongos to control the flippers. That would be kinda cool. This game has been subject to more delays than the average Working Designs game (ebgames has it listed as a 4/10 release date). I can't say I'm completely psyched about the microphone, but I'll try it. This is one of the reasons I have the gamecube still hooked up.

[Diff-chan]

This game got a weak review in Game Informer. They said it was very original but also not that much fun. Like all Yoot Saito games.