Some thoughts on Odama and why it rules
Here's a cool and common scenario in Odama: you are just about to burst through the gates and beat the level, so turn on the GameCube microphone and say "Press Forward!"
And your soldiers just do not do it.
You say it again. "Press Forward!" Still they don't do it. Meanwhile, a bunch of enemy units on horseback are charging your way. Shit. All this time you've been juggling the giant Odama pinball, so you try to aim it at these horseback soldiers. You miss, and it rockets towards your units at the gate, taking out a huge chunk of them. You're getting desperate. "Press Forward!" you beg, but they still don't hear you, and finally, the enemy units charge past your paddles and you're defeated. Try again!
I've never experienced this in other strategy games. In all instances, you're removed from the battle. You may be presented with incomplete information, enemy units might behave in ways you don't expect, but the information you do have is complete, and your units do exactly what you tell them. Your mistakes are your own as well as your successes.
What kind of fantasy does that speak to, and what assumptions underlie it? There's a divide between you, the person controlling everything, and the hapless grunts you control. Units with no interiority who do exactly as you say. War becomes a mechanized simulation, contests between Decision Makers where the units are just another variable to be tweaked. Odama is frustrating because it doesn't flatter you. You're just some guy. "Press forward?" Fuck you! It's chaotic and messy in a way I've never seen another strategy game match. It whips.