When I think of the Nintendo DS, the first game that comes to my mind may surprise you. No, it’s not Super Mario 64 DS or Advance Wars; it’s Electroplankton. Released in 2005, the touchscreen oddity let players create music loops through toylike interactions. Though its mostly forgotten now outside of its Super Smash Bros. stage, Electroplankton still stands out to me as one of the handheld’s most distinct releases.
While I don’t expect the series to return anytime soon or even get ported to Switch, Oddada might just be the closest next thing you can buy. The $10 PC game is a colorful music-making tool that turns synths into tactile toys. It has the same charm that I always loved in Electroplankton, but in a more modern package that makes it stand out. If you love toying around with synths, it might be the creative tool you’re craving.
In Oddada, players create short songs by building brief synth loops. Rather than using a keyboard, each instrument is represented as a colorful children’s toy, each of which works in its own way. One has me stacking little toy houses on a grid and using a connected beat pad to program a beat based on the sounds they produce. Another has me stacking blocks across a voxel art landscape. A lighthouse spins at the center, its light turning each block into a musical note as it passes by. The initial fun comes from poking and prodding at each different toy to learn how exactly it makes sound.
From there, I record six loops. Each one gets represented as a car on a toy train when its done. Once I’ve made all six, I can record a song by playing around with my final train, poking it to toggle loops on and off, or sliding the height of each car to adjust the volume of each loop. Within 10 minutes, I’ve created a short ditty out of thin air. It’s the same kind of reward for curiosity that made Electroplankton such a unique treat in 2005.
What I appreciate about Oddada is how it takes that idea to another level. After I finish a song, I turn it into a cassette that I can recolor and customize with stickers. Once done, I can save that song as a WAV file and share it online if I so choose. That makes it feel less like a time-wasting fidget toy and more like a creative tool with physical results.
It’s a simple curiosity for a specific type of player, but Oddada nails something important about the joys of music. Sound is born from play. Anytime I’ve ever used a real synth, I tended to spend hours freely twisting knobs before actually making anything concrete with it. That experimentation is the fun of it. Oddada delves into that concept in a literal way by representing synths as colorful toys that invite players to mess around with them until they accidentally make a pleasant tune.
Even if you only end up toying around with it for an hour or two, Oddada is a fun little tool for musicians or musically inclined youngsters. And if you don’t fall into those categories, you may still find yourself won over by the kind of tactile charm that made the Nintendo DS era so special. You may not be able to play Electroplankton easily these days, but Oddada keeps its small legacy alive.
