The Classic Arcade and Console Era (1972-1989) - Ordyne
Check out this deceptively tough and underrated cute ‘em that makes up for minor annoyances with gorgeous graphics.
RELEASE DATE: 1988
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Namco
BEST VERSIONS: Arcade (via Namco Museum Vol. 4 on the PlayStation)
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Highly playable
I have to admit I’m not sure if Ordyne is a great shoot ‘em up, but I will say it’s a great looking shoot ‘em up, and that was enough to keep me playing through the first couple of stages so that it could get its hooks into me. There are quite a few things about this game I’m really not wild about like consumable power-ups, hazards that require memorization and a difficulty spike that’s really formidable once you reach the third stage. On the other hand, the inventive level design, fluid animations, fun power-ups and overall attention to little details are really strong in this game, and the soundtrack is excellent. As such, I’ve opted to include the game with the qualification that it’s definitely not for everyone, particularly if you find games like Fantasy Zone and Twinbee too saccharine. But Ordyne is definitely high in quality, and it appears to be one of those vastly underrated games that’s largely been overlooked in the West because it was a little too tough and offbeat to turn reviewers’ heads in 80s and 90s.
The idea of this game is that the red-haired scientist hero Dr. Tomari and his best friend Felix (also known as Sunday Chin in the Japanese original) have to rescue Dr. Tomari’s fiancé Kana from the evil Kubota, a green-haired guy with an eyepatch wearing a business suit and cape who who apparently has an affinity for gyoza. The problem seems to be that Kubota wants access to Dr. Tomari’s atomic conversion device, the Ordyne, and Kana has the key to it. In relaying this story, the game’s TurboGrafx-16 edition manual goes on to ask, “Are you a man or a smouse (a small space rodent)?” Assuming you are “a man (or woman!)”, the manual urges you to blast off and to consider taking along a friend. As it turns out, that latter piece of advice is right on target; Ordyne is a lot more fun with two players.
Unlike a lot of shoot ‘em ups, Ordyne feels like it was always designed to be a two-player game. Enemy waves tend to come in pairs that one player might have trouble shooting down, but which two players can easily team up to take out to receive the collectible crystals that are used for power-ups. One of the more irritating things about Ordyne is that you don’t receive upgrades automatically, you have to visit a shop called the “Space Inn” that appears from time to time and purchase one of three available upgrades from the smiling Miyuki-chan.
You can and should boost your speed early on since it seems to be a perpetual upgrade that stays with you even in death, which is good, because you will die any time you’re hit, and getting trapped by obstacles is one of the easiest ways to lose a life. Your beam weapon (which shoots straight ahead) and bomb weapon (which drops below you at an angle) can both be upgraded as well, but their effects are temporary and limited to either a set amount of time for beams and a set amount of shots for bombs.
The standard beam can be upgraded with a rapid-fire vulcan gun, a spread-shot triple gun, a wide range blaster, a pair of fore and after burners that shoot fire in a horizontal line across the screen or a unique power-up called the Stock Bomber which collects bullets and allows you to fire an increasingly strong particle wave the more shots you collect. The Stock Bomber also includes a cameo from Pac-Man (he sits on your ship) and provides you with a shield that can block a single hit from a hazard or from touching an enemy. Unfortunately, it only becomes available in the later stages and often is the most expensive item you’ll be offered.
One of the other unusual aspects of Ordyne is the presence of a robot who flies around most of the stages and offers you a chance to play a roulette game for the Dream Company Ltd. Space Lottery. You basically just bet some crystals and can win weapons or more crystals, but you can only play once and are returned to the shoot ‘em up level when you’re finished.
As I mentioned, Ordyne is a difficult game, and there are many places within the game where you’ll absolutely die the first time to play through simply because there are patterns or travel paths you need to understand and follow (though having a guide will help you). While this is a problem with many mid-1980s shooters, it’s magnified in Ordyne to a degree that it’s easy to give up by the fifth, sixth or seventh stage because it feels like you’re just not making progress. If you’re playing single-player, I highly recommend playing with an emulator that can save your state so you can get through the game; it’s much more fun that way. Another strange and annoying aspect of Ordyne is that if you’re playing single-player, you will continue at a checkpoint on a game over screen, but if you’re playing two-player, you can continue in the middle of the game. The simple single-player solution (at least for the arcade version) is to have two players going and mapped to the same gamepad. When one of the characters dies, just bring them back into the game. (Once I figured this trick out, Ordyne became much easier.)
The graphics in Ordyne really are a standout feature of the game, and if you enjoy cool backgrounds, giant set piece encounters, big bosses and colorful effects, you’ll have a blast playing through it. Every level is quite different from the last – the first takes place in an increasingly darkening cloudy sky, the second in a fiery cauldron that’s consuming the ruins of a city, the third in an ocean region where you can fly both in and out of the water, the fourth in a coastal arctic area where you dodge icebergs and find treasure in coves, and so on. The bosses are also really impressive and tend to fit the themes of the levels around them. The first boss is a giant ship with turrets all over it as well as weak spots in its thrusters. The second is a fiery turtle that spins around the screen and then uncoils to shoot barrages of fire at you. The third is a power station that’s surrounded by shields that block your shots. Later bosses include a crystal dragon head, a strange spherical battle station named “Mr. Roboto” that the game’s manual describes has having a broken heart and a mechanical bird-like creature called the Mega-Jumper that has a circular buzz saw protruding from its legs.
When you defeat this final boss, the villainous Kubota actually dies with a couple of bounces onscreen and then floats upwards as a spirit with a cross in his hands and a halo over his head as your fiancé Kana appears in a window in the stage’s background.
Speaking of Kana, there’s a way to play as her in the console version of the game, and the technique for doing it is actually mentioned in the manual. While the game is exactly the same, the ending is different, showing a sequence where Kana speaks to you and includes the wonderful line, “It is the end of them evels.” It’s not quite as interesting as the original arcade ending, where Kana fires a rocket and turns Kubota’s base into a giant pink tree, but it is nice to see Kana get to be the hero instead of the damsel in distress.
If you want to play Ordyne, your best bet is probably the TurboGrafx-16 edition, which is translated into English and was also made available via the Wii’s Virtual Console service. It’s pretty close to the arcade game, but different in a few places where the rotating sprite obstacles just weren’t possible on the console hardware. Another great way to play is via the Namco Museum Vol. 4 compilation on the PlayStation, which features the original arcade version, but translated into English. You can also play both games with a game ROM or ISO and an emulator (my preferred way since it allows for state saves), but it is nice to have some options to play the game legally and fully translated.
Ordyne never received a sequel, but its oddball hero Dr. Tomari was included in Namco High by Shiftylook in a design where he looks more like Archie Andrews than a round little red-headed mad scientist. Miyuki-chan has also made it into a couple of later Namco games including Project X Zone 2 and Mach Breakers.
As Our Series Continues…
It’s time to move on to console and arcade gaming in the 1970s and 80s, and we’re going to cover it all with an exploration into hundreds more games you’ve probably never played but definitely ought to check out. Come for amazingly great early 1980s games like Warlords, Super Locomotive, Shark! Shark!, Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Mysterious Stones: Dr. John’s Adventure and Intrepid and stick around for mid-to-late 1980s greats like Peter Pack-Rat, Penguin-kun Wars, Momoko 120%, UFO Robot Dangar, Wonder Momo, Raimais, Last Alert, The Legend of Valkyrie and the arcade version of Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe’s Brother, complete with a rockin’ soundtrack with wonderfully inscrutable lyrics.
If you’ve never heard of any of those games, you’re in for a treat as we explore them one by one. And If those games are all old hat to you, don’t worry; they’re just the tip of the iceberg for what we’ll be discussing!
If you missed my series on the hundreds of 1980s PC games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 2. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!