Ordyne

Overview

Ordyne was originally an Arcade game developed and released to Japanese arcades by Namco in 1988. The game was eventually converted to the PC Engine in 1989 and released in the United States on the TurboGrafx-16 equivalent the following year. The game would later be released for the original PlayStation on Namco Museum Vol. 4 and even later on the TurboGrafx-16 version was rereleased on the North American Wii Virtual Console in 2007.

Ordyne was originally developed for Japanese Arcades on the Namco System 2 hardware. It was released as both an upright Arcade machine and also as a machine in a cocktail configuration.

The game allows two players to play the game simultaneously as the game's two different characters; Yuichiro Tomari and Sunday Chin. Yuichiro pilots the red ship in the game and Sunday pilots a green ship.

Gameplay

Ordyne is a classic "shmup", or shoot 'em up game. It is also considered to be one of the original games in the cute 'em up subgenre along with the Konami's Parodius or TwinBee and Sega's Fantasy Zone. Both games are characterized by standard shoot 'em up gameplay but use cute, sometimes anime style cartoon characters in place of the typical starships, airplanes or tanks found in shoot 'em ups.

Ordyne specficially is a horizontal side-scrolling shoot 'em up, like Parodius. The two player's characters must fly their ships and blast enemies while trying to save scientist Tomari's girlfriend and fiancee Kana.

Players die after getting hit with a single shot but can continue the game with lives earned and purchased through the course of the game. Picking up crystals during the game earns more lives for players. Crystals can also be earned by shooting at the rotating target of Dream Co. Ltd., a robot who arrives occasionally at times in the game. Special weapons can also be earned by shooting Dream Co. Ltd.. Crystals can be spent at stores as well, which frequently appear as airships with a giant funnel to fly down.

Each level of the game is accompanied with its own music and ends with a more difficult boss fight.

Original Box Description

The evil Kubota has kidnapped Dr. Tomari's fiancee, Kana, and taken the colossal nuclear reactor Ordyne. In order to reclaim them, Dr. Tomari and his assistant Felix take to their battleships and head off in pursuit. Avoid enemies and advance through seven different levels that take place on land, sea, and air. Collect crystals from defeated enemies and use them to buy items or upgrades for your ship at the Space Inn. Do you have what it takes to defeat the boss at the end of each level and ultimately reach Kubota in the final stage, Kubota World?