Ordyne (オーダイン)

by nic_cusworth. Comment: "Came out circa 88' (ahhh – I was just 17) and for some reason appeared in my local arcade although I'm sure it shouldn't have - being a Japanese release. This was one of those games that simply shone against anything else that was out at the time. The huge planes of rotation, mind blistering colour cycling, inventive bosses (although there's always one weapon that'll kill em’ in seconds), and Goddamn amazing tunes. Versions came out on PC Engine/TG-16 in HuCard (which I own) and CD-ROM versions. Appeared on Namco's museum series Vol. 4 on Playstation (again I own) and now emulated on Mame. The PC Engine version was fun but a limited version of the game. The sound ported well but the old PCE just didn’t have the graphical punt to do those graphics. I hoped for a version on the SNES (might have just coped thanks to Mode 7) but it never showed. The Namco Museum version looks like an emulation and it pretty perfect except for the load times. Museum 4 also included a 3D virtual museum tour that has some extra Ordyne stuff in it including full 3D versions of some of the ships and characters in the game – oh you TEASE!!! Obviously the Mame version is a perfect emulation of the game. The thing that’s most curious about Ordyne is it’s ‘shop’ where you can buy weapon power-ups. It seems that they were on a bit of a moral tip. See the cheapest weapon is often the best to use – it’s just the expensive weapons looks so cool. The ‘Stock Bomb’ is THE classic weapon power-up. A pac-man sits on the front of your ship and sucks in all the bullets. The pac-man then stores these bullets and if you don’t shoot (you know – hammer the fire button) then it charges up so you can shoot off a big old bunch of bullets. I’ve seen people finish the game just using this power-up. Truly skilled. Ordyne is a tough, cute, game that takes old school reactions to finish but it’s worth it. A true classic that was lost in the west and responsible more than any other game for why I'm now a developer in the games biz now. Now if I can just convince Namco to let me loose on Ordyne 2 for PS2. Nic. " 2002-11-27 17:42:49Z