Released in Japan only, Ordyne is a cute and colourful (and very Japanese) one or simultaneous two-player ‘bullet hell’ shooter that was developed and distributed by Namco in 1988.

Ordyne has garnered something of a cult following over the decades, though, and although I’d never played it until now I had heard of the name before.

Players control a genius scientist, called Yūichirō Tomari, and his Chinese assistant, Sunday Chin, as they attempt to rescue Tomari’s fiancée, Kana Aibara, from the evil Dr. Kubota and his army of robotic minions.

Tomari and Sunday fly small aircraft that can fire forward and also drop bombs downward.

Enemies follow set patterns and drop crystals when destroyed. Collecting these crystals then allows you to purchase special weapons and extra lives at a floating inn that you can enter at certain points during battle.

In total there are seven different rounds to complete, each with a boss battle at the end. Occasionally a blimp appears with “Dream” written on the side of it. If you fly into this a minigame can be played where you fire at a rotating wheel to try to win extra crystals or other goodies.

Talking of ‘rotating wheels’, from round two onward you’ll encounter large rotating areas of that have safe paths through maze-like destructive areas, which are a challenge to negotiate.

Ordyne features digitised voice samples (in Japanese), and some humorous touches (like the player characters holding in the air temporarily, then falling, after their craft has been destroyed). After losing all your lives it is possible to continue the game by inserting extra credits.

Ordyne may not be a particularly well-known game, but it’s still well worth playing now, and you don’t need to speak Japanese or read Kanji to be able to play it. In fact, pretty much all of the in-game text is in English.

If you like weird Japanese shooters and haven’t played Ordyne before then I recommend giving it a try. The game was ported to the PC Engine in 1989 and was later re-released on Wii, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

More: Ordyne on Wikipedia