Whilst I go out of my way to find leftfield games or games that try something new, it isn’t often that I come across a fresh idea that translates so well across to pure gameplay. Enter Ogo, a game that twists the twin-stick arena shooter into something quite unique and different.
Instead of having a character on one analogue stick and shooting enemies with the other stick, you’ll have control of two characters instead. Those characters are the Ying and Yang signs and you control them independently of each other. Each level is is set up to with protect a central point or the outer perimeter but you don’t aim to shoot the enemies. Instead, you need to position Ying and Yang around the level because they auto-shoot in a direct line between them. The closer to the centre between Ying and Yang you shoot the enemies, the more points you get. Alongside this there are also blue friendly orbs that you need to avoid shooting. This requires trying to move the line of shot out of the way so you don’t shoot and kill the friendly orbs.
There is an initial learning curve because it takes a while to get used to positioning your shots and avoiding the friendly orbs. Once you are used to moving things around like an elastic band, Ogo feels like great fun to play. Where Ogo excels most is that the unique game mechanic isn’t left as the sole point to play the game. Each of the 26 base levels in the campaign has something unique about its layout. It could be that Ying is trapped in the corner so you’ll be swinging Yang around to make all your moves. Some levels have ammo issues that you need to replenish. Other levels have a freeze mechanic turning a frantic shooter into a real time strategy puzzle as you get a few seconds to position your characters before you are frozen for the next wave of enemies. Some barriers are only passable with one character. A few levels are more like dodge em ups than shooters. There is so much variety crammed in, you can tell Ogo’s development team really understood its core mechanic and built the game around it.
There are some boss battles too which are very well done and require you to hold off waves of enemies whilst wearing out bosses. Each level has two bonus achievements attached. If you clear it without losing health or by hitting a certain score you unlock a bonus version of the level where the layout is trickier. Alongside the campaign mode there is an endless mode, an arcade 3 lives survival mode and a three minute score attack mode. Each one of these starts off with specific patterns and as you clear the waves, its gets progressively harder. It’s great to have some score attack modes as Ogo lends itself so well to that style of gameplay. I also found Ogo really aesthetically pleasing. Fans of geometric art will enjoy the teal flavours of the circles or orbiting orbs here.
Ogo is a breath of fresh air. Unique, fun, challenging and addictive, there is plenty to enjoy and lots of lassoing to be had. It is so satisfying to have a game not only feel unique and new but also think about how to best showcase a new game mechanic. Its a joy to play and I recommend it to anyone looking for something familiar but different.
Review code provided by developer. Out now on Steam.
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