Orbitals sets out to carve its own space in the co-op-only genre. This bold adventure takes the joyous camaraderie of split-screen puzzle solving and couples it with a striking throwback anime visual style that captured my attention from the very first frame. The actual puzzling never reaches for new or daring ideas in the same way, mostly content to emulate its contemporaries with familiar concepts rather than push the limits of what's possible in cooperative games, which can make it a bit predictable at times. But exploring the unknown bounds of space with a partner is still an endearing romp that was well worth the 10 hours it took to reach the end.
Orbitals is solely a two-player experience, but thankfully it has both local and online play, as well as a friend pass that allows you to give someone else a copy that's only playable with the original owner; similar to what developer Hazelight does for games like It Takes Two and Split Fiction. This flexibility is good because everything in Orbitals is designed for two people, and the coordination many puzzles require is further emphasized by the fact that you're able to see your partner's side of the screen at all times, regardless of whether you play locally or online.
It makes a stunning first impression before you even get to that action, with a stylized player select menu that takes all of the charm of the early 90's anime you would see on Toonami and distills it into a nostalgia that felt tangible. Instantly, I was transported back to those late nights staying up past my bedtime in my parent's wood panelled basement to catch an episode of Cowboy Bebop or The 08th MS Team; a portal into a world I wouldn't come to fully understand until much later in life.
Orbitals thrives in its ability to evoke that era of animation, and attempts to push it one step further by thrusting you into the roles of two protagonists with fitting archetypes – Maki, a disorganized and somewhat blindly optimistic hero, and Omura, a slightly more put together and calculated counterpart. Together, they often feel like two sides of the same quirky and curious coin. These two often bounced off of each other; when Maki's high energy and over-the-top enthusiasm would start to take over, Omura would come in and rationalize a situation or further assess the problem. It brought a necessary balance to the dynamic, keeping everything in line.
After their ship colony was nearly decimated by a powerful storm in space, both Maki and Omura were put into an I.M. – a machine that will reprint their bodies and keep their thoughts, emotions, and memories intact. Orbitals lightly touches on themes of what it means to be reprinted, with Omura making asides about if this is really him anymore after so many reprints, sometimes poking at these ideas philosophically but never fully wrestling with them. I wanted more from these ideas, especially as they come back around toward the end of Orbital's story, but they were never given time to fully flesh out that framework.
Tasked by your leader Togen to collect Cassettes that power your colony's ship, you'll venture out into the expanse. My partner and I started to delegate responsibilities as soon as we left our primary colony and headed for our travel ship. I helmed the main gun for the majority of our playthrough, blasting away any enemy ships or rockets that came within spitting distance. My partner in crime took the reigns of the ship itself, and he deftly drifted us through dangerous corridors, dashed out of the way of incoming attacks, and sometimes got us lost to the point where we struggled to make our way back on track.
The ship is the primary way of getting to your next objective. Orbitals is not an open world game, but it offers small pockets of freedom to fly around in. You'll fly to different rifts in the wall surrounding your colony to explore outside the bounds of charted territory. When you land in a new location, you're treated to big, bold text across the screen like you've loaded up the next episode in your VHS. You'll grab the highlighted weaponry from the center of the ship and head outside to a clearly marked hatch, and these hatches are where you find the more traditional action-adventure-style levels.
Early on, my partner and I explored a large mining operation run by robots with a knack for rhythm, which forced us to move to the beat as we looked for a Cassette in the deepest depths of mine shafts. We would pound in time with large drums, hop across moving platforms that swung side to side to the groove, and even found some form of alien life screaming along with the tune. These engaging moments mixed the world of Orbitals into the puzzle designs, making each puzzle feel contextually interesting and relevant as they fit with that rhythmic theme.
Most puzzles put the focus on a few different weapons that are introduced early on. Rather than constantly reinventing the wheel in each new level, Orbitals teaches you the primary ways you will interact with the world around you and then puts smart twists on those fundamentals throughout. Each zone will often require two different gadgets that are stashed on your ship – these range from a laser beam that powers robots and guides drones to a grappling gun used to open panels and rotate platforms. My partner and I often took turns swapping between this simple yet effective arsenal of puzzle-solving tools, constantly trying to guess who would have the more interesting job once we reached a level and who would be relegated to moving platforms for the other person.
We solved a myriad of puzzles as we bounced from sector to sector – some were great, demanding teamwork or making us feel clever for having figured them out, while others felt more like we just stumbled into the answer rather than discerning a satisfying solution. More than once we were left scratching our heads wondering why something had worked, which speaks to a general lack of visual feedback. While many interactable objects are clearly marked with identifiable imagery, it's not always intuitive what Orbitals wants you to do with those pieces.
Some puzzles are as straightforward as having someone hook a yellow lever to pull down platforms for the other to jump and dash across, providing a simple yet effective way across chasm or dangerous terrain. Other puzzles are a bit more involved, such as trying to get a small platform around tight corners by simultaneously shifting your weight left and right while also using the grapple to slingshot yourself and get around even tighter turns.
Challenges like that are where Orbitals really shines – the tandem nature of these hurdles forced us to tighten up our communication even if we both thought we were Pacific Rim drift compatible. It required focus as we swirled around this seemingly never-ending maze of twists and turns, but once we locked in and got our methods airtight, we overcame the obstacle and improved our communication skills in the process.
Introducing all of its base weapons upfront means you're exposed to fewer new mechanics as you get deeper in. As a consequence, Orbitals struggles to do anything transformative or with a final flourish toward the end. Two-thirds of the way through, I felt I had seen all of the tricks it had to offer, and an overeliance on its ship sections began to wear on me. While there were a few small surprises here and there, I spent the last three or so hours mostly going through the motions as I waited to see how it would wrap up. For how short of a game Orbitals is, it feels like it stumbles across the finish line with its final few sequences rather than taking a triumphant victory lap.
Despite that weak third act, Orbitals does a lot to make up for it in its smaller moments. As we walked around the ship interior in-between zones, it was fun to discover all of the new life that had stowed away. Capybaras, weird hi-fiving robots, and more began to breathe personality into our little vessel, making each journey to a new area exciting and filled with wonder as we waited to see who would choose to make this place their own next.
This cold hunk of steel went from nothing more than a means of transportation to a comfy and cozy home. As we explored more regions, we opened up new rooms onboard and found mini-games to compete in, complete with leaderboard spots to fight over. These rooms brightened up the space with ship combat simulators, electric jump ropes, and the kinds of diversions that made this world full of whimsy and intrigue.
The ship also contains smaller details that flesh out Omura and Maki as more well-rounded characters. Stumbling into Maki's disheveled and disorganized room with a drum set in the corner perfectly contrasts Omura's immaculately kept bedroom with a piano. The way they put their arms up when running down staircases, or how they interact with the many objects around the ship – these details inject personality into these characters outside of the main conversations and cutscenes. There is a curiosity throughout Orbitals, everything begging to be poked and prodded with an inquisitive nature.
Its story emulates some of the great plots of early 90's anime, but does little to rise above its inspirations or put its own stamp on these tales. Its early hours focus on the pressure put on Maki and Omura to travel beyond the broken colony, searching for machinery to keep their dwindling colony from extinctiown. It vaguely gestures at a larger conflict brewing, alluding to a dangerous storm approaching or differing ideologies on what it means to truly be alive, but it waits too long to meaningfully grapple with its more existential and interesting threads. I wanted to see more punch from a game so clearly inspired by a murderer's row of the great anime that came before it.
Despite its cooperative nature, this world can feel very isolating. You venture out into the great unknown and are sometimes met with deafening silence. Maki and Omura acknowledge that this silence could spell the end of their way of life, but rarely does Orbitals bring the stakes to match such a powerful concept. Instead, its main story hook relies heavily on gathering magical macguffins so Togen can put his plan into action. It doesn’t dwell on its self-reflective moments or give them room to breathe, swiftly ushering us from one level to the next with little reflection or examination as to how they all connect. It really is a story centered on Maki and Omura providing for their colony, and hoping to make everyone's lives better in the process – and while that’s enough to carry it across the finish line, it does fall short of the full potential it clearly has.
Whether we were on the ship or exploring an asteroid, all of Orbitals is carried by an eclectic soundtrack from artists like Swedish music duo Falk and Klou and Japanese singer-songwriter Mami Ayukawa. Its songs strike a balance between paying homage to anime of the 80's and 90's while finding its way to stand on its own. This soundtrack elevates everything around it without feeling like a backdrop just to set the scene – and the use of dynamic music that changes as you explore each zone gave them distinct personalities. It’s another tool in developer Shapefarm's belt to bring the vision of playable anime to life, and perhaps its most effective.
Orbitials has the uncanny ability to pull out long dormant memories of my childhood watching anime – memories I wouldn't come to fully appreciate until adulthood – giving that nostalgia a playable form for me and a friend. Its familiar but entertaining puzzles and striking art style make it a strong addition to any co-op library, and one that asked me to continually keep my curiosity piqued, if only to have it answered with a fun, fleeting interaction that put a smile on my face for a moment. It does lose some momentum toward the end, but this world is always exciting to get lost in – if for nothing else, just to let the synthetic soundtrack and whimsical characters wash over you like a warm Saturday morning. This adventure might be over, but I'm excited to see what Shapefarm does next.
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