Developers have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to perfect one specific visual trick in gaming – making their game look like a cartoon. Over the years, it’s been achieved in various ways, whether in the cel-shaded techniques of Jet Set Radio or the more modern art direction of games like Ni No Kuni or Breath of the Wild, but no one has really captured the particular era of 80s and 90s anime. Until now.
Orbitals is a wholly co-op adventure, in the vein of It Takes Two or Split Fiction. There’s no single-player option, but there are multiple ways to hook up with a gaming partner, whether playing locally in couch co-op, utilising Nintendo’s GameShare to bring the game across to either Switch 2 or the original, or playing online with a free friend pass edition giving your co-op buddy native access to the game without actually owning it.
We really, and justifiably, have to talk about how Orbitals looks. Developers, Shapefarm, have absolutely nailed the aesthetic of 80s anime, taking hand-drawn watercolour animation cells, matching them to the traditional 12fps refresh rate in the backgrounds, and adding both film grain and CRT-style filters to top off the look. Studio Massket, of Attack on Titan fame, were also drafted in to handle the cutscenes, which is why Orbitals looks and feels so utterly authentic. The soundtrack is absolutely on point as well.
It’s startling, and even more alluring if you grew up during this era of Japanese animation, whether through the movie touchstones of Akira and Ghost in the Shell, or more underground titles like Appleseed and Macross. Everything here feels gloriously nostalgic, from the esoteric spaceship designs through to the character design, though there’s some welcome modernity to the game’s tone, largely stemming from the wholesome yet amusing back-and-forth between Maki and Omura.
There were definitely points where I was distracted by just how pretty it all looks, and there’s a vibrancy and life to the visuals that set it apart from pretty much everything else coming out this year. At times, that does actually hurt the readability of some areas, disguising connection points or targets through this sheer beauty, but when Orbitals looks this good, it’s easy to live with one or two momentary pauses as you parse the segment in front of you.
There’s a storm coming, with Maki and Omura the two young protagonists sent out from their home base in search for the Reactor Cassettes that power your station’s shields. Gameplay is centred around the co-operative back and forth between you and the other player, creating puzzles, challenges, and often hilarity when things go horribly wrong.
If you’ve played It Takes Two or Split Fiction, you’ll understand how this gaming partnership will work. You and your partner have to collaborate at every turn, each having their own unique role, starting from your spaceship where one person becomes the pilot and the other the gunner, through to each mission area, where you’re given a selection of weapon-like tools to push and pull with, shoot water, zap with electricity, or even possess alien spirit goo.
That all brings a cavalcade of different gameplay types, though they all tend to revolve around fixing machinery within a different base or sector of space. There’s not the wild abandon of ideas that you’ll find in Split Fiction – no turning into sausages in a pan here – but there are highlights, including a section where the machinery is working to a musical beat that you have to match, or another where you have to pilot a moving platform together, quickly devolving into shouting “LEFT LEFT LEFT” at each other. With a pal in tow, Orbitals is definitely a fun time, but there are few ‘wow’ moments in the gameplay for you to truly latch onto.
Fortunately, the duo of Maki and Omu are distinctly likeable, while their supporting cast of perky old people, a mysteriously wayward cat to pet, and mentor Togon. The script helps keep things lightly amusing, if not laugh-out-loud hilarious, though there’s a darker undercurrent and mystery. There’s a sensation that so much time was spent on the visuals that less emphasis was placed on the storytelling and character building, meaning that it can feel a little flat and one-note at times, made all the more obvious when sandwiched between the next edge-of-your-seat gameplay section, though it all builds to a satisfying and distinctly 90s anime-esque finale.
Orbitals hangs just a touch too much on its visuals. Stunning as it is, the game is always going to be compared to It Takes Two or Split Fiction, and there isn’t the overarching gameplay variety or creativity that Josef Fares and Hazelight have honed across their titles. It’s fun, engaging and a good way to spend some time with a friend, but there’s a spark missing to lift it to becoming essential. I don’t remember another game where I’ve wanted to like it just a little more; I’m utterly in love with Orbitals’ visuals and music, but playing it doesn’t match that incredibly high bar.
