Orbitals Co-Op Review: A Short, Sweet Anime Adventure for Kids and Parents
I have to admit I love it when games have a specific visual style, use cool references, and feature a dominant color palette or unusual character shading. Simply put, I love it when a game doesn't follow the already well-trodden realistic style and doesn't look like just another Unreal Engine (5) title.
Orbitals is exactly one of those games. It breathes the charm of animated Japanese series from the late 80s and early 90s. Some will see influences from Cowboy Bebop here, others early works of Toriyama, and still others will swear that this space puzzle adventure is narratively a simpler Neon Genesis Evangelion. From the color palette and the "grainy" film-like presentation to the vision of a futuristic world and the characters, everything screams that this is a lost anime from the last century that we've only now discovered.
And it's not just visible in the animated sequences. The entire gameplay uses that visual style, too. If it weren't a split-screen experience, I believe someone could easily be fooled into thinking they were watching an animated cartoon on television.
In the mood for something completely different? Check out our Marvel’s Wolverine review!
Orbitals Co-op on the Switch 2
Ah yes, split screens. Cooperative gameplay. And on the Switch 2, no less. This was the first big problem with the review. As soon as I saw the game's announcement, I knew it would be hard to find a victim to play it with. Very few of my friends own a Nintendo console. Still, a former colleague, Dan (name changed to protect the innocent), eventually got his hands on a Switch 2 and joined me on this colorful adventure.
As soon as we got to the initial character selection between two characters, he immediately grabbed Omura, the horned blue young man, without asking me anything. He didn't even ask which character I wanted! Honestly, I probably would have chosen Maki anyway, the young girl with whom I share the trait of being talkative. Still, the question remains — why did Dan so expressly choose the naughty blue boy? (Editor's note from Dan: I was Player 2 on the right side of the screen; the guy was on the right side of the screen, totally logical!)
Story Setup and World
And so we set off on the adventure. At the beginning, we were greeted by a somewhat longer animated intro. In short, we find ourselves on a space station that is regularly ravaged by a great cosmic storm. Omura and Maki are among the younger members of the space colony, and with them we set out on an adventure to collect parts to restore the shields against the storm. After leaving the colony, we can play the occasional mini-game we find along the way, look around the ship, or jump to the next mission.
One of us always drove the ship, while the other was in the room controlling the weapons. And what's especially good, unlike some other cooperative games, is that character choice doesn't mean a permanent assignment of who does what. Dan and I switched around during the game, who drives and who shoots. The same thing applies when leaving the ship. We usually picked up the necessary equipment before a mission, but we could still freely choose who picked up which piece of equipment and then do other things during the mission.
Puzzle Mechanics and Tools of Orbitals
Throughout the game, we unlocked four tools we used in various ways: a hook for pulling things, a kind of water cannon, a laser tool for heating and cutting, and a microwave we could somehow use to control primitive life forms in space. And of course, we now had dozens of combinations to work out to get through the puzzle elements.
For example, Dan was on the floor below and used the water cannon to create a path through ground covered in magma, while I, from the floor above, pulled various objects to open a path for him below. Or one of us would heat metal, and the other would pull it with the hook and open a new path. We also fell into a giant eye and discovered an invisible path for the other player, who then opened a path from the other end for their partner.
Puzzle Difficulty and Frustration Points
Some puzzle elements aren't immediately clear, and it took us a few minutes to grasp the concept. There's no way to get help from the game, which often led us to shoot at everything around us until we figured out what was actually interactive. But it was never so hidden that it became frustrating. It was more of those "I'm dumb for not seeing this" moments. You know the feeling when you search for a solution for five minutes, and then realize the answer was literally right in front of you the whole time.
The game skillfully combines puzzle and platforming elements, although most of the challenge still falls on the puzzle side. Once we understood how to proceed, we mostly had no problems with the platforming. In the end, the game didn't bring any major shift compared to Hazelight Studios' co-op hits. Maybe it's a touch more complex, but beyond that, nothing really stuck with me as especially memorable. Perhaps eventually the ride on a kind of space cart, where both characters control the same vehicle by shifting to one end or the other. That was quite challenging, with a lot of shouting about which way to lean. Because, of course, the most important part of any cooperative experience is quality communication. Or at least quality mutual blaming when something goes wrong.
Technical Issues and Save System
The only bigger frustrating part was the very rare save-position feature during gameplay. Because of unstable internet, the game kicked us out twice and wiped about 20 minutes of progress because the last checkpoint was from 20 minutes earlier, and there's no manual save option. There's also no option for some AI to take over control of the other character if the other player's connection drops. This feels like a bigger miss in a game where you depend so much on the other person. It was really hard to accept the fact that we had to redo the same thing just because one of us (Dan, of course) lost their internet connection. The only bigger source of frustration is the very rare save-position feature during gameplay.
Aside from those irregular checkpoints, I don't recall any other significant technical problems, except one time when we couldn't park the ship. The game runs quite stably at 30 frames per second. A small note: the characters, due to an artistic decision, are animated at 24 frames per second to give the game more of that anime feel. Despite this, the gameplay underneath ties all actions to 30 frames per second, so the controls don't suffer because of the visual style.
A Rushed Ending
Just as we really got into the plot, started getting some antagonists, real problems, and conflict, Orbitals reached the end of its story. Somewhat quickly and unexpectedly. As if they ran out of either ideas or resources to make what they wanted from the start. So the story left an impression of rushed storytelling. One longer intro, and as soon as we reached the main plot, we got the resolution within half an hour. Just as we really got into the plot, Orbitals quickly and unexpectedly reached the end.
This is somewhat disappointing, because it did quite a bit of world-building and character-building for one short battle sequence and a bittersweet ending. What I do have to praise, however, is the pretty good synergy between the two main characters. Even the voice acting was done similarly to 80s anime dubs, which makes me feel even sorrier about the rushed ending.
In Conclusion
Dan and I needed about 5-6 hours to get through it across a couple of sessions. Of course, this will depend a lot on your co-op partner and how gaming-literate they are. This isn't exactly a game anyone can pick up right away; it requires handling both control sticks and combining well-timed actions. But don't let this discourage you. Perhaps Orbitals is exactly your entry ticket to get someone close to you into this world. Because after all, it doesn't last long, and if they happen to be fans of animated things, it'll be even easier to sell them on this concept.
And that could honestly be a fitting conclusion to this review, sweet, but perhaps still a touch too short. I'm convinced the story could have been expanded by at least one additional location and 2-3 hours, which would have given the game more room to develop the story further. But honestly, I can't say I didn't have fun with Orbitals. I believe Dan will also add in the editor's note that this is true!
Rating
7.3/10, Orbitals earns a solid score for its striking anime-inspired art style, clever asymmetrical co-op puzzle design, and genuine charm. Still, it loses points for its unreliable checkpoint system and a story that ends abruptly just as it starts to get interesting.
Age Recommendation
Recommended for ages 10 and up. The game has no combat violence beyond light, cartoonish confrontation near the very end, no mature themes, and its puzzle-and-platforming co-op format is approachable for a parent-and-child or sibling pairing. Younger kids may need help with the dual-analog-stick coordination and puzzle logic, but the visual charm, low difficulty ceiling, and short 5-6 hour length make it a great "starter" co-op game for a family gaming night.
Gemini AI Summary
Orbitals is a co-op puzzle-adventure for Nintendo Switch 2 with a striking 80s/90s anime visual style reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop and early Toriyama art. Two players control Omura and Maki, young space colonists gathering parts to repair their station's storm shields, using four unlockable tools (hook, water cannon, laser, and a life-form-controlling "microwave") to solve environmental puzzles that require true two-player cooperation, with character roles freely swappable rather than fixed. The reviewers finished the 5-6 hour campaign in a couple of sessions and praised its charm, character synergy, and anime-style voice acting. However, they criticized a sparse, unreliable checkpoint/save system (with no reconnect/AI-takeover option) and a rushed final act that resolves the plot within roughly 30 minutes of introducing real conflict. Overall verdict: a short, visually distinctive, easy-to-recommend co-op experience best suited as an entry point for newer or younger co-op players, held back mainly by its abrupt ending and save-system frustrations.