Orbitals on Switch 2 is the rare co-op adventure that truly feels like stepping into a Saturday morning anime: hand-painted backdrops, layered cels over 3D models, and a VHS-soft vibe that melts cutscenes into gameplay. After a hands-on session, I walked away grinning at the clever tool-based puzzles, the banter-ready pace, and a ship hub stuffed with minigames and tiny gags that make the whole thing feel like a living show you play with a friend.
What makes Orbitals pop is how fully it commits to the fantasy. Plenty of games nail the “anime-inspired” label in broad strokes—bold lines, saturated palettes, punchy effects—but Orbitals dials in every frame, then adds the kind of finishing touches you only notice when you’re hands-on. Characters animate with deliberate, stylized cadence. A gentle grain smooths transitions and blends the world into a cohesive, old-school warmth. The result doesn’t just look like anime; it carries the rhythm and charm of a hand-drawn episode that happens to respond to your inputs.
The premise is delightfully straightforward: two teens, Maki and Omura, bouncing from one cosmic scrape to another after a narrowly-avoided disaster. The story sets a brisk pace, but it’s the little character beats that sell it—playful jabs during downtime, a shared glance before a ridiculous stunt, and the kind of out-loud “we definitely shouldn’t press this button” energy that co-op thrives on. The duo’s dynamic comes through in how you play, not just what they say.
Orbitals is built around collaboration, not competition. Rather than leaning into twitchy platforming, it hands each player a distinct tool and asks you to cooperate with intent. One tool is a beefy beam cannon that can weld busted circuits, redirect energy, or gently (okay, not always gently) push environmental objects. The other is a grappling hook launcher that drags distant items closer, yanks panels off vents, or yodel-snatches collectibles you absolutely could have reached if you believed in your jumps. The magic is how often the game nudges you to combine these tools in creative ways: arc a beam through a set of mirrors while your partner repositions them with the grapple, or stabilize a platform’s power with a steady weld while the grapple user rearranges obstacles under a time limit.
What keeps this fresh is the sheer freedom to swap roles whenever you want. Toss your tool to your partner mid-flow, switch responsibilities, and you’ll notice problems reframe themselves. Suddenly the person who’s been welding for ten minutes is the one gleefully tearing panels off walls, and the level’s logic reorganizes around your new perspective. It feels less like “assigned jobs” and more like improvisational duet—two players riffing on a theme the level designer sets up.
Puzzles flow in a way that makes you feel clever without souring into roadblocks. One lava-crossing segment had us threading a co-controlled hovercraft through narrow lanes while one player managed propulsion and the other manipulated impromptu obstacles. Another highlight turned power maintenance into slapstick, with the welder holding a precarious current while the grappler frantically hauled components into place. And when Orbitals brings the full spectacle, it smartly drops split-screen in favor of a unified cinematic angle, letting both players share framing and focus for big moments. A rhythm-driven dance sequence that doubles as a power-on routine for a busted terminal is pure “cheer when you clutch it” energy—equal parts goofy and triumphant.
The connective tissue between levels—the pair’s ship—might be where Orbitals most fully sells the anime illusion. It’s a cozy, evolving space: each mission unlocks a new minigame or trinket that teleports back to your hub, gradually cluttering it in the best way. Think cabinets hinting at side stories, a radio that belts the game’s theme, and crew members who mutter as you pester them with your inevitable curiosity. The more we poked at this place, the more it rewarded us with tiny jokes and collectibles. Before long, the ship felt less like a menu and more like a clubhouse—one you’ll happily loiter in between missions just to see what new nonsense you’ve brought home.
Compared to co-op giants that heavily emphasize platforming, Orbitals skews brainy without feeling clinical. It’s tactile and forgiving, with elastic puzzle spaces that invite experimentation. We weren’t punished for clowning around with our tools, and that permission to play pays off in couch moments—little bursts of chaos you’ll retell later. You know the type: the time you welded the wrong node “on purpose” and sent your partner pinwheeling into a harmless hazard; the time you both tried to throw a switch at once and got something spectacularly unexpected.
Pacing matters in a co-op adventure, and Orbitals shows a confident hand there too. The campaign beats we played kept shifting tone: a quick-fire laser tag warmup, a tense traversal section that challenged our communication, a puzzle box that unspooled with “aha!” satisfaction, then a silly palate-cleanser. The designers clearly want you to laugh as much as gasp, to feel like you’re starring in a breezy, high-spirited show that just so happens to demand teamwork.
And wow, the presentation. Static backgrounds are lush and tactile, with strokes you can practically feel. Foreground characters and props carry a layered, cel-like look that holds up as you rotate around them or pass through shifting light. It’s that rare blend where the old and the new amplify each other rather than clash. Transitions smack of editorial flair—hard cuts to reaction shots, then a seamless snap back to control without jarring load stutters. The visual language is cohesive enough that it makes even small actions—like dropping a tool or poking a console—read with clarity and personality.
Performance in our hands-on build was smooth, and scene transitions felt near-instant. The moment when split-screen collapsed into a unified frame had no hitches, and co-op inputs felt snappy even during busier set pieces. Obviously, a preview can’t speak to the entire runtime, but the technical foundation looked sturdy, and the style remained consistent across varied lighting and environments.
If there’s a question mark, it’s longevity. Can Orbitals keep introducing novel tool combinations and set pieces across its full campaign? The early answer seems promising. Even within a short slice, the team showed a willingness to remix the formula—sometimes asking us to control separate systems in parallel, other times steering both players toward a shared mechanical rhythm. Crucially, it knows when to be quiet and let a moment breathe, then when to give you a toy and let chaos lead the way.
There’s also the comparison elephant: yes, if you’ve played certain co-op hits, you’ll recognize the “two players, one cleverly directed journey” format. But Orbitals asserts its own identity through an art style that doesn’t just mimic anime—it communicates in that language—and a design ethos that prioritizes expressive tools over precision jumps. That shift changes the flavor of the experience. It’s less about mastering a moveset and more about reading a scene together, reacting, and passing the spotlight back and forth.
By the end of the session, my favorite moments weren’t the loudest spectacles, but the scrappy in-betweens: huddling to plot the weld path before we committed; tossing the grapple mid-run because the situation demanded a new approach; returning to the ship and deciding, without words, to ignore the next mission for five minutes so we could try to beat the new minigame high score. Those are the memories co-op is made of, the afterglow chatter that lingers once controllers are down.
Orbitals feels like a confident first step into something special: a co-op game that doesn’t just dress like anime, but moves, breathes, and jokes in that space. If the full release maintains the pace and keeps inventing with its toolset, Switch 2 owners are in for a ride that’s as charming to watch as it is to play. Bring a friend, claim your beam or your grapple, and prepare to make a mess—in the best, most animated way possible.
