Orbitals Review: A Charming Co-Op Adventure That Stumbles at the Finish Line

Orbitals arrives as a two-player exclusive from Universal Studios Hollywood Hub, launching September 3, 2026, and immediately stakes its claim in the co-op-only genre popularized by Hazelight Studios. The game wears its influences on its sleeve — It Takes Two and Split Fiction loom large as structural touchstones — but distinguishes itself through a striking throwback anime aesthetic that channels the Toonami era with genuine affection. For players who have exhausted the current crop of cooperative adventures and crave something with a distinct visual identity, Orbitals offers an endearing, if uneven, 10-hour journey that captures the camaraderie of split-screen puzzle solving even when its mechanics play it safe.

The premise centers on Maki and Omura, two protagonists reprinted by an I.M. machine after a catastrophic space storm decimates their colony ship. Tasked by their leader Togen to collect Cassettes that power their vessel, the duo ventures into uncharted rifts beyond the colony walls. This setup lightly probes philosophical questions about identity and continuity — Omura occasionally wonders aloud whether he remains the same person after multiple reprints — but the narrative never fully wrestles with these threads. The result is a story that gestures toward the existential depth of its 90s anime inspirations like Cowboy Bebop and The 08th MS Team without ever landing a meaningful punch of its own.

What Is Orbitals?

Orbitals is a co-op puzzle action-adventure built exclusively for two players, supporting both local split-screen and online play with a friend pass system that mirrors Hazelight's approach — one owner can invite a friend who doesn't own the game. The entire experience is designed around mandatory coordination; you see your partner's screen at all times, and progression hinges on constant communication. The campaign runs roughly 10 hours, structured around ship-based exploration between discrete puzzle zones accessed through VHS-style episode transitions that reinforce the retro anime presentation.

Universal Studios Hollywood Hub has crafted a package that understands the social contract of co-op gaming: flexibility matters. The friend pass removes the barrier of a second purchase, while seamless local and online support means you can play however your living situation allows. For a genre that lives or dies by accessibility, these features aren't optional niceties — they're the difference between a game you actually finish with a friend and one that sits in your library unfinished. The 10-hour runtime also hits a sweet spot for a focused cooperative experience, long enough to develop its mechanics but short enough to avoid overstaying its welcome.

Gameplay and Mechanics

Orbitals front-loads its toolkit, introducing core gadgets like the grappling gun and laser beam early and then iterating on them across zones rather than constantly adding new mechanics. The grappling gun opens panels and rotates platforms, while the laser beam powers robots and guides drones — each zone typically requires both tools, encouraging players to swap roles and responsibilities. This design philosophy creates a readable, consistent puzzle language, but it also means the game shows most of its hand by the midpoint. Two-thirds through, the novelty fades, and an overreliance on ship traversal sections begins to wear thin.

The puzzle design oscillates between genuinely clever tandem challenges and moments of frustrating ambiguity. High points include rhythm-based mining shafts where platforms swing to a beat and alien life screams along, integrating the world's personality into the mechanics. Low points arrive when solutions feel stumbled upon rather than earned — more than once, the reviewer and partner were left wondering why something worked, pointing to a general lack of visual feedback. Interactable objects carry identifiable markings, yet the intended action isn't always intuitive, turning some puzzles into trial-and-error exercises rather than satisfying deductions.

Ship sections serve as the connective tissue between puzzle zones, offering small pockets of flight freedom within a non-open-world structure. One player pilots while the other mans the guns, creating a natural division of labor that the reviewer's duo embraced — drifting through dangerous corridors and blasting incoming projectiles. These sequences initially provide welcome variety, but their increased frequency in the latter half exposes a lack of mechanical depth. The ship also evolves into a hub of personality between missions, gradually filling with capybaras, hi-fiving robots, mini-games like combat simulators and electric jump ropes, and character-revealing details such as Maki's chaotic drum-filled room versus Omura's pristine piano space.

Visuals, Audio, and Performance

The throwback anime aesthetic is Orbitals' strongest asset, evident from a stylized character select menu that distills early 90s Toonami nostalgia into something tangible. The VHS-style episode transitions — bold text slamming across the screen when entering new zones — reinforce the period presentation with flair. Character animations inject personality beyond cutscenes: the way Maki and Omura throw their arms up running down staircases, or how they interact with objects around the ship, builds characterization through motion rather than exposition alone. This visual commitment extends to the rhythm-based puzzle sections, where the beat drives platform movement and enemy behavior in a way that feels cohesive rather than gimmicky.

Performance details beyond the art direction remain unaddressed in the review, though the split-screen implementation — maintaining partner visibility across both local and online play — suggests a technical foundation built around the co-op mandate. The 10-hour runtime and focused scope likely keep technical demands modest, but platform-specific performance targets, frame rate modes, or resolution scaling were not discussed in the source material.

What Doesn't Work

The criticisms accumulate in the back half. Puzzle mechanics plateau early, leaving the final third feeling like a victory lap the game never earns — it stumbles across the finish line rather than sprinting. The philosophical themes about reprinting and identity, introduced through Omura's asides, are abandoned just as they become narratively critical. Ship sections, initially a novel traversal method, become a crutch that pads the runtime without mechanical justification. Visual feedback inconsistencies turn some puzzle solutions into lucky guesses. And the story, for all its anime reverence, fails to transcend its influences or deliver a climax with emotional weight.

These issues compound rather than exist in isolation. The predictability of puzzles makes the overreliance on ship sections more noticeable. The underdeveloped themes make the weak final act feel like a missed opportunity rather than a simple pacing misstep. For a game explicitly positioning itself alongside It Takes Two and Split Fiction — titles celebrated for escalating creativity and narrative payoff — Orbitals' inability to stick the landing stands in sharp relief.

Orbitals is worth your time if you have a reliable co-op partner and an appetite for 90s anime aesthetics — the first six hours deliver a charming, mechanically sound experience with genuine personality. Solo players should look elsewhere; this is strictly a two-player affair. Groups seeking the next It Takes Two will find a game that understands the assignment but lacks the courage to innovate beyond its influences. At 10 hours, it's a low-risk investment for a weekend of cooperative puzzle-solving, provided you temper expectations for the finale.