Orbitals is a charming co-op adventure that could do with a single-player mode

Here's an odd complaint about a very, very good game: I wish it were designed just a little bit differently. Allow me to explain.

Orbitals is built from the ground up as a co-op experience. It follows the path of It Takes Two and Split Fiction, telling a charming yet simple story through inventive two-player shenanigans. Every bit of it is designed to accommodate two people, from the puzzles to the gags and story beats. You can't even start the game without two separate controllers, and no, you can't play with a single Joy-Con, either.

This – like It Takes Two and Split Fiction – leaves Orbitals in an odd position: It's a great, great game with charm to spare, but it absolutely requires someone else to play along, and an extra set of controllers if you're doing so locally. In this economy, that's a surprisingly big ask, especially from the family-friendly console that is the Switch 2. Granted, if you've already invested in previous titles of the same genre, that won't be an issue. But for anyone going in blind, lured by the joyous recreation of Anime's golden era, it might come as something of a shock.

Sure, you can play online, but that's a whole other can of worms, especially because of Nintendo's highly specific communication regulations. (GameChat is still more fiddly than it is intuitive.) There's also a friend code for specific co-op purposes, which does help. But again, it's another requirement on top of things. Before you've even got a chance to press start, Orbitals has given you a bunch of asterisks.

For the review, I played it entirely locally via split-screen. Luckily, thanks to work, I have a couple of spare Switch controllers.

Phew.

OK, that's it. That's my major complaint about Orbitals. I wish it had any opportunity to play alone. And yes, I get it, that's not how it's designed. The entire purpose, both thematically in its narrative and gameplay, is to share the adventure. But at the risk of sounding petulant, it's still a bummer. Not a major bummer, but a minor chord.

Also, to Orbitals' credit, once you get things going, you can basically play the game on any Switch anywhere, just as long as one person owns a copy. That's pretty dang cool, and a fantastic way of finding someone, anyone, to play with you.

It's also important to get this out of the way first, because (nearly) everything else about Orbitals is worth celebrating. This is a gorgeous, fun, and inventive retro-infused joy that uses the past to feel fresh all over again, instead of wallowing in cheap nostalgia. A lesser game would have settled for recognizability and coasting on the visuals of 80s anime. Instead, Orbitals uses the iconography to tell a heartwarming story that's just on the right side of fun that we never stop to question some of its darker implications.

As for the gameplay, Orbitals never reinvents the wheel, and doesn't particularly care to, either. It is quite happy to repeat similar quests, mechanics, and even on-rails sequences as others in this genre. That's not inherently a bad thing, but it does trip over itself at times when it doesn't explain what it wants from players as clearly as it should.

For example, at one point, I noticed that I had already moved on to explore another part of the ship, while my co-op partner was still bumbling around the original mission area. Orbitals is asynchronous, meaning the players can progress at will, up to a certain point. That point came when we realized there was still stuff to do in the mission area, but the game didn't think it was important to tell. Despite an audio cue signaling we were done, we apparently weren't.

So, after some backtracking, we got the work done, and it wasn't a major frustration. Until it happened again. And again. Not enough to make us quit, but enough to make everyone involved ask: Are we stupid, or is this not as clear as it could be? (Please don't answer that.)

That said, and gripes aside, I had a lot of fun with Orbitals. I would have enjoyed it more alone, but that's a personal issue. I'm not great at co-op games, and it's difficult to find people with time to come play these things. Online is right out, because have you met people online?

But you review the game that's out, not the game you want it to be. Orbitals does the things it sets out to do well, and it's hard to fault a game for that. It is a gorgeous experience that fully understands the things it emulates, and there's a joy in living your own classic Anime aesthetic. Some of the missions aren't particularly good, and it starts to run out of steam towards the end, even with the shortened length. And yet, I never felt bored, and I wanted to see what happens next.

For younger audiences and those who still cherish the couch co-op experience, Orbitals is one of the must-buy titles of the year.