While technological advancements have made modern gaming almost entirely unrecognisable compared to thirty years ago, I’ll always have a spot of nostalgia for those simpler times when gaming with friends meant piling up on the couch in front of a chunky CRT. When Orbitals first came onto my radar, it felt like a breath of fresh air and a blast from the past; with its retro anime aesthetic, split-screen co-op gameplay, and grand space adventure, the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive looked like a modern take on the classic experience, and I was lucky to attend a hands-on preview at Nintendo Australia ahead of its release later this year.
Our preview session took us through the first 45 minutes of the interstellar expedition, starting with a cutscene from 15 years ago when a powerful cosmic storm wreaked havoc on your spaceship settlement and sealed it away. The story then skips forward to the present day, when the storm wall is unexpectedly opening, and you play as teenage explorers Maki and Omura who venture out into the cosmos to save their crumbling home.
Don’t look down!
If you’ve watched any of the Orbitals trailers, you’ll instantly recognise the anime aesthetic which greets you from the opening. The muted colour scheme brings a softness to the cosmic setting, while the animation style evokes iconic anime from the 80s and 90s. It’s easy to draw parallels between Orbitals and the space Western anime Cowboy Bebop (especially given the setting), but you also wouldn’t ever mistake one for the other; with its unsaturated yet colourful palette and vivacious teenage protagonists, Orbitals’ identity is distinctly its own, reading far more like a tribute to the era than anything close to derivative.
The combination of the 2D art style with the 3D world is also remarkable. At multiple occasions during our short playthrough, I was struck by just how gorgeous the world is, and it’s impressive how frictionless the transitions are when moving between the cutscenes and your 3D exploration. The characters and animations are highly expressive, conveying a lot of personality in their gestures and designs, and although our time with the game was rather short, it was hard not to want to learn more about these characters, the circumstances that led to their predicament, and the journey they’re on.
Try not to get your partner killed, if you can help it
Orbitals’ gameplay is also an adventure of its own, immediately sending you out to solve problems with your partner. During our session we saw a wide range of objectives, with tasks ranging from platforming and rhythm games to flying spaceships and some good old-fashioned blowing things up. These obstacles are designed in an asymmetrical style, requiring you to work together using complementary abilities and encouraging strong communication as you play.
While this is conceptually quite straightforward, some of the objectives we faced during our preview posed a real challenge and required multiple attempts to clear. There’s one early section, for example, where one of your pair controls a laser to clear a path through dangerous terrain for your partner, while also periodically charging up a drone that will explode if its charge totally drains. The timing for this is tight, so teamwork is essential, and you’ll often find yourself counting down to an action or discussing a plan of attack before heading into the next trial. There were more than a few deaths during our session, leading to plenty of laughter while we ironed out our coordination, but the game always put us back just before the latest challenge, making it easy to pick ourselves up and try again. I didn’t find the controls to be as smooth as I’d have liked, but this is almost certainly something you’d get more used to with a little more time with the game.
I would die for these two
Orbitals also rewards you for venturing off the beaten path, with secrets such as collectable mini-games to find throughout. If you miss any, you’ll be able to revisit previous sections from a chapter select menu in the full game, allowing you to focus instead on just enjoying the journey rather than needing to find everything the first time through. The world is also full of fun details and some curious little critters you’ll meet along the way, and as a card-carrying cat lady, I can confirm that the ship’s huggable feline is certified cute.
After our 45 minutes going hands-on with the game, I can say that Orbitals is definitely one to keep an eye on. I’m intrigued to see how Maki and Omura’s adventure plays out as they venture further into the unknown, and the gorgeously crafted world is one that I’d love to explore for hours on end. Unfortunately, it’s also one that I’m going to have to enjoy from a solid distance; the game caused me severe motion sickness, and as much as I wanted to want to keep playing, putting down the controller at the end of our session was frankly a relief. This is, of course, not a criticism of the game itself, and if your brain doesn’t personally choose to freak out when confronted with conflicting sensory information about how you are moving in space, I think there is a lot of potential for enjoyment. Orbitals is something of a walk down memory lane in both its aesthetics and the couch co-op experience it’s targeting, while offering challenging co-op gameplay that should lead to plenty of laughs – I just wish it was something that I could look forward to myself.
Orbitals releases on 3 September 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2.
Previewed at an event hosted by Nintendo.
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