'Orbitals' is a co-op sci-fi adventure that recaptures the magic of Saturday morning cartoons

Growing up, the best Saturday morning cartoons were the ones we re-enacted with our friends on the playground.

Whether it was screaming at the top of our lungs to go Super Saiyan like in Dragon Ball Z, or sleuthing around the school as Darkwing Duck.

In the years since our childhood, we’ve often bonded with both strangers and friends over memories of Saturday morning cartoons, remembering the quaint stories and characters that influenced our lives in surprisingly profound ways.

Those stories have a unifying power, and that’s at the heart of developer Shapefarm’s debut, Orbitals, which seeks to combine that rich heart with the gameplay style of Hazelight Studios’ co-op games like It Takes Two and Split Fiction.

Will Orbitals be looked back on quite as fondly as those cartoons years down the road? Probably not, but this Switch 2 exclusive is a no-frills co-op smorgasbord that’s delightful from start to finish.

Editor's Note: Since Orbitals requires two players to complete, this feature is co-authored by George Yang and Hayes Madsen.

Name a more iconic duo.

You play as Maki and Omura, two space explorers tasked with finding power cores to power up their home ship and prevent it from being destroyed by a cosmic storm.

Orbitals is very similar to co-op games like It Takes Two and Split Fiction, both from Hazelight Studios.

Strictly a two-player game, you and a friend have to work together to solve environmental puzzles while communicating with each other.

This dynamic complements the friendly camaraderie between Maki and Omura, the former of whom is a bubbly girl and the latter a more laidback, blue-skinned male humanoid with horns. (Image credit: Shapefarm) Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Orbitals is its sense of lightness.

This is a game laser-focused on fun, evoking that through smart puzzle design, cooperation, collectibles that are all tied to fun little minigames, and more.

Experiencing Orbitals was just like marathoning an entire season worth of anime.

The 80s and 90s anime art direction emphasizes thick lines and simple shading, as opposed to modern standards of meticulous detail and cinematic lighting.