Co-op Game Orbitals Is A Split Fiction-like Delight, ‘An Anime You Can Play’
With so many co-op games out there, it was nice to see more debut at this year’s Summer Game Fest. It’s even better if they have a unique art style that immerses you in a fun world. Kepler Interactive’s upcoming Orbitals game, launching on September 3, is ahead of its time with a fun retro ’80s anime look — and my brief preview of the game has me eager for more.
Sitting in a beanbag chair in the corner of Nintendo’s preview area on the grounds of SGF 2026, I fired up the Orbitals demo on the Nintendo Switch 2 alongside another games journalist and was thrust into the action. Our spaceship was in bad shape, and we needed to work together to get it out of the dock and onto our adventure.
Kepler Interactive cleverly decorated its preview area to look like a child’s bedroom, complete with a crib and toys, to make it feel like we’re in the middle of a teenage bedroom. It reminded me of when I was hanging out with friends and watching anime like Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing, which was the point — Orbitals is “one of the most authentic creations” of Japanese anime from the late ’80s and ’90s brought to life as a co-op adventure game, Kepler Interactive PR director Jack Kennedy told me.
“It’s an anime you can play,” he said.
If you’re not a millennial who grew up watching that particular era of anime, the game is designed to appeal to fans of co-op games like Hazellight Studios’ Split Fiction or It Takes Two, Kennedy said. That turned out to be true. As my partner and I roamed the halls of the star game, we grabbed backpacks and did tasks that required cooperation — I used a remote claw to open a lid while my partner sprayed water, for example.
And, like Hazellight’s co-op games, the tasks we’ve handled have increased in complexity but never reached the point of frustration. It helped that we were close to each other in this co-op (er, bean bag) app. One series had our characters in front of a computer terminal, each of us pressing our specific buttons in turn, my partner and I shouting “me, then you, then me, you, me, you!” What a joy.
In any other visual style, this would have been fun, but the ’80s anime look feels so different and yet familiar to me, like a warm blanket made of memories. I realize that I’m a complete representation of the Orbitals look, but it’s not just an animation that developer Shapefarm somehow made to mimic that hand-drawn look of DBZ or Sailor Moon. The characters and environment look like they came from that era’s vision of a space-faring future, with chunky analog technology and baggy space suits.
Orbitals has a split screen game for players so that each can perform tasks in parallel. In this image, one player is using a laser to burn the metal while the other is bending it. Collaboration!
The visual identity of Orbitals is a deliberate homage. The show’s art director, Marcos Ramos, grew up in Argentina watching anime and brought it to life in the show, Kennedy said. The background has a hand-painted watercolor type of look, while the foreground elements can be picked up and exposed to make them stand out.
Most of the animation is set to the standard 24 frames per second or as low as 12, mimicking the anime practice of saving costs by only drawing half the frames — an interesting effect seen in animated films like Into the Spider-Verse.
Choosing to effectively animate half a frame isn’t something other anime-based games can do, Kennedy noted. Most of them are fighting or running action games where split-second is key, and players rely on counting frames directly to make precise moves. Orbitals, a more relaxed adventure, can play more with its visuals.
“It’s the right kind, this is the right team to work on — it makes it feel hyperauthentic,” Kennedy said.
At the Summer Game Fest, you must try Orbitals in a place decorated like a teenage sleepover.
My preview of Orbitals took 20 minutes of me and my partner wandering around solving puzzles to get our ship moving, so I didn’t really get a sense of what the game’s overarching story might be. Kennedy wasn’t able to speak to it, but described its overall vibe as an easy, family-friendly ride, “like a Saturday morning cartoon.”
Remember when shows would have a potentially hugely important high-stakes episode and then go to the beach to hang out? That’s the story of Orbitals, Kennedy says — a combination of the serious and the silly.
“In the end, the real experience is people playing together on the couch and laughing and pointing out things you can do,” Kennedy said. “That’s an extension of what the game’s story is trying to accomplish.”
