While Orbital is still circling around the iTunes App Store, the talented people at Bitforge were kind enough to have it make a pit stop here on AppSmile.com. Orbital is a retro-style action puzzler where the objective is to eliminate as many orbs – aka planets – as possible by colliding them one against the other. If the price is right I can almost guarantee that Orbital will secure a coveted spot among the top retro games in the app store!
Bitforge hit the nail right on its head when it comes to music, sound effects and graphics. The melodies are extremely soothing, and that makes losing yourself in the gameplay that much easier. The refined SFX are complimented by a speaking robot. Bitforge included a good variety of tracks (adding more is still encouraged), but the same cannot be said about the robot; at the moment he is too shy and needs a better vocabulary (the developers have only themselves to blame for making it so fun to listen to). In terms of graphics, all attempts to find something to pick on failed miserably. Orbital is so pleasing to the eye that I had to give up on the notion of improving anything, and instead came up with ridiculous ideas like an animation for the speaking robot (stupid? I dare you to top that).
Both the UI and the gameplay are incredibly intuitive yet still feature-rich; a rare combination that is masterfully executed by Bitforge. Inside the game you will use your cannon to launch orbs into space. Orbs bounce off walls and/or other orbs. Once the orb stops it starts expanding until it touches a wall or another orb. To destroy an orb you must hit it 3 times. At the bottom of the screen, right above your cannon, you have your death line – cross it and die. The two main game modes are “pure” and “gravity.” In pure mode the orbs follow a linear trajectory, which makes it rather easy to have the orb bounce off another orb right into the death pit. The gravity mode literally creates a gravity zone around each orb, which helps you stay away from the forbidden line by having the orbs “suck” you in to their gravity fields. The element of luck in gravity mode makes it a bit easier, but pure mode is more rewarding and fun.
When learning the trade in single mode, you can challenge a friend to a two-player duel. Here, each player launches one orb at a time. Instead of aiming to destroy orbs, your goal is to launch your orbs in such a way that it would force your opponent to self-destruct by having his orb bounce back and over his death line. In two-player mode you can play best out of 1, 3, or 5 games. The implementation of the world scoreboard is impeccable much like most of the game – it keeps track of scores in different game modes, displays all-time as well as last 24-hour scores, and even allows you to compete with your facebook friends. Another nice touch is that Orbital saves the current state of the game on quit, and even auto-resumes after you finish your phone call.
Other than teaching the robot to be more sociable, there’s only one reasonable request I can make. I would urge Bitforge to add another game mode, possibly naming it “fixed” (I swear not to sue for intellectual property theft). While the canon is fixed at the center of the screen, it keeps turning from right to left completing a 180-degree semi-circle each time (true to both game-modes). This makes the game very challenging (but never frustrating). A “fixed” mode will fire orbs in direction of your tap. This will significantly expand the gameplay – instead of relying on luck (gravity mode), or timing (pure mode), it will introduce an element of strategy where you can actually try and plan a few steps ahead.
I let a few of my friends play Orbital; each and every one proved that I’m not crazy and that the game is really that addicting. Like I said, for the right price the game will surely be leading the charts. And if Bitforge do add that extra game-mode I would have to urge my management to institute a special 6-dimple rating!
Review by Emil Frank
