So most people seemed confused with Orbient’s release on WiiWare this week, and for that the blame rests squarely with Nintendo for not even bothering to communicate with people about the game. It’s an update/re-release of the Japan-only “bit generations” title Orbital for the GBA. I imported the title way back when and wrote up a review which you can read here. It’s a fun little game that offers some pretty unique gameplay elements and actually seems pretty well suited for the WiiWare platform…. if only Nintendo would make even a half-hearted effort to educate people about the games on the service.

It’s the 1st WiiWare title I’ve been excited about, and that’s mostly because I know about the title already so I’m not relying on Nintendo to inform me about it. Take my word for it though, it’s a smart little game that definitely deserves some attention. Worst case scenario, import the GBA version…. it’s prolly hella cheap now.

My importing of Nintendo’s bit generations titles continues! To those that don’t know, take a moment and look at my earlier post about Nintendo’s retro-esque titles. This time around I take a look at Orbital, which in a very basic sense is like Katamari Damacy in space. You start off as a tiny planet and bond and multiply with celestial bodies around the same size, growing with each new addition. (I’m not sure if you’re a star joining with other stars or as a planet joining with planets… So I’m calling them planets.) It all sounds very basic, but the game gets interesting when you talk about the controls.

You don’t control the star directly, you control it’s gravitational pull. You can attract and repel it. Holding down the attract button will pull you towards the closest largest object. Slowly repelling as you move in close you can achieve orbit around the object. Circling around until you repel yourself out of orbit, shooting off into space towards another planet’s pull. Using the two forces you can go into orbit around a body to change direction, or swing around the planet to move in a different direction. All in the name of joining with other planets and pulling small satellites into orbit around you, which give you bonus lives at the end of each level. Hitting larger objects results in losing a life. What’s interesting is that when you lose a life, it’s usually because you were holding down the attract button a little to much when you’re close to a large planet. Moving to fast to get into orbit, accidentially putting yourself on a crash course. The game rewards a light touch and patience to get into position.

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