Orbital Bullet (Switch) review

Orbital Bullet has you skimming through ring-based stages as you stomp and shoot enemies. Expect more longevity than your average shooter, with the game gifting a succession of weapons, perks, skills, and meta-game bonuses.

A developer once joked, “isn’t everything better with roguelike qualities?” After playing, Orbital Bullet, that playful statement seems to contain quite a bit of truth. At the heart of SmokeStab’s engrossing shooter are levels that resemble a stack of disks. As the protagonist scurries across each loop, you’re able to see enemies and hazards in the distance. Much like Housemarque’s brilliant Resogun, the perspective isn’t just eye-catching, it’s advantageous, letting you strategize when clusters of adversity lurk on the horizon.

But Orbital Bullet ups the ante, with playfields that offer concentric rings and stairways made of slabs that can transport you to an overhead loop. There are also teleportation pads that can whisk you between rings, shuttles that soar to other cylindrical structures, and even the occasional zipline. Maps are often used to move players across vacant spaces in most procedurally generated roguelikes. But with Orbital, they’re only necessary when navigating the complication of interlocking ring stacks, which can resemble metropolitan train networks. After a few runs, you’ll probably only need a peek at the chart.

Taste my Heel, Feel the Heat of My Boot Laser

Gratifyingly, the game’s astronaut-looking protagonist is nimble and can carry a robust loadout. He’s able to jump, double-jump, and pull himself up ledges, as well as dash to avoid damage. During each run, you’ll get to select from additional skills, such as a triple jump, the ability to hover, or even laser boots that char vulnerable foes as you glide right over them.

But you won’t need the boots to inflict melee damage. Simply hop on foes Mario-style and you’ll gradually deplete their health gauges. With armored foes, you’ll have to jump on top of them to remove their protective shielding before finishing them off with melee or ranged attacks.

Additionally, you can carry three different weapons and switch between them freely. Although ammo isn’t unlimited, defeated enemies sporadically drop icons that will refill your guns, whether you’re carrying a pistol, rifle, shotgun, grenade launcher, or even a bola (which is more effective in recent builds).  Smartly, the game isn’t too picky about elevations, with most projectile trajectories automatically angling to hit their targets. But you can crouch down if you need to fire a few rounds at the shelled creature shrouded in a nook.

The Instruments of Obliteration

What’s especially enjoyable is that each weapon encourages its own distinct play style. Rifles can hit far-flung foes on the other side of the ring. Plasma bursters and grenade launchers require a bit of vertical clearance, but they deliver a punishing area-of-effect detonation. In keeping true to roguelike tradition, your arsenal doesn’t remain static.  You’ll find randomized drops culled from the selection of weaponry that you’ve unlocked.

Skill trees not only offer navigational and health-boosting perks, but they can also increase your damage output, unlock medkits, or provide a droid that shadows behind you, firing at opponents. Small perks can be located, which do things like increase the odds of stealing life from an exterminated adversary or landing a critical.

Unlike some games with roguelike elements, Orbital Bullet remains enjoyable after you’ve seen all the weapons and perks on offer. The game’s first planet is a joy to play through on subsequent runs and it’s quite possible to avoid taking any damage. But subsequent spheres escalate the intensity, and you’ll likely find yourself surviving by near-constant dashing. Sure, it’s a reasonable test of dexterity. But only if you prefer being the hunter more than being the hunted. New areas bring a horde of foes flinging wide area-of-effect attacks and lock-on lasers that losing health inevitable.

I’ll Be Seeing You Around for A While

Naturally, there are enhancements in the meta-game as well. You’ll gradually unlock boosts from a permanent skill tree using nanobytes scattered across stages. From augmenting the selection of goods at mid-level merchants to gaining the ability to recycle your unwanted guns, persistent play is dutifully rewarded. Another currency is used to unlock new weapons and increase the level range of found arms.

While you can fault Orbital Bullet for the sluggish speed of its meta-game drip feed, the breadth of benefits is undeniably robust. There are different classes and skill patterns to discover, each injecting just enough variability to keep things fresh. But the most enjoyable aspect of the game is learning to flow. Turning into a stomping, shooting killing machine is truly stimulating- at least until enemies relentlessly assault you on subsequent planets.

Originally a PC title, Orbital Bullet makes a competent showing on Switch. Largely, the game maintains a 60 FPS performance in both docked and handheld modes, although an atypical sputter might be noticed. The developers didn’t adjust the game’s menus for the port, so you’ll face some small fonts and aesthetics that don’t match the high-resolution, voxel-style action. If you’re playing on an OLED Switch be aware that some of the environments can be pretty murky, especially if you’re playing in well-lit areas or outdoors. Sadly, there’s no option to adjust the game’s brightness level.

Conclusion

The early minutes of an Orbital Bullet run offer absorbing action, as you whip around wraparound environments. But there are a few blemishes. Creature stomping has little room for imprecision making it all too easy to lose health when attacking from above. While some recent weapon balancing has improved the title, the game still grows exasperating as players progress. But beyond these minor transgressions, Orbital Bullet seems to offer some indisputable evidence that roguelike qualities can improve most games.

Orbital Bullet was played on Switch with code provided by the publisher.