This game has nothing to do with pollution, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the sky. It's green. In fact, it's not just the sky—it appears that in this game, everyone has become so wasteful that the smog has spread into the entire universe, tinting it a pale greenish-blue. That's got to be pollution, right?
Orbita, an adventure and exploration game by Skatehead, puts you in control of a cute little guy with a trapezoid-shaped head. Venture around the planet, visit different perilous locations, and solve puzzles to discover the three batteries that power his ship. Yes, it appears that the little guy's spaceship runs on Duracells. The wonders of science.
Controls are simple: [left] and [right] arrow keys to move, [up] to interact with objects in the environment and to talk to creatures that you might encounter. Gameplay occurs on two levels. When you are within an environment like the one you start out in, you can exit on either side of the screen. The view changes to one of the planet, where you can quickly travel between locations, represented by a smaller view of what's in the environment. These can be entered by pressing [up].
While traveling across the planet, you will come across locations that are impassible. Fear not, for the cause is a puzzle that needs solving or some bizarre death trap that doesn't seem to be guarding anything. Enter the location and solve the puzzle/avoid spikey death and continue on your quest. You will find several useful items scattered about, so explore every location carefully.
Once you have one of the elusive batteries, skip back to your ship and put it in place. Once all three batteries are returned, forgo any repairs that you might need from, you know, crash landing into a deceptively small planet—and take to the skies!
Analysis: Orbita is a short, interesting little adventure game that is lacking in story but strong in atmosphere. The puzzles are relatively simple, but vary widely and keep the game from getting dull. I enjoy the minimalist art style, and the contrast of white foreground and green sky gives the game a quirky, highly atmospheric feel. I feel the strongest part of the game is the use of an overworld-style view of the planet for travel, instead of having to go through every location over and over due to the large amount of backtracking needed to get the batteries to the ship. Also: there's an interesting surprise in store for you once you get power back to the ship. A surprise that, like much of the rest of the game, makes very little sense because it goes unexplained. But it's still fun.
However, Orbita is not perfect. While some of the puzzles are pleasing and offer a certain sense of accomplishment, others go far beyond the realm of frustration into a dimension I consider rather sadistic. This includes an unforgiving collision detection system—I would advise not going into the same city as those dang spikes. It doesn't help that the traps have to be traversed several times in both directions, making the whole adventure longer than it ought to be, since you can only take one hit before you die. Furthermore, the items that you can interact with in the world are not always clear, so you may search for a while before realizing you missed something on the other side of the world. Rawr.
Still, for its faults, it's a nice little adventure. Give it a try and for goodness' sake, help your fellow gamers out if they get stuck!
Walkthrough Guide
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Orbita Walkthrough
There are two parts to your quest: batteries and a secret code. Below are the steps for acquiring the batteries. The code info is here after the battery-puzzles.
Move right to the main (planet) screen. When you can't move right any more, push "up" (PUP).
Move to the large hanging rectangle just to the right of the hole. PUP. The square will fall down by you. PUSH UP AGAIN TO GRAB IT.
Then just push it into the hole. Walk over the hole, back to the planet screen. Go right. PUP at the next blockade (the squash-box).
Move to the right until you get to the box. Nudge it while it's halfway up, so you're resting against it and you can't move (but it's still working). If you keep pushing forward, you will automatically move across the base in plenty of time when it's down on the ground. This works whether you're alone or if you have items. Exit to the right.
Move to the space mushrooms. PUP. You won't enter automatically.
Move to the disk. PUP to get it. Exit to the right.
Move to the next block: spike trap. No real trick to this one, just timing. I stopped between each spike with room to spare. Exit to the right.
Move to the next block: the ball tower. PUP. Play the destroy-the-balls game. Again, no real trick: just keep moving the walls until all the balls are caught.
A battery will appear to your right. Move to it, PUP, and you have it. Move left and go through the same traps as before.
Go to your ship. PUP. The battery will go into its slot.
NOW YOU HAVE A CHOICE:
APPLE-BATTERY
Go to the planet screen. PUP at the trees. Get the apple lying on the ground (PUP).
Move right again, going through all the same traps (squash-box and spikes). PUP at the little building. This is the one that is after the tall tower and before the wall with a wedge taken out. You'll know it: it's the only one with a computer and a little man in it.
Move to the man. PUP. Take the jackhammer. Exit the room, and move left. Go through the usual traps. PUP at the skull-and-crossbones.
Move far left to the edge of the grey matter. Press down ONCE. Then step right and press down ONCE again. Continue until you have a tunnel to the TNT. If you hit a mine, you die. You don't have to restart the game, just hit "try again". If you dig too deep, you're stuck. So just make a slope.
PUP when you get to the TNT. Move left up your tunnel, exit screen to plant map, then move right to the wall with the wedge out of it.
Go to the wall and PUP. TNT goes into the wedge, and the wall blows up. Exit right to planet map.
Go all the way to the right, PUP at the thorn-trap (just before the ship). Just walk in and PUP at the battery. Go back to the left and back to the ship. PUP to place battery.
or
THORN-BATTERY
Move right from the ship. PUP at first stop, where you dropped the box down to plug the hole. There is a crate on the left side of the screen. Go to it and PUP. Now you can push it.
Push right to the squash-box. Move the crate until part of it rests on the base. The crate gets squashed and a battery appears. Go through the squasher and quickly tap PUP to get it. Take it back to the ship.
Now you have the Killer Space Octopus duel, and you're done.
PUP to fire. It hops up before it vanishes, so avoid touching it OR the missles it fires. See these boards for some good strategies.
The code
If you haven't already got the code, you'll need to:
At any time during your travels, PUP to enter the Space Mushroom scene (just before spike-trap)
Pick up the computer disk that's lying on the ground. Move off to the right.
Go to the building with the computer and the little man in it. This is the one just before the stone-wall-missing-a-wedge spot. Move to the computer and push UP. A code will appear.
The code is:
4123
Finally,
after you have all 3 batteries in, the game will ask you to enter the code. Punch in the numbers and you're off.
(MY first walkthrough. Hope it's OK)
Posted by: Merricat
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February 3, 2008 5:16 PM