Sometimes, the most simple experience is the best experience. That goes double for the mobile platform, where often times your only method of control is a basic tap motion. Orbits (Free) follows that principle to a tee, and although it can be a tad too simplistic in its presentation, it’s definitely worth looking into.
One button (or one tap anywhere on-screen, rather) — that’s all you’ll need to conquer Orbits. Though that’s way easier said than done, mostly due to how off-the-walls hard the game gets. The moniker isn’t just a buzz word, as you’ll quite literally spend the entire game orbiting around various circles, making your way around each stage to pick up green tokens that unlock an exit. Once you’ve picked them all up you’re not even home free, as you still have to get to the end.
Along the way you’ll encounter hazards, mostly presented by way of stationary or moving red triangles, or in the form of the actual circles themselves. If you happen to run into a part where circles meet — you’re dead. If you touch a hazard even once, you’re dead. Since you’re orbiting around rather quickly, things get really tough when there’s multiple loops and hazards involved.
Your only means of controlling your orb is to tap, which will switch “tracks" from the inside to the outside, and vice versa. You can do this as often as you want, though you will be at the mercy of how quickly the game registers each tap, which is good enough, but not as consistent as I’d like it to be.
It requires your constant attention, as switching tracks can often be a death sentence if you happen to look up for even half a second. Avoiding objects and loops is exhilarating, since you’ll have to think ahead as you’re moving throughout the level. Six themes range from the standard difficulty up to “Rage Quit," with roughly 10 levels in each pack.
While things do ramp up quickly, I wish there were more original designs that differentiated each set of puzzles. Different background hues quite simply aren’t enough, and although levels are often vastly different from one another when you actually break it down, you’ll feel a constant sense of déjà vu while you’re working your way through the game. It’s something that’s easy to shake given how fine-tuned some of the arenas are, but it’s something to keep in mind.
The only IAP to speak of is the ability to buy into a level-skip function, as well as the power to remove ads. The former is fairly sleazy, as it only allows you to skip one stage at a time. In short, it feels a bit predatory, but then again, it is a cheat code and isn’t necessary to complete the experience — all you really need is patience. Removing ads for $1.99 feels completely fair on the other hand as it essentially functions as a buy-out option.
Although the pacing isn’t the greatest, Orbits is a nice little twitch puzzle game that will test your tapping abilities, and then some. It could use a bit of tweaking and maybe a better level-skip function, but it’s worth checking out for free.
