15 September 2026
by rawmeatcowboy1
Orbitals, an intergalactic 2-player co-op adventure set in a wholly new retro anime world, is available exclusively on Switch 2 right now. Team up as Maki and Omura, two inseparable explorers with a whole lot more determination than experience. You’ll brave the perils of space in search of help for their crumbling station home, now trapped within a supernatural cosmic storm. Our duo must venture beyond the storm and into the unknown in a desperate bid to save their home. It’ll take brains, bravery, and teamwork to make it through!
Orbitals captures the warmth and style of classic Japanese anime, brought to life with hand-crafted cinematic cutscenes from Studio Massket, full voice acting in English, Japanese and 6 other languages, and an original soundtrack that channels the magic of the era. In order to achieve the retro anime look the team was going for, Unreal Engine 5 was chosen and it appears to have really made an impact.
In a new feature on the official Unreal Engine blog, Johannes Varmedal, Associate Art Director at developer Shapefarm, put together a technical deep dive on not just what the team was trying to capture with Orbitals, but how they used Unreal Engine 5 to make it possible. Shapefarm paid a slavish amount of attention to every single detail of 80s and 90s anime, and it absolutely shines through in Orbitals.
Unreal Engine’sult render pipeline and achieve our retro-anime art direction; one of the biggest technical challenges of the project
