Game Review: ORB

What's better than a fun, motion-controlled action arcade game? One that's stylish and as a bonus won't break the bank either. Version 2.0 of Palladium Power's ORB made a splash in the Marketplace a couple of weeks ago when it went on a one-day sale for the low price of free and since then has been pretty popular. Now whenever a game is offered for free in the Marketplace, we always tend to be a little suspicious and hopeful we don't get stuck with a lemon but ORB has pleasantly surprised us (plus we waited to actually pay for the game). Follow the break for our full thoughts on and score of Palladium Power's ORB.

The Basics
The objective of the game is simple enough: you control an orb and avoid the orb falling off the tiles its rolling upon. Maneuvering the orb is done through tilting the phone side-to-side while controlling the speed is done through a tilt up/down action. The 5x8 grid of tiles is slightly tilted in the area of the screen given in order to give you a better idea of control and more time to predict any obstacles. Speaking of which, there are quite a few varieties of special tiles that can throw you off (figuratively and literally):

A Yellow tile that shows an arrow on top of it and when your orb rolls on top, it is 'bumped' in the same direction as the arrow.
A Red tile which, when rolled over, explodes all of the ground within a 2-3 tile radius.
A Blue tile which will launch your phone in the air in order to make it across large jumps.
A Green tile to rapidly accelerate the orb in your current direction.

The in-game graphics are superb and undoubtedly some of the best we've seen in a game without the Xbox Live brand on its tile.

The Good
We found plenty to enjoy in our time with ORB. For one, the presentation quality is absolutely through the roof. They are best described as 'slick', lending an ultra-futuristic vibe to the entire game. It really works too: the in-game graphics are superb and undoubtedly some of the best we've seen in a game without the Xbox Live brand on its tile. But it's so much more than that, as Palladium Power has translated the look and feel of the game to directly match the rest of ORB's interface. The result is a title that is a cohesive package; everything from the menus to the pause screen carries the distinctive look of ORB's gameplay. Honestly, you could tell a friend ORB is an XBL game and they may just believe it. Plus we really enjoyed the tiles-based obstacles which added some nice differentiation while playing. Throw in the online and local leaderboards too and the game has a whole new competitive angle to it. We also give points out to any game that handles resuming well after you leave the game only to return later, and luckily ORB is among those select few.

The Bad
So as you can tell, we really enjoy ORB's strong features and we commend the presentation work Palladium Power has put into the game. But every game has its downsides and ORB is no different. The biggest deduction against the game is its limited replay value. This is mostly due to the game restarting from the basic beginning each time you lose, and when you're looking for more of a challenge there's no difficulty options or skill-based levels to choose from. As much as we enjoy playing the game, it's also frustrating when you make it far into the harder areas of a marathon session and you have to restart--from the very 'holding-your-hands' beginning--in order to get your fix. This made us leave the game more often that we really wanted to, so the addition of a few difficulty levels would go a long way to making this right. Besides that, there's a few more nitpicks we have for the game. When we first fired up ORB and pressed the Play button from the main menu, the game abruptly started. While that may seem like a good thing, the problem is that we had no familiarity with the game and there wasn't even any sort of 'countdown' in order to be ready. Of course now that we're used to it the issue is no longer a big deal, but we still think it's worth correcting. Another thing is the lack of an accelerometer calibration option, which is something we consider a necessity with any tilt-based games. Finally, we sort of thought the music was repetitive while playing the game which only offers two very generic electronic beats.

Overall

We think Palladium Power has definitely crafted a stand out game with ORB. We ourselves have yet to see a non-Xbox Live game as wonderfully designed or as graphically beautiful as this title. You're not only getting a looker, the game has plenty of brains too thanks to its engaging gameplay and support for local and online leaderboards. The big thing really holding back this slick action game is the weak replay value, but luckily it should be an area that can be improved upon with future updates. Plus for the low price of $1.29, we really can't find much to complain about. So do yourself a favor and swipe those tiles over to the Marketplace and check out the game.