Orbo's Odyssey
Orbo's Odyssey is...an experience.
Developed by Fever Dream Johnny, Orbo's Odyssey is a spinoff of a previous short game of his, Peeb's adventure, which I played first, a few weeks prior to learning about this wonderfully odd game.
The game kicks off right away with Orbo and his work mate Peeb locked in the office, with no way out. well not exactly no way out, its just that neither Peeb nor Orbo have arms, so they're unable to turn the door knob to let themselves out. Peeb has the brilliant idea of using the 3D printer in the office to make springy legs and jump through the roof, but Orbo cuts him off, telling him thats a terrible idea, they should 3D print an arm attachment instead to open the door. Great! a simple plan, they'll be out in no time. Unfortunately for our duo the printer is missing some parts that are scattered throughout 4 worlds, which conveniently, are accessible via portals in the office. So with that, Orbo sets out on his odyssey to travel the worlds looking for 3D printer parts.
If you hadn't guessed from that introduction, Orbo's Odyssey is a 3D collectathon platformer, one of my favourite game genres. The most important part of a platformer is the controls, if a platformer doesn't feel good to control, the games going to suck, end of story. Luckily this game controls nicely, and has some unique movement mechanics not seen in many 3D platformers to keep things interesting. Orbo is able to launch himself at high speeds and essentially fly for a short period of time. This ability leads to being able to shoot all around the levels very quickly and reach places that would be a struggle to get to using typical platforming controls. it's a lot of fun just darting all around the place at high speeds and seeing how high you can go.
Developer, Fever Dream Johnny doesn't go by this name for no reason, the games that he creates make you feel like you're in a fever dream, Orbo's Odyssey is no exception. The first world you explore in the game (well if you chose the same portal I did I guess, since there's not actually any set level order) is Shlarp City. This area kinda gives me the town from the Cat in The Hat movie vibes, but if you took some acid before visiting the town. The city is full of yellow and green houses that all twist and distort in unique ways, but in a uniform manner. Where things get really strange is the residents of the town, they're all identical cardboard cutouts of a stock photo of a vampire. One of the goals for the level is to find the 5 golden vampires and knock them down. If you explore the level enough you may also notice cardboard cutouts of rats and mice in strange places, or high hard to reach ledges. I never figured out what the mice were all about, they're found in every level, for seemingly no reason. The other levels are no less weird either, one level is a uranium mine, in a large human(ish) business man asks Orbo to get him a delicious chunk of uranium as a snack. There are also Vampire snipers who will kill you if you stray too far out of the safe zone. The third level I visited has a giagantic garden gnome and two rubber ducks, one of whom built the gnome, and the other who despises it and asks you to destroy it with a cannon for a reward (a 3D printer part, of course). This is just barely scratching the surface of the obsurdity of this game, but I feel it's better to experience it first hand with as little prior knowledge as possible.
I'd reccomend this game to anyone who's a fan of 3D platformers, or just weird games, it's a short but enjoyable experience. It can be beaten in a little over an hour, but with some secrets strewn about to get you to the true ending, it may keep you playing for a bit longer if you choose to go for full completion. The game is quite cheap too, so I reccomend supporting a small time indie dev if you are able to, and picking yourself up a copy on itch.io or Steam for a fun afternoon of obsurd antics in the world of Orbo's Odyssey.
Published on: March 13, 2024