I found a new 2D arcade game with amazing music that I like to play a little every now and again. It’s decently new—it came out in 2017 and it’s by Nickervision Studios.

It’s called Orbt XL and it’s only $1.09 on Steam, but sometimes it goes on sale for as cheap as 50 cents (I bought it for only 59 cents!). It has overwhelmingly positive reviews, but don’t get too excited...it’s a very small and simple game. However, the plus side on this is that it takes up almost zero room on your computer.

The basics of the game are that you are a planet and you orbit around a black hole, avoiding comets by pressing the space bar. If you get too close to the black hole, that’s also a game over. The overall goal of the game seems to be to reach an amazing high score, and there are plenty of Steam achievements to congratulate you as your high score keeps going. Don’t worry though, even if you don’t reach a new high score every time, you still collect points so you can buy new planets to orbit with. It’s a fun algorithm that makes me feel like everything I do on this game is worth something because I’m always earning points.

Overall, it’s not the kind of game you would play for hours at once and obsess over every single achievement, but it’s a great game to buy while you are waiting for a bigger game to download on steam. More importantly, it comes with steam achievements.

Tips for Beginners

If there are a lot of asteroids at the same time, ride around the outer layer and wait it out. Just remember, it doesn’t count as progress so you don’t make any points while doing this.

You get points for near misses of the asteroids and there is an achievement for 50 near misses. Just don’t try to do this when you are almost at a new record for spins.

Determination is key for getting those high scores! Oh, and practice!

More about Nickervision Studios:

Nickervision Studios only has three games on steam: Bit Blaster XL, Diamo XL and Orbt XL. The XLs just show that it is the updated version made for steam. There all small arcade games that aim for a big final score.

The maker of the game, Adam Nickerson, learned how to make games in his spare time and really isn’t in it for the profit. It’s great inspiration to try making your own games, just look at how great his turned out.

High Scores

As of publishing this, the current high score is 750 by Argen as seen on Steam. The second highest is a close 747 by FANTOMAS. In order to get on the high score board you have to get at least 138. This sounds pretty hard. I don’t know if I would recommend trying it.

The max steam achievement for getting high scores is 75 points and only 11.2 percent of Steam players have achieved it.

My high score is 39, so I would say getting 75 sounds challenging and frustrating.

The lowest steam achievement is five points and 81 percent of people have it, so it’s easy to start.

The Music

There is actually only one song that plays in the game, plus some cool sound effects. The song is DJ Chacha “Cover Trance.”

The Planets You Can Unlock Are:

Mercuryish

Venushish

Moonish

Marsish

Jupiterish

Saturnish

Uranusish

Neptunish

Sunishish

Borgish

Blackholeish

Dogeish

Pixelish

Thatsnotamoonish

Plumbish

So what’s so awesome about this game?

Amazing Music!

Funny references to TV shows, movies, and internet memes!

Steam Achievements!

An amazing Algorithm!

Cheap!

Easy to Learn!

Fun Planets to Collect!

Supporting a small Business!

What are the down sides?

The game gets pretty boring after getting the first five easy achievements.

Every time you play the game, it’s the exact same. I wish the background changed or something new.

Not a lot of Easter Eggs.