ORBSORT is a Retraux Freeware Match-Four Game developed by Wish Volo on the PICO-8 hardware, and sees players arranging various colourful orbs in containers to score points. In the developer's words, this is a game where, rather than focusing on level-based puzzles, is based around point-based competition or endless play.
The game's A-Version can be downloaded or played here
, for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. The P-Version (cartridge) can be found there, on the Lexaloffle forums, or via the PICO-8 application's SPLORE browser.
Tropes:
- all lowercase letters: This is in play for the title of "welcome", the game's tutorial song.
- Anti-Frustration Features: ORBSORT features a wide variety of customization to increase accessibility to players. Both the text and orbs have contrast options for those who are color-blind, and the combo timer can be adjusted or disabled without any penalty.
- Normally, emptying a container will cause a random set of fresh orbs/shapes to drop in, but swapping the last shape for one from a full stack will prevent this, making combos and making matches easier.
- Combos: You can rack these up with subsequent matches in Infinite, Blitz and Knockout, and as long as the timer hasn't expired, these can keep stacking. Holding M/X will quickly drain the timer to let you get the points right away. The timer for these can be adjusted in the settings, and Clear Mode completely does away with combos.
- Competitive Multiplayer: ORBSORT has this in the form of Knockout Mode (or "ORBSORT Knockout"), where 2 to 4 players aim to use strategy and combos to drain the HP of their opponents and come out on top. 2 players can use a computer's keyboard, though 3 or 4 players will need to connect controllers to play together.
- Copy Protection: A subverted instance. On the P-Version online, a prompt will appear to let people know that if the version being played online isn't from Itch.io or the Lexaloffle forums, then the game has been stolen. Wish clarifies in the same screen that they're not mad, but still encourage players to check out the official pages for the game. Afterwards, the game can be played as normal.
- Endless Game: The main aim of Infinite Mode, where you just keep sorting orbs/shapes for as long as you want and score as many points as you wish.
- Evolving Music: Knockout Mode has several variations of its two main themes that switch depending on what's going on, such as a player making the first match or after at least one player has been eliminated.
- Justified Tutorial: When you first boot up the game, a tutorial will play out where you can get to grips with the game's unique mechanics. You can come back to it at any point via the settings menu.
- No Plot? No Problem!: All you do here is sort multicolored orbs/shapes into containers for points. What more needs to be said?
- Randomly Generated Levels: All the modes start off with a randomly-picked seed to kick gameplay off with, so you'll never match orbs/shapes the same way twice. For Blitz and Clear, whichever seed you got the high score on for one of the four configurations is present with the best time/score, and in both modes, you can select what seed you play before starting the game.
- Sound Test: One is available in the settings of the A-Version to allow a player to listen to the game's 16 songs.
- Timed Mission: Blitz Mode gives you 2 to 5 minutes to make as many matches and combos as you can to earn a high score. Clear Mode instead challenges you to clear 8, 16, 32 or 64 sets of orbs/shapes as fast as you can.
- Version-Exclusive Content: The A-Version is the only version of the game to incorporate a button test at the start of the tutorial alongside the Sound Test. Neither are available in the P-Version of ORBSORT, with the "Listen to Soundtrack" option instead reading "Not available on BBS".
