You’d think that being alone and adrift in outer space, with neither a ship nor a way to communicate with civilization, would be a slow affair (and almost certainly lead to a depressing death). You might expect to gradually float through the void, pondering your life choices as you starve to death. According to Lost Orbit, however, you can make it home in one piece as long as you hurtle past asteroids, orbit some planets, avoid some lasers, and make a robot friend along the way.

You are Harrison, a maintenance worker sent out alone to repair a comm relay far from civilization. While making the repairs, your ship blows up, leaving you with nothing but a spacesuit that evidently has an infinite supply of thruster fuel. At first glance, Lost Orbit resembles an old-school arcade shoot-em-up. You can only move left and right at the bottom of the screen as the action automatically scrolls forward. The biggest difference, though, is that there is no shooting here, only dodging. You want a high score at the end of a level? Then you're going to have to dodge stuff while moving really fast.

The breakneck speeds you can reach in Lost Orbit evoke some of the same excitement you might get from a fast, arcade-style racing game. Boosting and zig-zagging your way through clumps of asteroids and other obstacles isn't too different from weaving through traffic in a game like , have spoiled us with their instant restart abilities.

Due in part to its brevity, Lost Orbit isn't the most memorable of adventures. You barrel through its levels quickly, and unless you want to try for faster time trial scores, there's not a lot to come back for. Still, the rush of speed and the simple charms of the animation and narration make this game a blast while it lasts.