Anki Overdrive Starter Kit

Product Information

You’ll lightly steer the car by tilting your phone or tablet, so you can lean into turns or position yourself behind a rival. Your phone vibrates, the cars light up and slow down, and it gives the game a Mario Kart-esque allure. If you’re hit with a tractor beam, for example, you’ll slow down and the foe who zapped you will blast ahead.

Anki Overdrive Starter Kit + Guardian Expansion Car + Spe

My 14-year-old son actually had the opposite reaction: “Mom, that’s exactly what happens in real races. I had a blast with Anki Overdrive right up until I tried embracing that notion of larger, increasingly complex tracks and more frantic showdowns—at which point this smart idea left me scratching my head. Standard races are pretty much the old-school slot-racing experience you’d expect, albeit with the fun of easily switching lanes and even rubbing up against another car’s bumper. Some Anki fans have created some truly spectacular tracks, including environments that look like cities, tracks that climb up furniture and outdoor tracks that run up real trees. Anki Overdrive Starter Kit is a winning concept—combining speed, racecars, “battling,” AI tech, and video game elements into one game.Then all you need to do is download the app, charge the cars on the supplied charging plate, and get on with some racing. This can be used for upgrades that include weaponry, special items, speed boosts, weapon ports and more – it’s an exhaustive list of kit. However, the company has recently ceased product development and are no longer manufacturing new rotors. As you fire a weapon you’ll see the car lights flash, while if you get hit your phone or tablet vibrates and your brake lights flash.

OVERDRIVE Starter Kit – Digital Dream Labs OVERDRIVE Starter Kit – Digital Dream Labs

Armed with a bundle of extra track pieces and cars, I set to work building a track with a wild jump, a plus-sign intersection, and plenty of curves. As it mimicked the same structure of play and earned upgrades that popular video games employ, it was second nature for him.

The starter kit comes with a couple of cars and 10 pieces of track – four straights, six right-angle curves and a pair of risers – and from this you can build eight layouts. With the pieces of road snapped together, the phone instructed me to place both cars on the track and hit the scan button. Blending the virtual world with real car racing, Anki Overdrive offers an exciting and addictive gaming experience that's great for individuals and even more compelling for enjoying multiplayer fun with family and friends. If you hit another car hard enough, that car could be temporarily disabled, which means that it stops for a few seconds and flashes red.

Anki Overdrive Review: Supertrucks Add to Racing Fun Anki Overdrive Review: Supertrucks Add to Racing Fun

It also provides sound effects, spoken dialogue, and music, adding a crucial theatrical element to the experience. First is the campaign mode, which delivers a series of increasingly challenging races with just enough of a storyline to drive your ascent in the futuristic racing league. Every time you hit your opponent, you become King of the Hill and start amassing points just for driving around. It’s pulse-pounding play, made possible through state-of-the-art tech and it's an experience unlike anything else. Other weapons might stall you on the track for a couple seconds, weaken your armor against further attacks, or show your momentum with machine gun fire.But even if you’re on your lonesome, you can control one car and set up to three others as robotic AI opponents. They scan the track to learn the route, and then during the race they can detect their place on the track, as well as the other cars. If you hold down the accelerator until the bar fills up, you can hit a button to enter "Rage Mode," where the truck's lights start blinking and it goes a lot faster for a minute or two, potentially allowing you to pass your opponents. You’ve got enough track to build eight course layouts (with risers for looping designs), plus two cars for head-to-head battles or races against an A. The two starter kit rides are Skull and GroundShock, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Meet Overdrive – Digital Dream Labs Meet Overdrive – Digital Dream Labs

Designed exclusively for use with the optional Supertruck, Takeover mode is a bit like Battle mode, but instead of being the King, you get to drive the truck when you hit it with a weapon.

You can use weapons to temporarily slow down your competitors, but the goal is to cross the finish line before everyone else. Before each race can begin, the software makes all the cars ride around the track once or twice to record its exact shape and size. While I really enjoyed shooting at my son's black Skull car with my blue Ground Shock car, I couldn't always tell whether I'd really damaged my opponent’s car when I shot at it and, if so, by how much. The enemy cars’ AI is excellent, with them changing lanes to avoid a hit, and trying to get away from you or get in behind. I like that you can play solo (racing against an AI opponent that controls the other car) or dual player with each person controlling a car.