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Anki Overdrive review, Stuff

Anki Overdrive review

If you’ve not attempted Anki’s autonomous robot version of Scalectric yet, you’ve missed a treat.

Not only are the cars managed by your smartphone, but they automatically make sure they stay on the track – leaving you to concentrate on your racing line and shooting down opponents.

The one original Anki Drive’s one downside was having to race around a immovable circuit printed on Anki’s roll-out mats. Anki Overdrive solves this, and then some, by switching to clip-together straights and forms.

After getting some hands-on time with Overdrive at Anki’s San Francisco headquarters, then attempting out the final version back in Blighty, here’s what we think.

Clip art

The introduction of clip-together tracks not only means you can make your own courses but also opens Anki up to all sorts of fresh video-game style features.

Many of these come in the form of special expansions kits that present a particular challenge to the diminutive robot cars.

The Launch Kit introduces hops, the Collision Kit adds cross roads and the 180° Kit adds a U-turn lump. As well as making the circuits themselves more varied, this also introduces the possibility of different game types.

Non-continuous tracks, for example, are a shoe in for Capture the Flag-style games where you have to get your cars to the end zone very first.

Anki also has a utter campaign mode in the offing that will expand on the Commander AI drivers to produce a fully fledged video-game story.

Other expansions concentrate on speed and combat opportunities. The Speed Kit gives a chance to ripple your car’s upgrades and out run opponents. The Elevation Kit brings in more vertical elements with hills, bridges and underpasses. Ultimately, the Banked Turn Kit offers that true Indie five hundred challenge for swifter speeds and higher G-forces.

Effortless does it

Scalectrix can be a bit fiddly to set up and needs a ideal connection for cars to run, but Anki Overdrive track uses magnets to snap together instantly – which makes it as plain to power up as plugging in a MacBook, while retaining enough plasticity for circuits to run up and around furniture.

Also, because the cars are self powered, there’s no need to worry about track electrical connections.

This is good news, as the original mats were a little large for most UK-sized living rooms: Anki Overdrive can now wind its way around your house without you needing to stir furniture out of the way.

Albeit you’re still limited to a few racers in the Starter Kit, being able to vary the route and introduce leaps varies gameplay greatly.

PICK YOUR POISON

The firmware update will also bring in all of your upgrades and customisations too, which is another substantial part of the game. As you progress you are awarded points that can then be spent improving the spectacle of your car.

From a swifter engine to better shields or even fresh weapons such as a Rail Gun or Timed Mines, making the right upgrade choice is crucial.

All of this fresh tech doesn’t come cheap tho’. Overdrive will set you back around £150 in the UK for a starter kit, which includes two cars and a few basic bits of track.

Cars presently retail at around £50, and the expansion tracks will range from £10 to £40. With this in mind, it’s good news that a firmware update is all that’s needed for you you to use your existing Anki cars on the fresh track.

We’ll eventually see fresh upgrades and weapons for the four cars that launched with Anki Overdrive: Thermo, Bones, Ground Shock and Nuke.

Tom Morgan

Ordinary road racing not enough for you? Got some road rage to vent? Anki’s newly-released Supertrucks add-on should do just the trick.

The X-52 is a big brute of a racing equipment, with enough power to shunt any other Anki car right off the track. It works with the regular Overdrive track and app (apart from the hop kit, anyway – this isn’t Speed), so you’re good to go right away.

It might not put as much pedal to the metal as a regular Anki car, but it’s packing better weaponry. Keep close to total speed for long enough and you’ll get a pumped up “Rage mode”, too, which does harm to any cars unlucky enough to be nearby. Like before, scoring enough harm will deactivate rival motors for a few precious seconds.

The fresh racing mode, Takeover, is a blast as well. You begin with your regular Anki car and the app drives the truck, but do enough harm and you’ll take control. At least until another player takes you down.

It’s joy, sure, but you’ll spend just as much time sticking cars back on the track as you will racing them. Annoying. Supertrucks also carry a price premium over the regular cars, too. They’re a joy upgrade if you’re already invested, but not enough of a change-up for anyone to commence from scrape.

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