80’s Overdrive
Here we are in the middle of the “dog days” of Summer and if it hasn’t been a haze covering most of the United States, it has been unbearably humid with the occasional thunderstorm. Living in New York, sometimes it’s a requirement to want to go on a drive across vibrant neon beaches, scenic mountains, and lush meadows. Other times, the cops will do everything in their power to ruin your day along with the other racers and shady businessmen who wish to line your pockets for a price. Such is the case with 80’s Overdrive.
I’ve covered several Outrun-style games in the past, including Super Night Riders, although that game was technically more Super Hang-On than Outrun. Regardless, the objective for games like these is to get from Point A to Point B in the allotted time. “Time,” in this example is identified under your car’s fuel and damage percentage.
The progression system in 80’s Overdrive is reminiscent of a rally-style game with each level split into various “stages.” As the player wins races, they earn stars, which means more races along the world map are available to compete in. There are a total of 99 stars needed to unlock the final race in the game and the player earns three stars for winning each race, meaning that the player will need to gain first place in at least thirty-three races before they can see to the end.
Fortunately, the cars that the players have access to are all viable once fully upgraded. The player can use the beginning car, totally not a Testarossa, and take it to the end of Story mode as much as buying the Vector V12 would be in terms of value. It will be more expensive to upgrade the starter car than outright buy a new one, but aside from earning achievements, the player isn’t pressured into earning the latest to keep up with the competition.
As expected of this retro-inspired arcade racer, the graphics are predominately sprite-based but the game runs at a smooth 60fps framerate. It’s almost dizzying how smooth 80’s Overdrive performs especially when compared to the older SEGA racers I mentioned. There seems to be a nice blend of polygonal and sprite artifacts with clever draw distance to give the player a nice sense of speed.
There are also police to watch out for, as I mentioned earlier, but they aren’t like your average “police obstacle” in other games like Need For Speed Unbound. If the player has the police radar equipped in their car, they can pinpoint the exact location where the police are, but more often than not they will attempt to rear-end the player.
Another thing they like to do is brake check the player, stopping them to a complete halt. If the player is on Manual transmission and isn’t aware that they need to shift up immediately, they may find themselves busted and forced to restart the race. In most games, hitting an object usually doesn’t downshift the player back to first gear, which can be quite annoying to commit to muscle memory.
This can be especially frustrating when the player is meters away from winning a race only to lose the race as well as their ante. Ironically, for an arcade racer, the cars behave much better in automatic transmission. Trying to attempt things from other arcade racers like a “rocket start” would result in my car’s engine stalling, so it was better to go for a cold start instead. Hitting other obstacles for some reason doesn’t shift my car back to first in automatic, but I did find myself taking more damage than usual. Repair and fuel costs eventually become trivialized as the player wins more races.
Aside from the synth wave soundtrack, the gorgeous visuals, and the satisfying sense of speed, there’s not much to 80’s Overdrive that “re-invents the wheel.” I picked this one up as a part of Fanatical’s recent bundle and I’d say that’s the perfect way to enjoy 80’s Overdrive, as part of a greater package. Individually, there are better “Outrun” clones worth the money, but for the price of a few cents, this is an enjoyable way to play a quick bite-sized arcade experience without requiring too much of an investment.
80’s Overdrive is now available on the Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.