I’m a kid from the 80s (and early 90s) so I remember quite fondly the days of the arcade halls. I remember specifically the race games. I used to go head to head with my mom or dad. My favorite was always outrun. I must’ve spent a fortune on coins to drive that red car into the sunset (and hopefully not into the other cars). 80s overdrive tries to recapture that moment with pixel-perfect 16 bit inspired graphics and ditto soundtrack.
Tom Selleck
In 80s Overdrive you start career mode by choosing an avatar dripped in 80s nostalgia. You have you mohawk bearing punk, your madonna look-a-like and my favorite moustache of all time, Tom Selleck. At least a slightly altered version of him for obvious copyright reasons. Next up, you choose a car. Most cars are still locked for the budget you’re giving at the start. I know what you’re wondering, and yes, there is a DeLorean inspired car available. You can change the color of your car to make it look as stylish as your heart desires.
A whole lot of tracks
The thing with Outrun in the arcade was that if you weren’t particularly good at it, you would mostly only see the first few courses. In 80s overdrive you get presented with a map with about 30+ street races on them. Each race costs money to enter but can potentially reward you with a multitude of your investment if you perform well. Not all races are available from the start which is the game’s way of holding you back from blowing all your money on races you can’t quite win at the start.
Push in that cassette tape
Once a race is picked you can choose a soundtrack to go along your race. These are all drenched in synthwaves and 808 kickdrums and frankly sound awesome. With 18 tracks to choose from you’ll have plenty to listen to while putting the pedal to the metal. The animation going with confirming your choice is epic as you actually push the chosen cassette in the tape deck. Even during the races you can switch songs with a simple press on the bumper buttons.
Full throttle
So far so good for 80s Overdrive which seems to push all the right buttons of 80s nostalgia to be an awesome experience. That is until you start the actual race part. All the races require you to go full throttle and never use the brake. The gameplay is reduced to just dodging the other racers, other non-racing cars, and avoiding the police. There are some bendy tracks that require some more finesse but for the most part it comes down to not bumping into others to maximize your chance of winning. With the AI doing all sorts of crazy swirling moves for no apparent reason this might prove more difficult than it sounds.
A hit from another car slows you down immensely. Some of these hits were more or less unavoidable because of the unlogical AI used. It can feel extremely unfair and frustrating when you’re driving a 5 lane straight road and all of a sudden the car on lane 1 swirls towards lane 4 in front of you. Sometimes you can avoid these but most of the time it feels like a cheap AI scripted trick to hold you back. If only the AI made it look less scripted I would be OK with it. Sadly it is just ridiculous and takes out the fun for me. Spending money on nitro, bumpers and better wheels can all make this process less dull but in the end I couldn’t force myself to continue career mode.
Time-attack mode
Now the time-attack mode is potentially what redeems 80s overdrive. This mode is a direct copy of the outrun gameplay. You are fighting against the clock as it keeps running out. This time-attack mode feels way more fulfilling as opposed to driving 90% in 1st place and get pushed off the road on the last stretch because the game deemed it necessary. The way this time-attack mode took me back to some great childhood memories was awesome. Thanks, I needed that!
Conclusion
80s Overdrive looks and sound awesome. The best part of the game is the soundtrack. Sadly the gameplay is a bit on the dull sound and don’t get me started on the AI…
