Anki OVERDRIVE
STEM Skills targeted: Engineering, robotics
Recommended age 8-15
We all know boys love remote controlled cars. In fact I used to think the thing about boys loving cars was a social stereo type until I had one – “car” was one of his first words and all he wants to do all day is drive his cars around and crash them into things.
RC cars have changed since I was a kid. Anki OVERDRIVE is basically the remote controlled car of the future, adding apps, robotics and weapon-enabled super car battles to the fun of building race tracks and racing your cars around them.
Every kit comes with a race track or “battle field” that can be constructed in 8 different configurations and two intelligent robotic super cars, Skull and Groundshock, that come with unique weapon systems and can be customized with virtual weapons and upgrades.
The cars can be controlled via an app for Android and iOS and you can go head to head against friends in a variety of battle and race modes, or race against AI commanders, each with a unique battle strategy.
Controlling the cars is simple – they navigate the track on their own so there’s no need to steer (although they can be knocked off if they’re hit by a weapon). You can control the speed, lane and the power-ups and weapons.
A word about the weapons – these are not physical but virtual. Each car has a series of LEDs and they light up in different colors and patterns to show which weapon or power-up is being used – for example a protective power-up glows green on the car. If a car is hit with a weapon you can see the damage via the LEDs in the area where it is hit and you’ll lose control for a few moments. Each weapon has different properties such as a tractor beam that draws in cars closer to you and slows them down. The weapons part of the game is hard to explain (better to watch the video) but really fun and effective – it’s almost like playing a physical version of a computer game.
Younger kids will love setting up the racing track pieces to make different layouts and older kids will love challenging their friends to a race battle. If you have a kids who’s obsessed with playing racing games on the computer or console, this is a great way to tear them away from the screen.
Anki OVERDRIVE starter kit
The starter kit comes with:
- 2 robotic super cars
- 6 curved track pieces
- 4 straight track pieces
- 2 riser pieces
- 1 four-car charging system
- 1 tire cleaner
Extra cars
To expand on the starter kit, you can purchase additional cars, each with special unique weapons and properties:
Track Expansion kits and accessories
The track expansion kits allow you to make bigger and more complex racing tracks:
- Corner kit – expands the starter kit from 8 possible configurations to over 20 with more twists and turns. Includes 2 90 degree corner pieces.
- Launch kit – adds jumps to your battlefield. Includes 2 jump pieces and 3 riser pieces.
- Speed kit – expands the 8 configurations of the starter kit to more than 18. Includes 2 straight track pieces.
- Rails kit – add walls to the track, allowing you to go faster round the corners
- Elevation kit – allows you to build hills, bridges and overpasses into your track. Includes 4 riser pieces
- Bank turn kit – for building angled turns. Includes 4 bank turn track pieces.