80's Overdrive

80's Overdrive may be wonderfully presented, but its problem is that price-wise it's sandwiched between two similar games that are better.

'80s Overdrive comes to the Switch in top form and stands even taller on the hybrid console than it did on the 3DS three years ago.

80’s Overdrive on 3DS is a pretty decent racer, with only the 3D effect really going for it as the huge reason to play it on the 3DS over any other console. But on other platforms, it got a little bit of extra polish and rebalacing, and honestly, if you can get past the rough patches and difficulty spikes, this 3DS version is still a worthy 3D showcase before the shutdown in a few days, and is still pretty darn fun to play once you get over those initial hurdles.

80’s Overdrive will offer you several hours of fun, it will remind you of your youth but that is all it manages to achieve.

80’s OVERDRIVE offers 36 circuits in career mode, 2 game modes, 6 cars to buy, 13 synt / retrowave music tracks, only € 9.99. Insane-Code has cooked up a very fun title, a declaration of love for a time and a way of making games, and invites us to enjoy it with them. 80’s Overdrive does not squeeze the platform on which it runs, the result of the type of game it is, but it enters through the eyes. It is visually pleasing, sound and playable, and has enough modes to give us hours of fun. Although it may be limited to a very specific audience. If you know what you are going to find and it is what you are looking for, you will enjoy it very much. If not, you may be disappointed.

80's Overdrive has really nice details and elements on its scenery, has a cool and exciting soundtrack and has simple mechanics such as the car's fuel level meter, body status indicator and the possibility of improving parts that add some depth to the races and keep you on the lookout for more. But, unfortunately, the game doesn't go much further and delivers a monotonous experience in the long run. In addition to barely presenting new content in relation to its first version and the complete absence of multiplayer, the title bets heavily on nostalgia - which may be good or bad for some - and has somewhat locked controls, which directly impacts the main objective of the player: to win races.

80's Overdrive is undoubtedly a return to the arcade of the last century in all its aspects, and although it can be repetitive in long sessions, the truth is that it is very difficult for me to get angry with a game that you can always play one more game, at I'm sure I'll be there as soon as I have ten minutes to spare, and it's definitely going to stay on my Switch Lite for a long time.

It’s evident that 80’s OVERDRIVE takes inspiration from games like Outrun and Rad Racer, and thankfully does a lot new things to separate itself from what came before it. The racing feels good, and is backed by an appropriate synthwave soundtrack. However, later races have too much going on and with some randomness of collisions will force you to restart more often than you’d like. Some issues aside, 80’s OVERDRIVE is a solid racer with depth in a gorgeous and vibrant palette.

A fantastic throwback to the classics such as OutRun or Top Gear 2000 allowing the players to climb their way up to the top of the street racing league or take a virtually infinite, leisure ride in their Testarossa look-a-like car. All that to the energetic synthwave tunes flowing from the radio.

80's Overdrive asserts that Out Run's combination of breakneck racing and frantic traffic negotiation will fit neatly inside the progression-focused model of a modern game. It doesn't, and 80's Overdrive almost runs out of gas before it reaches a comfortable destination. All the lavish neon and thumping synthwave in the world can't help 80's Overdrive make twenty minutes last six hours.