**Written by my 13 yr old - Purchased Christmas 2015**
Overall this is a really neat system. I think anyone 8-88 can enjoy. Most people will find this to be a really cool thing to have for a kid. It’s great to use when friends come over since its 4 player (although you do need 4 cars and 4 devices to play with 4 players). I have had all of my track and cars for 2 years and everything still works really well. I hope you enjoy my review!
How it works: There are little robotic supercars that scan codes on the track to find out where they are on your track layout. Then, they can use weapons and power ups on each other and themselves. The cars then try and attack each other. When you run out of health, your car deactivates for a few seconds. There are a lot of modes to use. Things to note:
• Clean cars with tire cleaner often! Tires can become slippery and make cars drive off the track.
• You NEED a ‘device’ to play, that is how the cars work. Devices include: iPhone 4s and newer, iPad mini and newer, and various androids. You can visit ANKI for a chart of compatible devices.
• You will also need to set up an Anki account per person to save your game progress.
• Make sure your cars are working well. If one does not work, Anki has a great customer service so let them know. We lost our tire cleaner and reached out to them. They responded in a few minutes and shipped a brand new to us for free! They also have many troubleshooting tips for you on their website.
• Be nice to the cars and track. They are not super durable, but they can definitely handle most crashes and drops. I have had them fall 3`-4` and they still all work fine. They don’t like water and if you use water to clean the track use a small amount. And do make sure it’s dry before playing.
• Be sure to pop the cars on the charger between rounds. They only last 15-25 mins on one charge and take 5-10 mins to fully charge so make sure when they aren’t driving, they are charging. The cars have 5 multicolor LEDs: 2 in front, 2 in back, and 1 on top that is very bright. When you finish playing, press the small grey button beneath each car to turn it off so the bright top light will turn off. Also prevents car from losing battery life rather than leaving them on 24/7
• I suggest not letting little ones (less than 5-6 years old) use this without being supervised by older ones. And if they don’t have their own device, they will need yours to play.
• While these cars are good at staying on the track, they CAN come off so don’t drive too recklessly.
• Go wild with your track layouts! Look up ‘Anki Overdrive’ on YouTube and see what these pieces are capable of.
• Store your tracks when you’re done with them. The skin’s oil (bare feet for example) can leave stains that are hard to remove. So be careful when you leave it out.
• This is backwards compatible with Anki Drive. So if you have the original Anki Drive cars those work on this track as well.
I feel like I have covered most of the important things you need to know. Have fun with this toy, but be careful. And be sure to keep your eyes open for deals on this wonderful toy and its accessories!
This kit is simply awesome! I did a lot of research before I bought this for my sons (aged 6 and 7) for Christmas. I was worried it would be too difficult for them, but we all know how tech savvy kids are today. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO KIDS AND ADULTS!! I bought two extra cars so the boys would be able to race against computer controlled drivers, which works excellently, but the wife and I have been using them plenty too! You will fall in love with Overdrive as soon as you start opening the box! Everything is engineered flawlessly: from the mechanism that holds the cars in the packaging, the sticky pad used to clean the car tires, the "Getting Started" booklet, etc! It's obvious the designers of this system are either big kids themselves or have kids at home. WE LOVE IT!!
Setting up the track is very simple. The ends of the track click together with magnets. The cars are set on the track and then do at least 2 laps to read the track. Now, make sure you have devices that use Bluetooth 4.00 (with full BLE support). My boys' old Kindles weren't compatible, but thankfully we also got them Fire 8's for Christmas, which worked perfect. I read in another review that you couldn't use Apple devices and Android devices together. However, we have found no issues at all mixing and matching different devices. I will mention that it seems like Apple devices change lanes better than Android, but we've only been using Overdrive for a week or less.
I understand the tech that is involved in making everything work for Anki Overdrive, but it still seems like magic! The only slight downside is the physical connection to the race like pulling a trigger for throttle on slot cars, for example, isn't there. Thankfully, the addition of weapons and battle makes up for that. The cars themselves will cruise around the track without input from a player fine.
A small negative we have noticed is that the rail kits I purchased separately from the Anki website don't stay on very well. They're supposed to click/snap into the edge of the track pieces, but they don't stay on as well as I would like. It's a bit surprising, really, because the rest of the systems are engineered so well. Also, the ramp kit doesn't work as well as the rest of the track. Too often, the cars careen off the sides of the ramp, which can be solved with the rail kits but the cars will eventually unclip the rails from the track. The bigger issue is that the cars will often do a 180 after landing on the other side of the ramp! Still, we have left the ramp in our track system because it works more than it fails and the boys enjoy the jump.
NOW, let me mention Anki's customer service. I had bought add-ons from the Anki website directly before Christmas (20% off!!) including: two rail kits, a jump kit, a straight "speed" kit, a curved track kit, and Supercar Thermo. I had also purchased Supercar Guardian from an Amazon Lightning Deal. On Christmas day, we excitedly set up the track and everyone sat down eager to play. Everything worked well, except Guardian, which would spin in circles. The right drive wheel was the only one working properly or perhaps too much? Troubleshooting tips online for a possible misaligned tire or bent axle didn't solve the issue. So, I picked up the phone on CHRISTMAS DAY, without much hope of even reaching anyone. I was immediately connected to Moises at Anki and also later Lauren on email. They were very kind, understanding, and apologetic! The very same day, they put a new Guardian in the mail with 2 day shipping. Half a week later, we were all up and running! THANK YOU, ANKI! It's not enough to make quality products, you must support them as well, which Anki clearly understands. I will be purchasing more from them in the future.
To put it simply, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Anki Overdrive! It's fun for kids and adults. They have made a high quality, enjoyable race track system and their customer service stands behind the products! Again, THANK YOU ANKI!
The Anki Overdrive set was given to my son for Christmas by his grandmother, and it promised to be the hit of the Christmas party... if only we could have gotten it working.
When we opened the set we un-packaged the cars, the tracks, the chargers and everything else - and put the cars on the charger. The track went together great - the magnetized tracks snap together super easy. So far, so good.
Then we downloaded the app on my son's phone, a Motorola Moto X. The app downloaded from Amazon, and appeared to be working. So we went through the setup process on the app, updated the firmware for both cars, put the cars on the track, etc. Then we tried to do a race. The cars wouldn't connect to the app on the Moto X. Or one car would connect and not the other.
We monkeyed with it for like 1/2 an hour and then decided to try it on my phone, a Motorola Moto X 2nd Gen, and no luck again.
We tried the Google Nexus 7 tablet, and we were able to connect to the cars this time, but when it came time to scan the track the cars just sat there and never moved.
We also tried another old Samsung tablet, but that one also wouldn't connect. So when it came down to it we tried the following devices and were never able to get the Anki Overdrive set working:
- Motorola Moto X 1st Gen (2 devices no luck)
- Motorola Moto X 2nd Gen
- Google Nexus 7 tablet (newer version)
- Samsung tablet
After having the letdown on Christmas eve and not being able to play with the cars, on Christmas Day the set miraculously started working with the Moto X 2nd gen device long enough to do like 3 races, but then stopped connecting to the cars again. So finally I went online to figure out if others were having the same problems. It turns out that the set has some pretty specific devices that it recommends people use that use Bluetooth LE 4.0, and apparently none of our devices that we have were 100% compatible. In fact, our devices were actually on the "not compatible" list. Ugh.
Before you buy this track I recommend you figure out for sure if your device is compatible, otherwise you'll end up running into the same issues we did, guaranteed.
Finally after doing further research we found that the newest Kindle Fire 5th generation devices were in fact compatible with this Anki Overdrive set. Since those tablets were only $50, we bought one with a Christmas gift card.
After unboxing the new tablet we downloaded the app from Amazon, we got everything up and running.
This time the app on the Kindle Fire connected the first try to both cars and we were able to get the game up and running without any issues. We were able to play single player games, and host a multi-player game as well.
When the Kindle Fire hosts a game, we're able to connect all of the devices mentioned above over the same WiFi network, and control the second car, as long as the Fire hosts the game and controls the first car. The other devices cannot host a game or play a single player game on their own without the Fire.
Once we got everything running my son declared that this Anki Overdrive set was the "best Christmas gift ever" and he hasn't stopped playing since. He's gotten so good at this point that I can't seem to defeat him in battle mode. *sigh. Defeated by a 6 year old.
My advice if you decide to buy this set is make sure your device is compatible with Anki first. If it's not, be aware you may need to get a new device (like the $50 Kindle Fire) in order to get it to work. If you have a device on the compatible list, buy it now - you'll have a ton of fun!
We have owned the original anki drive, and now this overdrive product. My son and I enjoyed the anki drive product (purchased three expansion cars), but the size of the mat/track was limiting in our small house. So when anki overdrive came out, there was no way we weren't going to try it! We have been using overdrive thoroughly since Christmas, and we love it. My son has spent $$$ on two expansion cars, the collision/intersection track piece, and the launch track jump kit. The new cars seem better designed than previous drive cars, and there is more to play within the software portion (more upgrade options for cars, other types of racing: king of the hill, etc). The ability to configure your track with pieces vs a mat is probably the biggest improvement IMO... Easier to put portion of track away when not playing, and fun to come up with new designs based on how much space you have to work with.
I have read some of the negative reviews of this product and want to offer an opinion: this is a sophisticated, hardware / software based toy, and it will be impacted by user input and potential error (I am in software + UI design for 20 years). With something this complex, there will be challenges in using it and enjoying it to the level of each user's expectation. Bottom line: you get out of it what you put in; it's not going to run by itself flawlessly and never come off the track or have other glitches. For example, the launch kit jump requires the drivers to align in the center of the track for the jump to land safely, which we like because it adds another layer of complexity to the game instead of just watching the cars run around shooting at eachother (I have read some reviews about the cars not landing and/or staying on the track).
Overall, quality seems good, prices are a bit high, but not too bad given the design and technology involved.
Bought this for the kids for Christmas. Set up was pretty easy and they love racing. However, after about 2-3 days of racing the tires on one of the cars began to come apart. I went on Anki's website to the support page. Filled out a support request and they boast that most get a response in 1-2 days. After a day or so I did get an automated response saying my request had been received and was being reviewed by the Customer Care team. That was 12/30/2017. It is now 1/9/2018 and I have not heard a peep from them since. I have sent two replies to them above the line in the email that they specified and still nothing. Sent a message on Twitter, and still nothing. I want to like this set, but now the car is erratic due to the tire wear and my son is complaining and asking when it's going to be fixed. Every day when I get home he asks if I have heard anything yet. The answer has been "no." I am on the verge of returning it before time runs out since the item is defective. If you buy this, don't expect any help from Anki when you have a problem.
Update: Moved up from a 1 star to three stars. It took about two weeks for them to finally get in touch with me and then another two weeks to finally get the replacement tires for the cars. After all of that, the cars work well again and they tell me that now with me in their system it will be quicker to get replacement tires when I need them which they claim they provide to customers free of charge. Second set of tires has been much more durable. After 11 months they are still good.
Feature Product
- Use your mobile device to take command of real robotic Supercars in Anki OVERDRIVE.
- Build up to eight battlefields in seconds with the Starter Kit.
- Battle and race against friends or AI controlled vehicles. Wifi required for battles between iOS and Android devices
- An Anki OVERDRIVE Starter Kit and a compatible mobile device are required to play.
- Expand the battle with expansion tracks, Supercars and the all-new Supertrucks.
Description
What makes Anki OVERDRIVE the world's most intelligent battle racing system? Tech so advanced, it feels like the future. Each Supercar is a self-aware robot, driven by powerful artificial intelligence (A.I.) and equipped with deadly strategy. Whatever track you build, they'll learn it. Wherever you drive, they'll hunt you down. The better you play, the better they become. Whether you battle A.I. opponents or friends, your tactical options are unlimited. And with continuous software updates, the gameplay always stays fresh. Customize weapons. Swap out cars. Build new tracks. It’s easy to pick up, and nearly impossible to put down. The future of play has arrived.
I bought this as an adult, 29 years old with the full intentions of playing it with other adults of the same age. So this review is coming from a perspective ignoring the child aspect. However I'm sure most kids would really enjoy this.
First thing I did when I got this game was open it up and throw a quick nascar style track together and race my wife. Neither of us had any idea how to do anything, we just picked race and started going. We were both crazy impressed with how simple this was to use. Hell the hardest thing about it was figuring out how to release the car from the little sliding mechanism that holds it in place for shipping. You download the App and launch it. Follow the onscreen instructions. The tracks are all magnetic and snap together very easily. The cars auto scan the track and auto line up. All of this was very intuitive and easy to figure out . The only part we even had a hiccup with was not having the cars on the charger while we tried to setup our race. The app won't see the cars to be selected if they aren't on the chargers. All in all, from the time we downloaded the app and opened the box until our first race was probably 5 minutes.
Now the racing aspect is actually quite simple. You have throttle on the left, weapons on the top right and support on the bottom right. You can tilt your phone to change lanes, but the actual steering is done by the game to make it less likely for you to fly off the track. We proceeded to play this long enough to drain the battery on the cars (15-20 minutes per charge). So we threw them back on the charger and proceeded to build a new map. This time we pulled out some board game boxes and dvds to make some elevation changes to see how the cars handled it. No real problems. The only problem we ran into was going up to my couch without enough support, the cars would just tip backwards from the extreme angle. Easy to fix and up it went.
Fast forward a few days, we're having a christmas party with all our friends. We now have bought 2 extra cars so we could run 4 player games. We have 10 or so grown adults all sitting in a circle around this game, all just as impressed and enthralled by how they scan and line up themselves. Guys and girls both cheering and yelling at their cars when things go right or wrong. Cars flying off the track because we setup suicide tracks that were darn near impossible to navigate without being sent flying. People jumping over each other to get their car back on the track so they don't fall behind. So much fun, I think we spent 2-3 hours of our night just playing with this simple little toy track.
Fast forward one more day, now I have my Family Christmas Party. More of an age range this time, 18-33 or so. Including a gentleman from West Africa here studying abroad in our country. Pretty much the exact same reaction as above. Everyone got so into it, you couldn't help but smile watching it.
Now I can agree with a lot of the comments about how if you're trying to play this on a daily basis, it would get old fast. However if you're looking for something for your kids for a sleep over here and there. Or any sort of event where people are just wanting something silly and new, I think this is almost perfect. It sets up so fast, so easy to do and all you need is a smart phone to join in. Years ago I can remember going to lockins at schools and churches where we'd stay up all night playing games like Clue, Werewolf/Mafia and Dodgeball. I think this would have been a major hit at an event like that.
Last year, I got my son a slot car set. From a name brand company. It worked a total of three times before one car and both plungers stopped working.
I saw the Anki Overdrive set on Black Friday special and gave it a try. It is awesome! You can build several track configurations out of the box, and the track magnetically snaps together in under a minute.
The only slight snag we ran into was that the set wasn’t compatible with my sons new tablet (Galaxy Tab A). I thought we were going to have to send the set back, but customer service got him up and racing in a short time. They explained that if a tablet wasn’t listed, it means it hasn’t been tested with the set, not necessarily that it won’t work.
Speaking of their customer service, you get an actual American speaking actual English! Fantastic!
All this gave me the confidence to order extra cars and track. Speaking of which, upgrades aren’t overly expensive. I got another car half-price through the Anki Overdrive app.
All in all, it would be hard to ask for a better experience.
Great little toy. I hesitated because it was pricey, but this thing is worth every penny. My son, 8, received this for Christmas and absolutely loves it. He has an iPod Touch and uses it to play Anki, and my husband and I have added the app so we can play too using our phones. We have three boys and they all love it. It's very cleverly designed and has many cool features, including not only the racing but different "skills" to outrace your opponent. We have since purchased additional cars and are about to purchase more tracks for this. I'd like to note, too, that Anki has amazing customer service. We recently had an issue with the back wheel of our Skull car, and we contacted Anki and they resolved the problem for us by replacing the OEM car. The communication has been great too.
Lots of fun! But, it will burn through the battery charge on the phone/tablet used to run the race cars. The track setup is very easy being it is a magnetic snap together process and the track sections are flexible enough to allow for many hills and tilts to add challenges to the racers. Worked with Anki customer support to resolve a problem we had and they were very good. They even followed up a couple of times in the follow weeks after the problem was resolved to make sure everything was still going okay with the system. Great customer support!
May add a couple of extra cars so the Grandkids can all race together. This is a great alternative to video games that they play at home.
This was the biggest hit of all the gifts at Christmas for my kids. I got it for my 4 year old son, but my 7 yr old daughter loves it just as much and it's the only thing that gets her excited to get off her iPad. Well, you do use the ipad to steer, but I still consider this a non-video game, that's just the controller. The cars do fly off the track sometimes, but that's half the fun, knocking them off, and they stay on remarkably well in my opinion (better than slot cars for the unskilled). Having AI opponents in so many skill levels means I can get a challenge and there are ones that match up well for my son too. Right now our favorite thing is playing king of the hill with teams, and it's been great at teaching teamwork. I dropped my son off at school this morning and he asked if we could race tonight and if we could be partners against that mean raccoon (one of the opponents he likes to pick). Track set up is really fast and the magnets make it simple to do, both my kids have built different tracks and I can pack the whole thing up in 2 minutes (unlike traditional slot car tracks). I do with there was an easier way to clean and protect the track surface, but that's a minor complaint compared to how much fun we're having. It's really just been a great purchase.
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