From the first moment I saw it, I was immediately interested in Star Overdrive. I’ve mentioned before how I have a deep interest in games that use unique forms of movement — or at least put movement at the forefront of gameplay — so a game where you’re sci-fi skateboarding across an alien world seemed like it would be a genuinely fun time.
I honestly thought it wouldn’t be any more straightforward than that, so imagine my surprise when it turned out Star Overdrive is essentially The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, built around the idea of high-speed sandboarding across an alien planet. It’s a great example of a game that’s both surprising for what it is, and a little disappointing for what it could have been.
Star Overdrive begins with the protagonist — a young man named BIOS — drifting (figuratively, not literally) through space when he intercepts a strange distress signal calling out to him specifically. He is pulled toward the desolate planet known as Cebete,... Read more