80's OVERDRIVE

About

"80's Overdrive" is a 2D pixel art racing game that brings you back to the era of 8 and 16-bit consoles. Compete in career mode to unlock new races, cars, and upgrades, or challenge yourself in time attack mode. With a track editor, 6 retro supercars, 8 visual themes, and 18 synth/retrowave music scores, this game is packed with retro, handcrafted pixel-perfect joy.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

70%

Audience ScoreBased on 379 reviews

music98 positive mentions

grinding20 negative mentions

The game features beautiful pixel art graphics and a vibrant retro aesthetic that captures the essence of 80s arcade racers.
The soundtrack is enjoyable, with a selection of catchy synthwave tracks that enhance the nostalgic experience.
Gameplay is fun and engaging, especially for fans of classic racing games, with various modes and a solid upgrade system for cars.

The collision detection is poor, often leading to frustrating crashes that feel unfair and can derail a race.
The game can become repetitive due to a lack of track variety and the scaling difficulty of opponents, making it feel grindy.
Some mechanics, such as the police AI and traffic behavior, can be annoying and detract from the overall racing experience.

music
190 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
46%
2%
The music in the game has received a mixed response, with many praising its vibrant synthwave soundtrack and retro charm, which enhances the overall experience. While some players find the music to be the standout feature, others criticize it for being inconsistent or forgettable, with a limited tracklist of 18 songs. Overall, the soundtrack is generally regarded as enjoyable, contributing positively to the game's aesthetic, though it may not resonate with everyone.
- “The game is chock-full of retro charm, featuring a fantastic selection of classic cars, a killer synthwave soundtrack, and an authentic pixel art style that oozes '80s cool.”
- “Gods, this is some of the best music I've ever heard in a video game.”
- “Great retro racer with an absolutely amazing soundtrack.”
- “The song that plays every time you go to the stage select screen gets incredibly annoying though.”
- “The music is period appropriate, but uninspired and forgettable.”
- “Sounds are cheap and awful, mix is abysmal (my own engine is almost inaudible) and the music is this disgusting 'let's desperately try to sound like the 80s, even though they're long gone and we were never part of them' bullshit, that can't make its mind up between wanting to sound like C64 chip tunes and boring mainstream 80s synth pop.”
graphics
134 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
51%
2%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beautiful retro aesthetic, vibrant colors, and detailed pixel art that evoke nostalgia for classic 16-bit racing games. Many reviewers appreciate the art style and atmospheric visuals, although some note inconsistencies in the execution, such as issues with parallax effects. Overall, while the graphics are a highlight, they are often accompanied by critiques of the gameplay, suggesting that the visuals may be the game's strongest feature.
- “The stunning art style plus the great music selection are delightful.”
- “The game is chock-full of retro charm, featuring a fantastic selection of classic cars, a killer synthwave soundtrack, and an authentic pixel art style that oozes '80s cool.”
- “The graphics really capture the look and feel of 16-bit racing games, whilst multiple tunes (naturally selected via an outrun style radio) provide plenty of variety for the ears.”
- “The graphics won’t make your GPU sweat, nor will the download size make your storage complain.”
- “The graphics were strange; the mountains' parallax is mathematically incorrect, like the original Outrun.”
- “It tries to stay true to the 80s graphics, but the parallax effect is all kinds of messed up, and even the old Outrun games did tunnels better.”
gameplay
130 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
63%
14%
The gameplay of the game is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its nostalgic retro feel and arcade racing elements, but criticizing its repetitive mechanics and lack of depth. While some enjoy the resource management aspects and customization options, others find the driving mechanics frustrating and the overall experience tedious, often leading to a grind for upgrades and repairs. The game captures the essence of classic racing titles, but its execution leaves much to be desired, resulting in a gameplay experience that may not hold up over time.
- “Fun retro gameplay and graphics.”
- “The gameplay itself is solid, offering a good balance of arcade racing fun and challenge.”
- “This game is stuffed to the gills with stages and modes and has an addictive gameplay loop of racing hard for money to buy better cars to race even harder.”
- “The engine behavior and shifting mechanic feels terrible, where the car simply stops feeling 'right' when you need to shift up.”
- “The gameplay is very slow, with no sense of speed.”
- “I don't feel like this game went through any critical design review; it plays like the mechanics were thrown in regardless of whether they were positive additions to the gameplay or not.”
story
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
84%
5%
The game's story is described as simple yet effective, providing a nostalgic arcade feel. Players engage in a series of missions that become progressively challenging, with some side missions offering additional rewards but also presenting issues like being non-repeatable if failed. While the narrative framework supports the gameplay, many reviewers express a desire for more mission variety and a deeper, more engaging experience overall.
- “The game is just really fun; it's even got a simple but effective storyline to go with it, which really makes you feel like you're back in the arcades.”
- “As for the career mode, after finishing a race, the next one is unlocked until you eventually reach the end of the story.”
- “The quest for the perfect modern retro outrun clone continues, but this one might be the best yet.”
- “The grind is incredibly long and unrewarding, and all of the special missions are a one-time thing, so if you decline or miss it, you lose out on the achievement until you start a whole new game.”
- “However, if you fail the quest, it's gone and you can't replay said quest unless you start a new game.”
- “It's fun at the beginning; you enjoy it quite a bit until you start with the side missions and realize that things get progressively harder.”
grinding
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
5%
5%
91%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly due to the repetitive nature of earning money for repairs and upgrades. While the game starts off enjoyable, the need to repeatedly race easy tracks to accumulate cash becomes a chore, especially with the added complexities of car damage and repair costs. Overall, the grinding mechanics detract from the fun, making it feel overly laborious.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “It's like if Outrun was grindy and tedious.”
- “I think the money system in the game is a bit overkill and becomes very tedious.”
- “Car damage/repair costs, refueling, police and aggressive traffic + a participation fee for races, some of those mechanics can be good for a game, but this is just tedious and forces you to replay easy races to get some cash for upgrades and repairs.”
humor
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised, with players finding it particularly hilarious when accidents occur among racers. Many reviewers appreciate the comedic elements that persist even as the game becomes more challenging, contributing to an overall enjoyable experience.
- “It's hilarious when it causes an accident with the other racers.”
- “I'm just laughing at the 'very positive' rating of this game.”
- “It's funny and don't be fooled by the fact that it may seem easy at first, because as soon as you start unlocking new tracks and buying new cars, the going gets tough.”
emotional
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players express a mix of frustration and curiosity regarding the emotional experience of the game. While bugs and gameplay mechanics can lead to significant annoyance, particularly with the potential for progress to be easily lost, the nostalgic 80's overdrive style evokes a sense of intrigue that keeps players engaged despite these setbacks. Overall, the emotional response is characterized by a blend of irritation and fascination.
- “The style of 80's overdrive made me feel curious about it exactly because of the presence of all these features that I've previously mentioned.”
- “The races are very long and touching anything will destroy your progress unless you have maintained the lead for a while and have a large one.”
- “The 'bumplock' you can get into when touching other cars/objects is ridiculously frustrating on its own, when it's your fault.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
33%
17%
The game's optimization is generally solid, running smoothly even on older systems like Windows 7. However, players note that the car performance feels uniform once upgraded, and the repetitive track design detracts from the overall experience.
- “Cars are just skins, as you can upgrade every car to max possible performance.”
- “Game runs smoothly even on Windows 7.”
- “Most of the shortcomings come from the design of the tracks, but the performance of the cars is consistent, as they have exactly the same stats when maxed out, differing only in their initial allocation.”
- “Most of the shortcomings come from the design of the tracks (besides the background visuals and lane size, they feel pretty much the same, especially when you have to run through the same 8 landscapes multiple times), the performance of the cars (they have exactly the same stats when maxed out, only different on how they're allocated at the start), and... the final boss.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game demonstrates solid performance on low-spec machines, particularly Windows 7, but suffers from significant stability issues related to collision mechanics. Players report that collisions are excessively punishing and often result in frustrating, unavoidable wrecks, detracting from the overall experience.
- “It runs great on my low spec Windows 7 machine.”
- “Collisions are awful and buggy as hell. You can start a race and crash into a dumb AI that has blown its engine at the start, and you can't even avoid them if they are right in front of you. That's how awful turning your car actually is. Your car will be completely wrecked from one hit. This is not normal, as high-speed collisions take about 2-5% damage, and this low-speed, unavoidable collision immediately kills you. It's the most annoying thing in the world.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Reviews express strong dissatisfaction with modern monetization practices, particularly criticizing microtransactions and modifications that detract from the gaming experience. Many users long for the meritocratic approach of early game development, where creativity thrived despite budget constraints and hardware limitations.
- “Whether it includes microtransactions or not, I hate the goddamn modification bullshit.”
- “The discipline of creating games with minimal budgets and no advertising in the early days of game development made it a meritocracy where (sometimes one person alone) did the best they could out of the hardware limitations.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features charming pixel art graphics and well-designed cars, contributing to a delightful overall atmosphere, although some players express disappointment with the non-pixelated ground plane.
- “Lovely pixel art graphics, cars are nicely designed, and there's a really nice atmosphere.”