Hoverboards are cool; don’t let anybody ever tell you otherwise. In the media they were seen as the ultimate gift on childhood wishlists, along with proton packs and Power Morphers. Because of this, when a game presents the opportunity to ride one, interest is piqued. Get that bit right and you are already halfway to a good title (such as AirBlade on PS2, which was amazing). Unfortunately, for all that Star Overdrive does well in fluidity and traversal, the reason to take part in such endeavours feels severely lacking.
A missing girlfriend leads you to an unexplored planet with only said hoverboard and, in keeping with the 80s aesthetic, a keytar in hand to mount a rescue effort. When the ship carrying you and your essentials crashes, however, it’s time to explore the planet and solve the mystery of both a missing missus and the previous inhabitants. A simple yet promising premise sets up the rest of the game well, and from the outset the scale of the task feels daunting. A barren wilderness with only large empty structures towering in the distance of a pleasing looking world with an all-too-familiar design choice in this age of indie developers.
Off you go, then, with a fantastic feeling board under your feet. Whipping over the dunes feels great underfoot, and gaining speed is achieved by pulling off various tricks above the sand. Easy to perform while navigating, Star Overdrive is at its best when moving from one waypoint to the next. Various upgrades throughout mean the experience keeps getting better and better through faster navigation and better maneuverability. Once these waypoints are reached, though, the gameplay experience grinds to a halt. Parts for the board must be scavenged, and this mostly involves heading towards one of the aforementioned structures, gathering materials and kicking the watchtower into life with a basic puzzle or combat challenge. Not a problem at first until it becomes abundantly clear that there is very little else to do in the game’s entirety.
Yes, the puzzles are satisfying enough to work out and varied in their approach, but there rarely feels like any satisfaction in completing them knowing that it will only lead to another lit-up watchtower and some more materials to update your board with. Once done, it’s another rinse and repeat somewhere else. The scale of the map is impressive, and in between these slogs are some fun speed challenges that involve racing across the dunes and through hoops within a set time limit, like Superman but quicker and more responsive.
There is also the local fauna to deal with. A quick smack with the keytar will dispatch most, although boss battles are often the highlight, using both the board and instrument in sync. Similar to the Monster Hunter series and with more than a nod to Dune, the larger creatures need wrangling, pulling yourself in close before delivering the fatal blow. By far these are the most exhilarating encounters and the real standout between what feels like busy work most of the time.
If the gameplay loop sounds appealing it is perfectly serviceable here. Each building leads to a Breath of the Wild-esque challenge, which goes from simple object manipulation and button pressing to time and projectile work in later hours. The issue is that all of this has been done better, with more interesting things happening in between. Even the narrative is drip-fed through audio logs, simply serving as a way to point the player in the direction of the next objective. With no real presence from the individual you are meant to be searching for, it all seems a bit hollow.
