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, and armed only with his trusty keytar and hoverboard, he must find a mysterious woman named NOUS who has called him to the planet and uncover what a sinister mining corporation was after there.
“Star Overdrive is essentially Breath of the Wild built around the idea of high-speed sandboarding across an alien planet.”
It’s fine as far as stories go, but it’s relatively thin — and that feels intentional. The world is meant to feel strange and empty, with players constantly wondering why they’re there and what’s going on. Players can find audio and text logs that hint at who NOUS was and the shady activities of the Upward Corp., but for the most part, the experience feels purposefully isolating.
In terms of gameplay, I wasn’t joking when I said Star Overdrive is essentially Breath of the Wild. While it branches off to do its own thing, it borrows so much of BotW’s DNA that I couldn’t help but laugh. You enter little shrines — or mining stations — where you solve physics-based puzzles to unlock various keytar abilities, one of which is basically the Ultrahand ability, which made me chuckle.
Every shrine ends with a power core you can use to unlock upgrades in your talent tree. You climb big towers to unlock sections of the map and collect a variety of materials that can be used for crafting. Thankfully, your keytar doesn’t shatter like glass after a few hits, but similar to its inspiration’s combat, it still leaves a lot to be desired.
However, much like Breath of the Wild, Star Overdrive really shines in how it presents its world and the way it allows players to move through it. The highlight of the game is boarding around the desolate world, using sand dunes as makeshift ramps and turning the environment into one giant playground. When players time their jumps for big air, they can perform tricks by flicking the right stick, giving them a temporary speed boost — which can be extended by stacking tricks.
Collectable materials are used to upgrade your board in a way that’s straightforward but offers some nuance. Materials are categorized into types — soft, hard, tech, alien or gravitanium — and each provides different bonuses. Once added, players can select a specific upgrade to attach to their board, and depending on the materials used, it can result in varied effects. Every upgrade also changes the board’s appearance, encouraging experimentation to find a style players like.
But wait, there’s more! The more players explore and upgrade their board, the more they’ll increase their bond with it, granting it some degree of self-awareness. This provides bonuses such as fighting alongside you or letting you wield it like a sword. It becomes clear that the developers wanted boarding to be the game’s main focus — and it shows in how expansive the mechanic is.
“This game could’ve been Tony Hawk meets Breath of the Wild.”
Which is why it was a bit disappointing that the mechanic wasn’t fleshed out more. I’m not sure if this is just because I reviewed the Switch version, but there’s a kind of wonkiness to it that never quite feels satisfying. This is most apparent when landing after stacking tricks — there’s a weird delay that makes the transition from landing to boosting feel clunky, which removes a lot of the fluidity that would make boosting feel truly satisfying and fast.
Also, while I understand mapping tricks to simple stick-flicks was done for convenience, I couldn’t help but wish there was more complexity or nuance. This game could’ve been Tony Hawk meets Breath of the Wild — it could’ve had a combo counter or a points system tied to experience. While the boarding is fun, after a while, it starts to feel like a means to an end.
I’m also not sure why, but Star Overdrive uses tank controls for BIOS, and it clashes with the flow and vibe of the game. For some reason, BIOS only runs directly forward, meaning players need to turn the camera to change direction. If you try to maintain your camera angle and move left or right, he slowly strafes. It’s an incredibly bizarre choice for a third-person action game and really disrupts the pace of exploration and combat — especially when you’re trying to manoeuvre around multiple enemies.
“Star Overdrive really has a kind of chill, skate-culture vibe that permeates through its experience.”
If players try to maintain their camera angle and run left or right, they will slowly strafe. It’s an incredibly bizarre choice for a third-person action game like this to have such a restrictive control scheme, and it really ruins the pace of both exploration and combat—when you’re trying to quickly maneuver around three or four enemies while maintaining a fixed camera.
However, if you can look past these minor gripes, Star Overdrive really has a kind of chill, skate-culture vibe that permeates through its experience. I really liked how you could also find these cheesy alt-rock cassettes to listen to while you’re just boarding around, and if you kind of just go with the flow, and embrace the speed and gnarly air; then you can have a really good time with it.
Visually, Star Overdrive uses a simple but interesting aesthetic that suits the desert-like atmosphere of the planet. Stark reds and oranges contrast with a bright blue sky, and massive monoliths jut from the ground — adding to the world-building while functioning as makeshift jumps. Again, it leans into that skate-culture vibe.
Audibly, the game features a fun punk-rock soundtrack during fights with smaller enemies and Molduga-like bosses that appear on the map. My only complaint is that similar to Breath of the Wild, much of the game takes place in relative silence to create atmosphere. While that’s fine, I wish the game leaned more into its punk vibe with constant synth-guitar. The game can be a lot of fun — the soundtrack should embrace that.
While it may seem derivative at times, Star Overdrive is a solid game. It has a cool central mechanic and takes big swings in how it delivers its world and gameplay. While not everything lands, it’s an impressive effort from a team of 10 people — one I think gamers should check out.
