Overdrive

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Since this is a racing game, there's no actual story! The main goal is to race your way through the league until achieving the top rank. Only the most skillful of drivers will manage this, preparing for the ultimate race! The harder a race is, the higher the prize granted. At the start of the game, you are given a certain amount of cash so that you can pay your participation in each of the 20 total races. You will drive your car as hell through a variety of snowy, dusty, muddy and sandy settings, around city tracks and finally on high speed circuits. Prior to any race you need to qualify and aim for a better grid position in three timed laps. Believe me, it's hard to get a decent grid position and even if you do so, it's still difficult to win the actual race! But these pre-races are needed to get accustomed to each tracks bends, curves etc. Various items can be picked up around the circuits that can significantly enhance your car's performance like i.e handling (depicted as a steering wheel), extra speed (turbo), cash, repairs and fuel pods. Of course there are numerous hazards around like oil leaks (that will make your car spin and lose valuable speed) and others. The game's vehicles vary from 4WD SUVs to Buggies, Super Sports and Grand Prix cars. Each car is completely different both in handling, max speeds and acceleration. You should always check your fuel gauge, as on later tracks you will not have enough fuel to cover the full distance and it is vital to watch out for fuel power ups or it will be game over! OK, sometimes the controls are over-responsive and awkward! It seems to be impossible to even do a simple thing like lining up up your car but once you spend ten or so minutes practicing on one of the tracks, things will become better. In general, Overdrive is a fun game to play as long as you master its controls as it offers some fast action, variation and excitement. Frustrating disk accessing is probably its only flaw (this is a 3 disks games that requires several disk swaps before racing!) but I guess we can live with that.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics look great (this is Team7 anyway) offering bright colors and cool track designs, but nothing to become over-excited about. The sprites (well, the cars) move fast and the screen scrolling is particularly smooth. As for the sound, Overdrive has some really pleasant music during race selections, loading screens, the end of a race and even includes a brief tune when you lose a credit! The sound effects are plenty too, with sampled engine and braking sounds as well as an arcade quality speech every time you run over a turbo pad or spin out on oil leaks!