Star Overdrive

I'll start with something positive: The game looks nice, and the hoverboard feels great to control, it's fun to ramp off the hills and get a huge boost. To be honest, the idea of Breath Of The Wild with a hoverboard is a fun concept on paper.... but the execution... The rest of the game though is very undercooked. The music sounds like generic_rock.mp3 (when there's music). The combat is attrocious, you bounce around way too much and everything feels so slow! The Shrine levels are way too big and slow, some of them are very confusing, and it feels like you have to break the level to actually finish it. One of the level didn't load and kept spawning me in a pit. The crafting mechanic is a bit confusing, you just throw material into a cooking pot to make stats go up... could use some work. Overall, an unfortunate mess. I can see the dev's vision, I can feel the love that was put into the game, but the whole thing is an unfortunate, undercooked mess.

After playing some more, I'm changing this to a positive review. I wish steam had a neutral option... I'll leave most of my negative review below because I think it's fair but I cannot deny how much fun I had with the game when I finally grinded out enough of the Shrines to upgrade my character and just went out into the world to ride around and explore. The TL;DR here is: the core loop of "ride, explore, upgrade board, explore better" IS fun. However, it feels like a lot of the upgrades should have just been base stats, the powers feel too limited, and none of the rest of the game is as good as I'd like (and I hate many of the puzzles). For a deep sale, like 50% or more, if you think it looks fun, you'll probably be right enough to justify that purchase. I don't regret my purchase I just wish I actually loved this game that has so much that I could theoretically love. --- The puzzles are awful. They're just BotW shrines, everything in this game is just 80s BotW, but wow... for any and all devs reading, here's how to know you've made a bad puzzle: it contains even ONE instance of a player having to go somewhere, adjust a wheel or something, and then go somewhere else to check if they adjusted it correctly... then almost certainly walk back to nudge it one way or the other. This game has many puzzles with multiple things like this per puzzle. I can't count how many times I walked on a wheel to adjust something and then went to check and found it at juuuuust a tiny bit away from the right height/position and had to go back and try again, only to come back and now I'm just a bit off in the other direction, repeat... I'm not even 7hrs in yet and I curse, loudly, whenever I see one of those wheels in a shrine. This is a shame, because at first I kind of liked them. The puzzles that introduce each power are pretty good... I like the gun power and I really like the jump power. To have your jump pads conserve moment like Portal is very fun and honestly a good way to skip some of the BS puzzles later. Overall, though, I've intensely disliked at least 50% of the shrines I've done. So much busywork! So much "is that platform at the right height? I can't tell because I'm basically directly below it so it's nearly impossible to estimate". The combat is... not great. Multiple enemies have a "F*** off" move where they just knock you wayyy back and your character has this really airy/slow bounce thing that they do (which I also really dislike when falling from slightly too high, why have fall damage if it's never real damage, just this slow bounce?). All this does is slow the combat down. Then don't get me started on the enemies that can summon multiple tentacles from underground, constantly, or the ones that constantly run away from you so you can never hit them with your sword... what should be fun becomes a chore. Which, again, is a shame because (for the short amount of time my power meter lasts before it runs out), it is quite fun to pick enemies up and throw them at each other (or repeatedly slam the most annoying enemies into a wall). I also like the gun power. I feel like the powers should just have been unlimited, waiting for them to recharge or having to engage in the weird melee combat to get them back just feels slow. The melee is rough because enemies don't get stunned at all. You have this huge awesome looking energy sword and the weakest little critter will just hit you mid-combo like you're tickling them. The music seemed like a selling point of the game but most of my time in the wilderness surfing has no music? Is that a mistake or...? I quickly just switched to DJ sets from YouTube while playing so that I would have music. I also hate, HATE, how your character cannot be 1% below the height of a platform. They will make contact with a platform using their toes, with their whole body above the height of the platform, and just fall down. No ledge grab, no grace, no mercy. Have fun climbing back up there. Final gripe, and this is a me thing, but my controller's right shoulder button is broken and that's the button for the surfboard... and there's no way to remap it. It doesn't recognize my steam input remap at all, and the game will not let your remap your controller... thankfully you can remap the mouse/keyboard controls so I just set surfboard to clicking my mouse. It's awkward, but it works. I recognize that my controller is broken, but come on, why not let me remap or at least work with steam input? I am sorry to write this, especially if the creator reads it. There's a lot to like! The surfing rocks, I like doing tricks for boosts, it's a fun and fast way to get around, the sword looks cool, I like getting fired in the air from the towers (although you need more ability to control yourself in the air), the story is... fine so far, could be cool depending on where they take this unreliable female character thing, and what little music I did hear was cool enough... I also like the graphics enough too, I'd like more variety in the world (seen about half so far, we'll see what awaits) but it's a cool looking game. Basically, when I'm riding around on my board, I'm having fun. However, the game has a real "if you want dessert, you have to eat your cold canned corn first" kind of problem. Everything surrounding the fun part is a slog you have to complete to have more fun part. I bought the game, so I'm going to play at least a few hours more... but I just don't see myself ever returning to this after. I finally did enough shrines to get the basic QoL upgrade I should have had from the start (fast travel between towers) so I'll just never touch another shrine and get what enjoyment I can from the riding. If you see this at 50% off or better, and you think it looks fun and cool, it absolutely can be. If steam had a neutral option, I would pick that instead.

I *really* wanted to like this, but the combat is pretty lame and to make the hoverboard mechanic more fun (more speed) you have to constantly detach from it to farm resources to craft new components using a system that feels more complicated than it needs to be. I am begging games with cool movement mechanics to stop trying to make me detach from the cool movement mechanics.

In an industry with so many open world games it's hard to stand out, especially as an indie game. Star Overdrive is probably the most unique one I have ever played. The hoverboard traversal and the musical theming is so refreshing, I spent most of my time just riding around the world doing tricks in the air, and listening to the amazing soundtrack. The customization of the hoverboard is also 10/10. I loved the different designs and I just couldn't stop changing it every hour or so because I wanted to use as many as I could. There are some minor issues with the game's floaty physics, they can be pretty annoying inside the 'shrines' where you're trying to do precise platforming. But they are nothing compared to how fun it is to dash around in the world with your hoverboard. The combat is also pretty barebones, not all that different from the combat in Breath of the Wild. There are some fun gimmicks abilities (also like in BOTW), like mind controlling enemies, telekinesis, time freeze, a bounce field, etc. But the actual hand to hand combat is not very interesting. The story was also quite decent. I'll admit I didn't like the ending very much. I won't spoil anything but I'll just say I was hoping for something a little happier. Overall, I give the game a good 8/10. Rough around the edges and combat could be better. But still an amazing experience.

Star Overdrive is an underrated gem from a tiny indie team who remembered that video games are allowed to Be Fun. Imagine Breath of the Wild was set on an extrasolar planet, the master sword was a keytar, and you shredded around the landscape on a hoverboard listening to dad metal while you tried to discover what happened to your friend. Star Overdrive is packed with atmosphere, rad hoverboarding, environmental puzzles, rad hoverboarding, exploration, mystery, and epic bosses that you defeat through the power of rad hoverboarding. There's a demo on at least steam and switch - if it doesn't leave you wanting more, you may have had your sense of fun shot off in the war.

I really want to like it, but it's in a severely rough state. Soft locks where you get stuck in level geometry and you can't get out unless you exit to main menu then enter the game again, reseting your progress by the way. Grammar errors throughout the entire game. Mechanics that are poorly explained. Weird, janky mechanics that feel experimental, rather than fully fleshed out. The entire game feels like it needed more time in the oven. I can see the devs had ambition, but ambition alone doesn't do anything for the game's rough edges. From what I can tell, they wanted to do a Sci-Fi Breath of The Wild with hoverboards. Fair enough I guess, but maybe they should have tried to get one half of the game right, rather than have both halves underbaked. The hoverboard, which for most people, myself included, might be the key selling point, is fun. Again, rough as a mechanic, but fun. And riding it around and doing tricks is enjoyable. But it also has a lot of jank. Very slippery controls, no traditional break function, both options to slow down for more control leaves much to be desired. And when new mechanics start getting added to it, it gets even more janky. The BOTW-like shrines scattered across the map cause the most headaches though. A lot of the puzzles rely on the janky mechanics and show that not a lot of testing took place. That softlock I mentioned is in one of these puzzle shrines, where you need to use a time-stop ability to stop some horizontal pylons from pushing you off a ledge. However, the duration of this ability is very short, and unless you are perfect, you will end up being pushed off and die. At which point the game will respawn you, INSIDE the pylon that pushed you off. Where you'll be permenantly stuck until you reset and have to do the whole thing over again. This is just one case of this sort of annoying occurance. I've had multiple times where I just had to close the game and take a break because of how annoying some moments were. Again, I want to like this, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game needed to either release in Early Access, or needs some serious updates in the future.

An extremely solid, BOTW-like open world game with a lot of heart and style. I haven't played another open world game where just getting around is one of the most fun parts of the game. The hoverboarding mechanics are very smooth, polished, and satisfying. The soundtrack is a certified banger. And the range of abilities and combat mechanics keep things decently interesting throughout it's just-right playtime. Things can get a bit janky at times, and I ran into a few bugs, but neither really soured my experience. Overall I had a great time exploring the world and solving it's puzzles. I look forward to a potential sequel.

How can this game pass under the radar is a mistery to me! I had some expectations since I heard good things from a friend about it, and I confess that I've been captured by the mood, in particular by the contrast of the look of the world and the Van Halen-ish rock music that I find very bold and well executed. The hoverboard is the peak for this game, combat is very very fun once you start to use the powers with all the physics stuff that you can do, and crafting is there not to feel too heavy. Mines reminds me of BOTW shrines (positive) but they are in most cases less cryptic. The story is completely stolen by her, which is the true protagonist in my opinion. It is not "the best" in everything but it delivers in a way that pushes me to play more, rare thing.

My brother got me this for christmas and so far its been great. Cruising around and launching youself around is a lot of fun and I enjoy the puzzles for the most part. The powers remind me of psychonauts and riding the board reminds me a bit of solar ash. The combat isnt as bad as people make it seem in some reviews. Launching your board at enemies and jumping attacks are decently accurate. You could pretty much cheese anything with an upgraded keytar too. I dont usually leave reviews but with only 105 reviews I feel like it deserves a boost.

I LIKE IT!!