80's Overdrive: sprite-based 16-bit style Outrun clone on 3DS e-shop

[Az]

I figured I'd mention this here since this one has kinda flown under the radar. I had never even heard of it until about a week before it was out.

80's Overdrive is available on the NA/EU 3DS e-shop as of last week, priced at $9.99 USD. It's a sprite based driving game similar to Outrun, Top Gear, and other racers from the 16-bit era. Supports 3D visuals, has a rudimentary track editor that can be shared with other people via codes, multiple cart tuning options, and a retrowave/synthwave soundtrack. I picked it up and managed to spend a little time with it. While it's no Outrun killer and definitely not a replacement for Sega not releasing Turbo Outrun in the Western market, it's probably worth your time if you enjoy that style of game.

The artwork and sprite scaling on it is very good but you'll notice some frame dropping when several vehicles are on the screen at once. When racing against rivals the AI seems to be a bit much, always driving in a pack so with one wipeout you go from first to last place. The soundtrack is alright especially if you like that genre of music. Graphically the only nitpick is I personally could have done without hamfisting the whole garish retro-techno neon primary color palette. It's alright but it limits the environments so much compared to the incredibly varied locations found in Outrun.

Seeing the Sega super scaler games in 3D is an amazing thing. This game is the only other 3DS game (that I know of) that tries anything like that, and for a team of about 2 guys it's pretty good.