Anki is a robotics and artificial intelligence company best known for its little personality-filled super-smart consumer level robot Cozmo, which will be out in Australia (finally) at the end of this month.
But as adorable as Cozmo is, it’s Anki’s other offering that caught my eye.
The Fast and the Furious robotic car battle-racing, people. The Fast and the Furious robotic car battle-racing.
Overdrive is Anki’s answer to old-school slot cars, and Overdrive: Fast & Furious Edition is based, as the name suggests, the adrenaline-fuelled world of the massively popular and best film franchise ever to exist.
With the standard Overdrive, you take control of “the Supercars of the future” with your smartphone or tablet. You can battle and race against friends, family, or AI-controlled commanders in a variety of game modes, or, go head-to-head with elite commanders in the Campaign mode.
The game runs on a super-cool magnetic modular track system that lets you custom build epic battlefields, super fast.
You can also go under the hood and customise your Supercars – speed, weapons, and defenses can all be upgraded in-game.
“Overdrive takes a game that we all used to love as children — slot cars — and thrusts it into the future,” says Boris Sofman, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Anki.
“It’s a video game in the real world, providing players with a totally new gameplay experience. Overdrive pairs advanced robotics and gaming together to bring physical products to life at level of depth and intelligence never before possible.”
The Fast and the Furious version gives you two highly detailed, unique Supercars from the films. You can jump behind the wheel of Dom’s Ice Charger or Hobbs’ MXT, and battle each other for supremacy. There’s also unique weapons, upgrades, controls and an exclusive track piece all based on epic moments from the franchise.
Cozmo ($319.99) and Anki Overdrive ($269.99) are available to pre-order today through JB Hi-Fi and Australian Geographic. Anki Overdrive: Fast & Furious Edition ($299.99) is available for pre-order only at JB Hi-Fi.