Drive and Overdrive robotic toy cars, Dream Labs, LLC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Greg Kumparak visits Anki and talks with CPO Mark Palatucci about their new product, Anki Drive.

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Today we review the Anki Drive Starter Set. AnkiDrive is racing cars and video games and battle robots - all in one!

We LOVED Anki Drive. It is so much more fun than slot racing cars. It is also more fun than video game racing cars. The ability to battle, upgrade the cars, race against friends and do it all without flying off the track - makes this so much fun to play.

Here is more info on Anki Drive -

Gameplay
Up to four Anki DRIVE cars can race per game, in three exciting game modes: Battle Mode, Race Mode, and Team Mode. In Battle Mode the first car to score a set number of takeouts wins. In Race Mode it’s an all-out fight to the finish line. In Team Mode players can join up with friends or self-controlled cars to battle against opponents. Each human-controlled car requires a dedicated iOS or Android device. Cars not connected to a device can be set to steer and fight for themselves in a race to outsmart their competition.

The STARTER KIT comes with BOSON and KOURAI. Under the hood of each Anki DRIVE car is a built-in computer. This hardware gives every vehicle the ability to effortlessly stay on the track as you fire at opponents and maneuver your position.

Car commanders can customize each car with exclusive upgrades using points earned in-game: increase a car’s speed on the track, boost weapons, and much more. Add an expansion car (sold separately), and you can get even more friends and family in on the battle-racing action.

The included STARTER TRACK rolls out to 8.5 x 3.5 feet. Flat surfaces are best for gameplay so any floor in your home will work. The track is durable and holds up to paw and footprints. Add an expansion track (sold separately) to boost the family fun and challenge even the most skilled drivers.

Everything your family needs to play is in the box. Open the STARTER KIT, unroll the track, and unleash two unique robot car warriors: BOSON, the Fast Attacker, and KOURAI, the Agile Striker. Challenge friends to a head-to-head battle, or see if you have what it takes to beat a self-controlled robot car.

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AI-powered remote control car maker Anki today unveiled Anki Overdrive, the next generation of its play sets that lets kids (and the adults who inevitably have to play with them) create their own tracks from various tiles. Kyle Russell checks out Anki Drive's new cars and tracks.

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Anki Overdrive takes the original Anki Drive and brings it to a new level.

Anki Overdrive introduces flexible tracks and new cars. Here is all the information -

Following the massive success of Anki DRIVE, one of the hottest products of 2014, Anki OVERDRIVE takes the groundbreaking battle-race experience in a new direction with state-of-the-art modular tracks, high-end car designs and new innovations in gameplay. Players can build their own battle-race courses within seconds and pit their real-life robotic supercars against their friends or step up against enemy AI commanders and their crews in the game’s campaign mode.

Anki OVERDRIVE is battle-racing at its best where players control physical supercars via handheld mobile devices. Each supercar is upgradable with unique virtual weapons and gadgets, and packs a 50mhz computer and camera that recognizes player-customized courses. The cars are capable of using AI to fully control themselves on the track as they use diverse strategies to fight to the finish.

The game also lets players build their own battlefields for all-out vehicular mayhem. The track pieces easily snap together via magnetic connectors allowing players to create and race on their own customized courses instantly. The modular track pieces use special ink and optics technologies to embed information that the high-tech vehicles scan 500 times per second to understand their position and steer precisely on any track configuration.

At launch, the Anki OVERDRIVE Starter Kit will include two highly detailed supercars, 10 separate track pieces, a four-car charger, two risers and a tire cleaning kit. An additional two expansion cars and eight expansion track packs will be available for purchase allowing for nearly limitless track construction. Adding one expansion track pack like the Speed Kit or Corner Kit can expand the Starter Kit from eight possible track configurations to more than 20.

Expansions track packs include:
o Launch Kit – Reach for the sky with jumps on the battlefield. Launch ahead, nail the landing, and smoke the competition.

o Collision Kit – Race into a lethal intersection, pick off your opponents as they speed past or take a short cut to chase them down. Watch out for devastating collisions and don’t get caught in the crossfire.

o 180° Kit – Snap this U-turn piece to any track section and open up the battlefield for head-to-head combat. Build open circuit tracks to face down enemies, unlock longer courses and bi-directional racing.

o Speed Kit – Put the hammer down and outrun opponents or take aim and knock out the competition on these long straightaways.

o Corner Kit – Take these turns at top speed. Or blast opponents before they disappear around the bend.

o Rails Kit – Slingshot into straightaways or drive the fight into corners. Guardrails ensure the chaos of battle stays on the tracks.

o Elevation Kit – Take the battle to another level. Open up crazy track possibilities with hills, bridges, underpasses and more.

o Bank Turn Kit – Race around corners at faster speeds and pull some serious G-forces.

The Anki OVERDRIVE Starter Kit retails at $150. The mobile app is free to download and available for both iOS and Android devices. Expansion track packs and accessories vary between US $10.00 – $30.00 per pack. Anki OVERDRIVE is backwards compatible, allowing Anki DRIVE cars to race on the Anki OVERDRIVE modular tracks.

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We have an up close look and all the cars for the launch of Anki Overdrive. Not only in the hand but also on the track in the new King of the Hill mode with the new Anki Overdrive app.

Here's the full run down of the cars:
SKULL – The car’s Pirate Core lets it sail across the track at high speed while its cannon rips through enemy hulls.
GROUNDSHOCK – Its PowerStation Core electrifies the track with split-second maneuvering and lightning-fast attacks. Don’t get in its way.
THERMO - Its Magma Core engine is old-school meets future. Using hyper-charged internal combustion, it not only burns up the track, it projects fire at anyone in range.
NUKE - Its Fusion Core can be charged up to unleash ultra-high energy blasts that tear through normal shields. Its cool exterior masks an unstable explosive interior.
GUARDIAN - The car’s Siren Core keeps the pursuit of victory going at full volume. Its piercing sonic attacks go right through armor and cause challengers to lose control.
BIGBANG – This armor-plated heavyweight’s Graviton Core creates massive shockwaves that send foes flying off course.

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The name Anki may be familiar to some of you. It was the surprise guest at Apple’s 2013 World Wide Developer’s conference where it unveiled Anki Drive, a robotics-based race car game the combined an iOS App control system with a real track and electric toy race cars. The $200 final product, which arrived in stores that October, was pretty impressive. It featured an oval-pre-printed rack and two cars that could read the road, see each other and connected via Bluetooth to the Anki app.

With Anki Overdrive, though, Anki has gone more than a few steps further, creating what may be the best possible version of the classic slot-based, physical racing games. Each $150 started kit comes 10 pieces of straight and curved flexible track that snap together magnetically. There’s also some elevation pieces, a four-car charging base and a tire cleaner. During my time with the set, we must have done three or four different configurations. I only wish the slot systems of my childhood had been so easy.

As with the original set, Anki Overdrive includes two cars, though all the light-weight, palm-sized racers (additional ones cost $49 a piece) now benefit from the design chops of Harald Belker, the designer responsible for the look of the vehicles in Tron Legacy and Batman and Robin (you can’t blame him for the quality of those films). Anki’s cars include their own personalities and driving styles. Skull, for example, is a high-speed racer that features a canon. In Anki Overdrive, the “commander’ you choose in the app further modifies the driving style, whether you’re controlling the cars, or not. Anki representative told me that these new virtual race car drivers make it feel like you’re racing against a human instead of the computer (though, if it’s just you, you are racing against a computer).

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We talk to Hanns from Anki about the new Anki Overdrive game. He takes us through everything we know about the game. Cars, Commanders, the new Game app, upgrades, weapons, tactics, price and date.

Cars and Weapons (SKULL and GROUNDSHOCK are included in Starter Kit):
SKULL – The car’s Pirate Core lets it sail across the track at high speed while its cannon rips through enemy hulls.
GROUNDSHOCK – Its PowerStation Core electrifies the track with split-second maneuvering and lightning-fast attacks. Don’t get in its way.
THERMO - Its Magma Core engine is old-school meets future. Using hyper-charged internal combustion, it not only burns up the track, it projects fire at anyone in range.
NUKE - Its Fusion Core can be charged up to unleash ultra-high energy blasts that tear through normal shields. Its cool exterior masks an unstable explosive interior.
GUARDIAN - The car’s Siren Core keeps the pursuit of victory going at full volume. Its piercing sonic attacks go right through armor and cause challengers to lose control.
BIGBANG – This armor-plated heavyweight’s Graviton Core creates massive shockwaves that send foes flying off course.

The Anki OVERDRIVE Starter Kit will retail at ?149.99 including VAT and will come with two supercars and 10 separate modular FlexTrack pieces, allowing gamers to build eight different battle courses. Players will also be able to expand their battlefield by adding expansion pieces to the starter kit to build massive megatracks with endless variations and new gameplay possibilities. Expansion track packs and accessories vary between ?9.99 – ?29.99 per pack and expansion robotic supercars retail at ?49.99.
Starter Kit contents and expansion sets available:
Starter Kit – (2) two robotic supercars – Skull and GroundShock, (4) straight track pieces, (6) 90 degree curved pieces, (2) riser pieces, (1) four-car charger, (1) tire cleaning kit
Corner Kit – (2) 90 degree curved pieces
Speed Kit – (2) straight track pieces
Collision Kit – (1) 4-way intersection piece
Launch Kit – (1) take off piece, (1) landing track and (3) trestle pieces to create the ultimate jump
Rails Kit – (8) guard rails ensure the chaos of battle stays on the tracks
Bank Turn Kit – (4) Race around corners at faster speeds and pull some serious G-forces.
Elevation Kit – (4) riser pieces to elevate the battle field

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We unbox and play Anki Overdrive ahead of the game launching and the app being released. All sort of crazy tracks from a gargantuan collection of track pieces.

The new Anki Overdrive game lets you snap together your own circuits before setting the Robot Cars loose to do battle. From there you then trigger a range of different game modes (Battle, Race, King of the Hill) as you progress through the game's story.

There's multi-player and campaign modes as well as a host of computer AI drivers to take on. Each car has it's own special weapons and can be upgraded via the app.

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Build your own modular racetrack for these app-controlled cars.

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Anki Overdrive combines the nostaligic toy race car fun of Hot Wheels with the smartphone control and artificial intelligence of Sphero. It's fun, really fun, but not without a few wrong turns.

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Thanks to Anki for sending us Anki Overdrive!

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Anki Overdrive 1.1 brings us teams and we look at an expanded Anki track setup including new packs for:
- Rails Kit
- Riser Kit
- Corner Kit
- Speed Kit
- Banked Turn Kit
- Collision Kit
We play inside in the day time, in the dark at night and in the garden for some dusk outside action -- even in the mist and rain.

Anki Cars and Track provided by Anki.

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We take a detailed look at Anki Overdrive, Real FX and Scalextric ARC AIR to discover the best car racing game to get.

We compare what these racing toy games have to offer in terms of:
- Track
- Cars
- Controls
- Apps
- Characters
- Modes

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We announce the winner of our Anki Overdrive Megatrack winner and review some of the amazingly creative entries from families across the world.

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We talk to Tommy Liu from Anki about its new Supertruck Big-Rig expansion for Anki Overdrive.

He confirms that you can race two trucks in all the game modes, and also that the trucks are more powerful to be able to pull their trailers.

"We changed the motors and added a second gear reduction for more torque so it would feel like a truck."

"There's a lot of work that went into modelling the truck and how it handles on the track. We had to change our AI path-finding so it could plan the best place to use the truck weapons."

"The user interface detects if you have a truck connected. The Takeover mode will be greyed out unless you have a truck. We also customised the screens so you can see more easily which car you are driving."

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One of the newest Supertruck vehicles in the Anki Overdrive racing set can attack other cars in a new Takeover game mode that is controlled using either a smartphone or tablet. CNET's Joseph Kaminski and his son Jordan battle each other while testing out the toy car set.

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