Thank you Plug In Digital for providing us with a review code!

Star Overdrive begins with your character, Bios, traveling in space when he picks up a distress signal from his beloved, Nous. Without hesitating, he changes course to go and rescue her. Once you arrive on the desolate planet, you’ll be given a quick walkthrough to explain the controls. There are hostile robots and creatures, and Bios is armed with a keytar which can be upgraded to become more powerful as you unlock abilities in the skill tree. Moving around the planet is fun with your trusty hover board. The hover board is upgradable with materials collected around the planet. Customizing your hover board is done at various workbenches scattered throughout the terrain. Along with materials you’ll need green shards to complete the process. Sometimes these green shards are easily accessible but you’ll often have to use the environment to find ways to extract them when they’re out of reach. You can also earn green shards by completing (and repeating for slightly less) time trials.

The world map will show you points of interest like chests, mines, races, time trials, photos, and tapes. The map will also indicate if they have been collected/completed or not. The cassette tapes and photos are for story building and are messages left behind for Bios to use for informational purposes or for encouragement.

As an open world game you’re free to roam around and play at your own pace. However, completing the main story quests is not possible unless your hover board has been upgraded to a certain extent. There are some main quest-related races that have to be completed, and if your board isn’t fast enough you’ll have to upgrade it before advancing the story.

There are different terrains that will need board enhancements in order to traverse them. Your first obstacle will be water; without the proper enhancements Bios will quickly drown. Later you’ll have to modify the board to ride on metallic surfaces without draining your energy. Another element to deal with is corrosion which messes up your controls unless you’re immune to its effects.

Chests are worth looking into as they usually contain hover board upgrades. However, the chests often need to be unlocked by supplying power to the multiple cables connected to them. You’ll have to follow the cables to their source and figure out why there’s no power. Sometimes this can be resolved with a simple whack with your keytar, but other times you’ll have to put more thought into it.

The mines are dungeon-like areas that are riddled with puzzles to solve. Many of the mines have new powers available, and you’ll have to master these powers to leave the mine unscathed. Some of the powers include the ability to summon trampoline-like bubbles, shoot rockets, charm enemies, or manipulate items from a distance with a magnetic beam. These abilities also come in handy when attacking the hostile inhabitants on the planet. Sadly, your progress is not saved inside of a mine, so make sure you have enough battery remaining if you need to pause your game before finishing the mine.

There are several hunting grounds where you’ll have to wear down and defeat intimidating creatures like giant sandworms. Traditional multi-phase bosses are present as well and you’ll have to conquer them in order to progress the story.

Other than bloodless violence, Star Overdrive is pretty tame morally. It does earn the E10+ rating due the word d*mn appearing in the dialogue.

Though Star Overdrive was released for the Switch, I enjoyed playing it on my Switch 2 for smoother performance and the bigger screen. If you enjoy the exploration and puzzle solving elements of games like Breath of the Wild, you’ll likely enjoy Star Overdrive. The hover board mechanics, futuristic visuals and retro soundtrack all add to its charm. I’m not really into puzzle platformers, but I did enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when clearing a mine. If you focus on the main story alone, you can complete the game in fifteen hours or less. For those who love exploring and completing the various challenges available, you can easily spend twice as much time if not more.