Star Overdrive Review: A Star Is Born?

Available now on Nintendo Switch is Star Overdrive. An indie third-person action-adventure game developed by Caracal Games and published by Dear Villagers. In this freshly released title you must lead stoic and silent Bios as he searches for his friend Nous on a strange and desolate mining world. Race along on your upgradable hoverboard whilst listening to tapes by the band Star Overdrive all as you uncover a mystery that has left this once bustling world absent of all sentient life.

Star Overdrive has been a fun title to review. And honestly wasn’t what I was expecting; I thought this would be more of an SSX Tricky with a little light combat thrown in. But no, what we get is a sci-fi fantasy-adventure with a decent core story. And a kicking soundtrack that helps to sell the wide (and sometimes wild) variety of missions and set pieces you must deal with.

Star Overdrive is available on Nintendo Switch for £29.99 or your regional equivalent in standard or deluxe versions.

Story – Alone on the Range

Well, I’m pleased to say that in a change from some of my more recent reviews, there is a lot to talk about! Star Overdrive sees you take on the role of Bios, a young man travelling in his spaceship, chilling and playing games that I’m sure the devs had the rights to use the sound from. One day he picks up a distress signal from his friend/possible lover Nous, who is trapped on the planet Cebete. After a rather bumpy landing, he now has to find her and uncover what is truly going on on this planet. Armed with his trusty keytar, hoverboard, and his ever-present tape deck.

In Star Overdrive you must save a close friend from disaster!

The story is largely told via short cutscenes after completing key missions, but more often than not is told via audio logs. As you explore the desert, you’ll find some of these dotted around to give you further hints and context as to what is going on. In addition there are a few text logs to be read as well. All of this is well written. And well performed. The growing sense of desperation and quiet acceptance that Nous has during the audio logs is great. And helps to elevate the already strong material.

Machined

But I will be blunt, I did find the story rather predictable; it ultimately went the way that I thought it would. And even if I didn’t, the tapes that you can find almost explicitly tell you what is happening. Plus, if you find them in the right (or wrong) order, you’ll have the story locked down long before the final cut scene plays. But your mileage may vary with that. I am a videogame critic after all. Even if it is predictable, it is told effectively for the most part. The voice acting is decent, and the story has decent pacing. And does a solid job in justifying some of the missions.

The collectables add a personal touch to the story.

I feel that Bios’s facial animations (or the lack thereof) do undermine some of the more emotionally charged moments. I’ll cover that more in the Graphics & Audio section. But still, the story has plenty of great set-piece moments that do help to sell some of the key moments. And give a sense of scale to the adventure. One that in some ways mirrors classic fairy tales but with a sci-fi twist. I’d hate to boil down my feelings of the story and writing for this review of Star Overdrive to just “It’s good”. It isn’t a revolution in storytelling. But I enjoy the story and writing for the game. And it adds an extra level of flavour to the game.

Gameplay – Much to See, Much to Do

Star Overdrive is a third-person action-adventure game. As mentioned previously, you must lead Bios across this desolate desert planet to save his friend. You’ll fly across the world on the back of an upgradable and customisable hoverboard. And wallop foes with a high-tech keytar. There is a collection of mines to enter to get points to upgrade your stats. And powers that you unlock gradually as the adventure progresses. Each one feels distinct and is easy to learn and master. There are also a handful of side missions and boss fights thrown in as well for good measure.

Star Overdrive’s bosses are major set pieces.

The hoverboard is fun to use in Star Overdrive. And thankfully so, as you’ll be using it for most of your adventure (or review if you’re like me). With tight controls that feel rather intuitive. You’ll race along doing tricks that can give you a boost of speed when you land. Something that you can use to great effect in certain missions (i.e. spam the hell out of it). Or fail to and bounce off the sands as I have done far too many times. All whilst you hover along to towers which will unlock sections of the map before launching you into the sky.

Breath of the Wyld Stallions

Alright, I’m sure this isn’t the only reviewer that has made this connection in their review of Star Overdrive, however, this game does feel like The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom. Whilst the core gameplay isn’t quite one-to-one, the flow and presentation are. You start on a small island and travel to areas where you need to complete a trial to either unlock a new power or gain a point to gain upgrades. You have to climb to the top of the towers to unlock sections of the map. And all of this in search of a lost love whose memories can be found here and there. This feels like a combination of the most recent Zelda titles and a late 90s/early 00s Saturday Morning cartoon.

Ba-ba-ba-baaah!

And I don’t mean that to be flippant, I don’t mean that as an insult. But the game takes many of the core concepts of BOTW and reinterprets them to some degree or another. With a different visual quality to it. And honestly, in some areas Star Overdrive does a few things better than BOTW. Some of those fall under the umbrella of Graphics & Audio. But gameplay-wise wise there is more variety in the things you see, do, and are tasked with completing.

The Spice of Life

Now, I’m not going to turn this review into a compare and contrast between Star Overdrive and BOTW/TOTK. But the major differences come with the pacing and the Hoverboard. In this title, you unlock your powers gradually rather than all at the start. Which honestly feels great and gives you something to discover and build towards. The other difference comes with the Hoverboard that you unlock early on. Most of the overworld is centred around it. With there being races and monsters to defeat using it. As well as some places to enjoy some sick stunts that are almost always thrilling to pull off.

The Dune Jumper fights are almost always fun.

I do wish that the controls were better than what we get here. Whilst some aspects are fairly intuitive, others feel less so. Whilst some missed inputs can always be blamed on the player, the mechanics themselves can feel off at times. Also, there is no lock-on when you are in combat which means fighting with the camera to keep your eye on your targets. Bios will lock onto an enemy and zoom over to them when you make an attack. You just don’t seem to have much control over who he locks onto. 

Rip and Grind

There are two major issues with Star Overdrive, which sadly did take the shine out of my playthroughs for this review. Firstly, there is a ton of grinding in this game; upgrading your Hoverboard isn’t as simple as dropping a few points into a given stat or finding the right item. You need to create items via the ingredients you find. And the recipes themselves just require you to pour in as much of a given resource into them to try and get a good result. Emphasis on the word “Try” as you do need to pour a ton into your board to get the stats needed to progress in the early game. Which means a ton of grinding.

At last! The means to make my Hoverboard 1% faster!

This isn’t helped by the fact that to get some important items to unlock upgrades to allow you to surf on water or across metal it requires you to kill certain monsters. The locations of which aren’t easy to find, which can mean wandering around rather aimlessly until you happen upon what you need. And given how vast the world is, and how lacking that can be for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, when you do get to those fights, they are a ton of fun and almost make up for the wandering. Even if there isn’t much to do in the meantime.

Graphics & Audio – Snares of the Kingdom

Across the previews and reviews I’ve done so far in 2025, I have been blessed with games that have fantastic soundtracks. And Star Overdrive is no exception. Whilst it does the “Minimalist” (read: absent) soundtrack trick that most modern adventure titles seem to be going with. Across your adventure, you can find tapes of music by the band Star Overdrive. And once they have been unlocked you can listen to them whenever you want. Which, honestly, is a fantastic feature. And something I think other titles could learn from. The soundtrack isn’t always “Minimalist”; as during missions and boss fights, it will kick in. And oh boy, does it!

I cannot praise the soundtrack enough. It adds so much personality to the title. Personality that is sadly missing from our lead. If this game is Caracal Games’s take on BOTW, then sure, it makes sense for Bios to be silent, but he is totally silent here. Not even grunting or yelling when he gets hurt. And has no facial expressions at all. And whilst this isn’t some fatal flaw. It does feel like it takes something out of the experience to have a lead character this expressionless. A bigger issue I have is how your health is displayed in-game. Which is to say, it isn’t.

The Heart of the Problem

Rather than having a health meter, Star Overdrive instead has you make do with a shield that changes colour the more damage it takes. Which itself isn’t bad. And it can and will regenerate if given the chance. But there isn’t much variety in the colours of each stage of it. So it can be hard to gauge just how much damage you can take before you’re on your own. I can understand not wanting to mess up the visuals with a more conventional UI. But I cannot abide it when games don’t offer explicit ways of keeping track of these things.

Oh no, I’m on a slightly less blue shade of blue than I was before!

More broadly, the world and graphics are fantastic. And the game performs fantastically. Even with graphics as crisp as this. And again, this gives it this almost Saturday Morning cartoon-like feel to it. Which I do dig. It provides us with this brilliantly colourful world with characters that can (Bios excluded) be rather expressive. And all topped off with a great soundtrack to sell that further.

But I must say that the game world can feel rather indistinct; there are no towns, settlements. And whilst there are a few different biomes to see, they don’t contain much unique to them. Aside from a few neat regional-specific details. So there are times when you will be searching for one thing or another. And be left feeling like you are just going around in circles. And waiting for something interesting to happen. Or to find that resource you have been grinding for.

Star Overdrive was reviewed on Nintendo Switch. Game key provided by JF Marketing & Communications For Video Games.