Anki's next generation A.I. racing game features modular tracks

Shawn Knight

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Anki, the robotic and artificial intelligence startup that first raced onto the scene during Apple’s worldwide developers conference in 2013, has announced the next generation of its surprisingly popular racing game called Anki Overdrive.

For those unfamiliar, Anki’s first game allowed players to steer a Matchbox-style car along a predetermined track using your smartphone. Gamers could race against the A.I. or line up against their friends so long as they also had a phone and a car to control.

At $149, it may sound a bit silly and expensive but consumers couldn’t get enough of the tech during the holidays. According to Anki, it was the second best-selling toy on Amazon during the holidays (a Frozen doll beat it out). In fact, the company completely exhausted its inventory a full 10 days before Christmas.

anki apple racing game ai racing

The concept has taken a leap forward with Overdrive.

The starter kit includes something that users have been asking for since day one: modular tracks. Each section snaps together to the next using magnets. The new kit, which will also sell for $149, will include enough bits of track to create eight different layouts. If that isn’t enough, there are expansion packs (priced between $10 and $30) that include jumps, U-turns and a four-way intersection to really spice up the action.

If you have kids or perhaps enjoyed playing with slot cars back in the day, Anki will likely appeal to you.

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It's amazing the crap they sell these days, a quick trip to their site and I'm even more unimpressed. They dumb down slot cars to the point where it's no longer a test of skill (hell they even removed the slots...) and instead a test of who can spend the most money and show the least for it. Half the fun of slot cars was the assembly of the track itself, then you'd have to check the brushes on the cars, which where vastly more detailed then this crap. Controls were exactly that, controls, you'd have to adjust the speed learning that you can't simply floor it everywhere, but no, it has to use a smart phone giving no feed back. Battery powered too, again a draw back to the slot cars of yesteryear. Virtual attacks and shields and artificial speed boosts, give me a break, why don't you just play a damn video game at this point instead of teaching kids absolutely nothing, other than, "mommy, daddy can I make an in app purchase?" And to think this was beat by the "Frozen doll" line-up by Disney, too bad it wasn't a cryogenic frozen doll like I had pictured in my head before looking it up.
 
It's amazing the crap they sell these days, a quick trip to their site and I'm even more unimpressed. They dumb down slot cars to the point where it's no longer a test of skill (hell they even removed the slots...) and instead a test of who can spend the most money and show the least for it. Half the fun of slot cars was the assembly of the track itself, then you'd have to check the brushes on the cars, which where vastly more detailed then this crap. Controls were exactly that, controls, you'd have to adjust the speed learning that you can't simply floor it everywhere, but no, it has to use a smart phone giving no feed back. Battery powered too, again a draw back to the slot cars of yesteryear. Virtual attacks and shields and artificial speed boosts, give me a break, why don't you just play a damn video game at this point instead of teaching kids absolutely nothing, other than, "mommy, daddy can I make an in app purchase?" And to think this was beat by the "Frozen doll" line-up by Disney, too bad it wasn't a cryogenic frozen doll like I had pictured in my head before looking it up.

I take it you don't like the product.
 
It's amazing the crap they sell these days, a quick trip to their site and I'm even more unimpressed. They dumb down slot cars to the point where it's no longer a test of skill (hell they even removed the slots...) and instead a test of who can spend the most money and show the least for it. Half the fun of slot cars was the assembly of the track itself, then you'd have to check the brushes on the cars, which where vastly more detailed then this crap. Controls were exactly that, controls, you'd have to adjust the speed learning that you can't simply floor it everywhere, but no, it has to use a smart phone giving no feed back. Battery powered too, again a draw back to the slot cars of yesteryear. Virtual attacks and shields and artificial speed boosts, give me a break, why don't you just play a damn video game at this point instead of teaching kids absolutely nothing, other than, "mommy, daddy can I make an in app purchase?" And to think this was beat by the "Frozen doll" line-up by Disney, too bad it wasn't a cryogenic frozen doll like I had pictured in my head before looking it up.

The Times They Are a-Changin'
 
Pay Play = "Hey, I've got more money than you and your Dad is a Garbo."
 
I take it you don't like the product.

How'd you guess? :p

I'm very displeased with the direction toys are going in, they're more app than toy in most cases, and hold absolutely 0 educational value. They can't even teach kids the value of money, instead do the complete opposite.
 
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