Hands on with Anki Overdrive

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.A