While its price point and features make for an appealing alternative, it was less fun in practice than Carrera or Scalextric. It is also unclear, since assets being acquired by Digital Dream Labs, how supported the system and app will be in the future. Anki OverDrive Apps Reaching End-Of-LifeDigital Dream Labs was recently notified that several of the Anki apps for Drive and OVERDRIVE are unable to support all of the features found in the newest mobile devices. After reviewing the resources that would be required to update these apps, we have decided to retire them and continue support for OverDrive 2.6, which released last year.

It's not lapping the competition by any stretch of the imagination, but if money is no object we found Carrera to be the most reliable and fun system we tested.

Which features are more fun is, of course, subjective. But for what it's worth, we found the lane changing offered out of the box in Carrera's set added a bit more magic to the race than pit stops and fuel management.

Compatible with Scalextric spark plug where you plug a dongle into the powerbase to control cars with your smartphoneWays to keep your family living costs down, and kids of all ages happy Get our Family newsletter – it's free monthly Scalextric, Carrera or Anki Overdrive: which did we like best? The app didn't work smoothly, we found an iOS phone just couldn't join a race being hosted by an Android phone, for example. Compatible with Scalextric digital where you replace the powerbase with Arc Air or Arc Air Pro power base for digital race features

All this comes at a greater cost though, which means more detriment in terms of money wasted if you choose the wrong set. I like that you can play solo (racing against an AI opponent that controls the other car) or dual player with each person controlling a car. It’s fun to be able to customize each car with virtual weapons and build-outs. You can also compete in various modes such as Battle, Race, Time Trial, and King of the Hill.

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The concept of this game—combining a real car race set with the virtual gaming world—is clever and very appealing for kids. Digital Dream labs seem to still have plans to expand the Overdrive system, but at the moment it seems limited to providing app support for existing Anki Overdrive sets. While the supplied instructions are text-heavy, they are clear and easy to follow. By the time we'd got used to how to change the speed and braking settings for our cars we were doing it as fast as an F1 pitstop. Connecting to the Carrera Go!!! Plus app for additional smartphone mini games when told to stop in the pits.