Mantis Burn Racing Review

Mantis Burn Racing is top-down arcade racer which reminds me of Micro Machines, and more recently Motorstorm RC. It also has an R.C. Pro-Am (NES game) vibe about it too, but unfortunately doesn’t have any weapons which I think would have been a nice addition.

The graphics are pretty good for an indie title, the cars themselves aren’t particularly detailed but the tracks and surrounding areas look decent. The menus are quite basic but they do the job and I found everything easy to navigate.

The soundtrack was a bit of a let down though, there only seemed to be one track playing during the title screen and menu screens which is a shame ‘cos I find decent music can add a lot to a racing game. In-game sound effects are basic but again do the job. There’s bit of text to read during tutorials and explanations, and it’s a shame there’s no narration, things like that just make the game feel more complete.

As I’ve said above it would have been nice to include weapons or something similar to keep the racing exciting, as after a few races the basic accelerate and drift gameplay got a bit boring. Aside from using a quick boost every now and then from nitrous that builds up, you barely have to brake but instead let go of the accelerator, re-apply and drift around corners.

There are a few different types of races; race, time trial, sprint, knockout and so on… which keeps it interesting for a while, but as the gameplay is quite bland there were only so many races I could get through before I got bored unfortunately. Loading times were quite painful, especially considering what was loading… another time where a decent soundtrack would have been quite welcome just to pass away those seconds sat waiting.

Instead of earning medals or trophies in races, you earn gears up to a maximum of 6 per race for winning, as well as other tasks such as beating a certain race time or destroying breakable objects. It’s a good excuse for completionists to go back over previous races and pick up any missed gears so adds to the longevity of the game.

As you earn gears and rank up you unlock new cars and upgrades for your cars. They’re not very in-depth though and this again reminds me of games like R.C. Pro-Am where you simply unlock an ‘engine upgrade’. You can also edit the colour of your car and the colour of your boost whilst you’re in the garage but that’s about it.

I’m sure there are more tracks to see, but I was quite disappointed to spend most of my initial races on the same track, and I even had to drive the track backwards within the first half an hour of playing.

On the plus side, you can play 4 player local and 8 player online which I’m sure a lot of people are glad the developer has included, even if I do think play sessions will be limited due to the lack of gameplay mechanics available.

Summary

Mantis Burn Racing is fun, but ultimately too basic and doesn’t have enough going for it for me to recommend it to anyone. Get some decent songs on the go, chuck in some weapons and there would be potentially for some multiplayer mayhem fun to be had.