Sometimes a game really suits a system. Mantis Burn Racing may have arrived last year on other platforms, but on Switch it shines, feeling like it has found its true home. Featuring all the top-down racing action of the other versions (with the complete DLC already included) it allows cross-network play with Xbox One and PC (Steam) players. It may lack the 4K resolution offered by the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but the ability to take your Switch on the go and the selection of local multiplayer options make this an excellent choice for some quick and fun multiplayer racing.
Mantis Burn Racing is a simple game to play, with you mostly just using the control stick to steer and ZR to accelerate. There’s a button to brake and one to boost; the boost gauge filling up as you work your way around the track. Motion controls (tilt to steer) are also available if you are so inclined. Initially the game doesn’t seem to offer much, but it soon becomes tough to put down as you compete in various events, work out where best to use your boost, drift around corners or use someone’s slipstream to get past them. There’s a lot of satisfaction from finding paths through traffic or using one of your rivals as a makeshift bumper to take a corner better and gain a place to boot.
The main single player option is the career mode. Even if you are intending to mainly play multiplayer, it’s a good idea to dive into this first as it will familiarise you with the different events and allow you to pick up upgrades for your vehicles along the way. There are three difficulties (rookie, pro, veteran) with three seasons for each; clear one season to unlock the next. Three weight classes are on offer, with one vehicle available for each; bodywork and boost trails can be recoloured to your liking. Some events are for a specific class, while others are open to your personal preference.
Events are laid out on a path and you only have to finish in the top three of an event to clear it and make the next one available, with branches in the path sometimes unlocking multiple events. Some events are simple races (2-5 laps), but there are leagues (multiple races), time trials (beat set times), spotlight races (stay in the light or be eliminated) and knockout contests where the car at the back of the pack is eliminated at the end of each lap. As you race XP and G (the game’s currency) are earned allowing you to apply upgrades to your vehicles, with some additional enhancements acquired simply from working through the seasons or gaining XP.
Upgrades are available to improve speed, acceleration, grip, suspension and boost. You have to be careful with how you apply these; for instance, should you increase your top speed without increasing grip, you’ll make cornering much tougher for yourself. There’s a few upgrade slots, but should these be filled you can add more by splashing out some G. Even when you’ve reached the maximum number of slots, upgrades can receive further tuning to improve their performance. All this makes for quite a variety of options in vehicle customisation. There might be eight of the same car in a race, but thanks to the upgrade options they will all behave differently.
In addition to trying to place in the top three for the events, each one has a number of mini challenges for you to attempt, with gears awarded if successful. Some of these challenges are simply “win the event”, but others ask you to beat a certain time or to win without boosting. Sometimes you are tasked with finding a shortcut (certain barriers can be smashed through), while other times not taking a shortcut is required to gain the gears. Other challenges ask you to smash trackside objects, or drift/jump an accumulated set distance during the event. Trying to achieve these challenges whilst also clearing the events is fun and satisfying when you mange it, although some are easier than others and are obtained without even trying. Clearing all the challenges is not essential, but you will need to win a certain amount of gears as a set number is required to unlock the final event of each season.
The events take place across twelve tracks. Twelve might seem like a small amount, but reverse versions also feature and with the various event types there’s still quite a bit of variety in the racing you will be engaged in. The tracks are well designed with a good range of turns and straights, bumps, elevation changes and jumps. Some tracks take place in a snow-covered, icy environment where the lack of traction adds to the challenge.
In addition to the wintry tracks, there’s a dusty, rocky environment and a city to race through. A bit more variety would have been welcome but the circuits are not totally similar, with a couple of the city tracks taking place away from the buildings and in daylight (as opposed to the night time races of the others). The rocky tracks are less visually varied, but even here there's some semblance of variety; you drive through a factory and caves at different points. The dark of the caves can be tricky to navigate, but aim your vehicle vaguely in the direction of the light and you’ll be OK.
A top down racer is not likely something you’ll break out to show off the graphical capabilities of your system, but there’s some good detailing in the environments and decent use of lighting. Water glistens, trees and other objects effect the lighting conditions convincingly and there’s a good sense of altitude given whether you're drifting around a perilous drop or driving up a slope to reach a higher portion of a track. The racing moves along smoothly although when playing local splitscreen with three-four players the framerate is set at 30fps rather than 60fps. For two-player splitscreen racing developer VooFoo Studios state that a variable 30-60fps is used, which sounds like it could be off-putting, but in our time with the game we've not had any issue with it.
On the audio side of things there’s a variety of thumps, crunches and engine noises as the cars work their way around the track (or skid off the track and smash into something). There’s also some up-tempo music – the prominence of which varies track to track, with some favouring environmental noises over the music. Special mention should also be made of the HD rumble which is very effective allowing you to feel hits to the side of your car or the thump from a hard landing.
As well as the main nine seasons of the career mode, there is also a season for “Elite” racers that feature speedy hovercars and one for battle, too. Both of these can be played from the start if you wish (no need to clear the other seasons first). Elite feels a lot like a topdown WipEout, which is fun in it’s own way, but it’s the battle events that have the most replayability.
Vehicles in the battle events are equipped with a machine gun and after the first lap can drop mines (three per lap). The usual range of events feature but with the added ability to blow up the opposition, while being careful not to get blown up yourself. Generally, vehicles respawn following destruction (in survival when you’re out, you’re out), but as this results in a loss of time, it’s to be avoided as much as possible. Repair points can be found on track and it’s a relief to make it to one should you be close to exploding. The events are hugely entertaining as you work your way around the track weaving out of the way of gunfire or dropping a mine into the path of someone behind you.
Clearing the seasons will keep you occupied, with the challenge increasing as you work through them; upgrades naturally helping to make things a little easier. If you’d just like a quick go on something, any of the events can be tackled outside of the career mode. If you don’t have the required vehicle (your first is a freebie, but others need to be purchased) you can still play using a “loan vehicle”, although these will not allow you to earn XP or G. All-in-all there’s a lot to keep you busy in single player mode, but the biggest draw of the game is from competing against other people.
Online play is straightforward. Upon selecting the mode you join an available lobby. If one isn’t available you are sent to your own to wait for players. While here you can set up your game and whether you want to go for a random event/track or something more specific. If you are struggling to get the full eight players (we could only manage four), the numbers can be made up with CPU opponents. If you have no one in your lobby you can race against these while you wait; a notification pops up when someone joins the lobby.
If you’re concerned players of other systems will know the game better than you, having had it available for much longer, cross platform play can be disabled. Should you go with cross platform play however, and have a Xbox One/PC player in your lobby who lacks the necessary DLC to play, an “additional content required” message displays by their name. They will be unable to compete, but you can always change the event to something they can play if you’re looking to make up the numbers.
In addition to the regular modes there’s a weekly challenge with an online leaderboard for you to try and move up. Recent challenges have asked players to overtake as much traffic as possible in ten minutes, complete five laps as quick as they can and to see how quickly they can lap an opponent twice.
Away from online play, Mantis Burn Racing supports wireless play for up to eight players and local splitscreen play on a lone Switch for two to four people. Again, bots can make up the numbers if you’d like a full grid of eight. The splitscreen modes work well although three-player mode limits the field of view awkwardly with the screen divided into three vertical strips. These modes are available docked should you have people around your place and undocked should you have barged into their homes and started excitedly yelling “race with me”! Undocked two-player works particularly well as you lay the Switch flat, then sit opposite the other player as you look down at your square portion of the screen and play like it’s an old-school cocktail arcade cabinet.
Conclusion
It could benefit from some more tracks (as well as more environments), but Mantis Burn Racing offers simple-to-play racing entertainment across a range of events. With plenty of ways to upgrade your vehicles, they can be customised to your liking as you take on the various challenges the game throws at you. Regular racing is fun, but so are the other events, particularly the battle ones as you race around trying to outrun the hail of bullets or perhaps purposely drop behind to take out your tormentor. As enjoyable as these modes are in single player, they work even better against other people and on Switch there are a number of ways to get your multiplayer fix. Online competition is a welcome inclusion, but the local modes add immensely to the appeal. It's not quite "Game Boy and Tetris", but "Switch and Mantis Burn Racing" fit together well thanks to quick racing thrills and the options provided by an undocked console. If you're looking for some more multiplayer racing action then Mantis Burn Racing is an excellent choice, and yet another must-have title for Nintendo's hybrid console.
Comments 68
Looks cool, not sure I'd pay 20 dollars for it though.
I want to like this... but it looks a bit bland, dark and without colours?
I need a top down racer that is colourful & crisp, like the Micro Machines or Rush Rush Rally Racing... but let's see, I might give this one a try because I keep hearing good things about it.
This reminds me of MotorStorm: RC for the Ps Vita, which was absolutely amazing. If this is anywhere near as good, I'll pick it up when I've got less to play.
I bought this game on release hour and I have to disagree with the review. There’s plenty of content, plenty to do, for sure! But, the game has some flaws that for me at least, make this far lower than a 9 ... for a start, I do better when racing in higher ranked races (such as veteran) than when racing rookie, because the game doesn’t really get easier or harder as far as I can tell, just faster between those ranks - the racing model just isn’t very good in comparison to the many other racing games I play on a daily. Then for the second point - the slower speeds don’t seem fast enough... to the point it almost feels like slow motion when accelerating or having to reverse. But more importantly, the sound - It’s just an almost constant drone of engine noise rather than sounding like accelerating cars.. it’s just background ‘noise’ at best. Then there’s the collisions - You can be driving along, going great in 1st and then hit a random rock and it takes forever to turn around and keep going, where hitting it even at a slightly different angle, would pose almost an advantage as a bounce.. this was emphasised in rookie or slower modes where turning around if needed was painfully slow.
Don’t get me wrong, I really really wanted to like this game as I’m a massive fan of the original Micro Machines games like ‘96. But unfortunately it gave me a headache after using the standard camera angle for an hour, I got frustrated with the driving physics, the tracks (although graphically quite good!) are little bland and dull from a colour and design perspective making it a little difficult to get excited about (and a little harder to play on a smaller screen), and other factors like the sound, lack of options to angle the camera slightly at speed (I felt like even MM in 2D gave me a better view)... For example as an improvement, I would suggest that the faster you go, the more it could zoom out/angle. EDIT: yes I realise there are camera modes, however they didn’t improve my experience.
Overall it felt like a bit of a chore to play. It’s not terrible at all - it’s actually ‘ok’.. just nowhere near 9/10 for me.
I had high hopes - and there isn’t much in terms of competition for this. If you are looking for a top down racer, feel free to give it a shot, but prepare to be a little dissapointed.
Really looking forward to this after the disaster more commonly known as Micro Machines
really satisfying gameplay. the graphics are crisp, clear and smooth. it has no goofy sense of humour and it plays like a proper console racer but in top down view. the 3d models are not pretty but solid and everything scales well but tracks are industrial or natural, so they are not colourful.
its the car handling, tracks and modes that make this such a great game. and it is cheap for what you get
This is one hell of a game! I admit to be biased because I grew up with overhead racing games that only in my dreams would look this good but thankfully it plays just as good as it looks. Highly recommended, now with the portability of the Switch being a deluxe bonus.
I really like this game, hard but fun.
Wow, a 9/10? For a simple top down racer?
@FTL As someone who also loves top down racers, I strongly disagree with your criticisms. For me this game is absolutely superb and well worth the 9/10. As top down racers go this is as good as it gets.I'd love to go over why I disagree with your points but I just don't have time just now. Curious why you would play with standard camera instead of the default dynamic option though though?There are also a couple of other camera options on top of these 2.
I can't recommend this game enough, it gets a solid 9/10 from me too. If you're on the fence, buy it,it's worth every penny.
@Shiryu Same here. This is top drawer stuff and for me a real standout title for Switch. I'll get loads out of this game.
I will be getting this when I get home! Can't wait to play it. Looks awesome and its nice to see we have another killer switch eshop game
The game is soooo fun!! Awesome arcade racing action!!
There's another save £5 when you spend £20 and check out with Paypal on the e-shop promotion on. You need to load it to your account first by following this link to the Paypal website. https://www.paypal.com/gb/webapps/mpp/offers?view=details&offerId=HEDEMSR8DKKXJ
Tempted to pick this up; may give it a download.
@OorWullie I know there were other options for camera, just none of which gave me a good feeling. I have no problem if you enjoy the game - I just personally found it unenjoyable for the reasons I mentioned.
If it turns out that for whatever reason you prefer the colours, prefer the speed, prefer the controls, prefer the random ways in which collisions occur, prefer the sound, then so be it and that’s fine.. but I didn’t.
I do agree however, that this might even be the best top down racer I have played in a long time!! But unfortunately that doesn’t make it very good for me.. just better than others I have played (recently released).
I dont normally disagree with NL, but a 9!? Come on, thats crazy.
Its a simple indie racing game with a TERRIBLE online component. If you do manage to get in a lobby with anyone else (you admitted yourself you only found 4 players at most), then you just as likely to all get kicked than find a race.
The controls are annoyingly twitchy and the sound isnt very good at all.
Its a 7 at very best.
Wow, I played this and thought it was bland and boring.
Glad this turned out well on Switch... I may check it out at some point.
And for all of those people who said "stop whining about not being 60 FPS"... well, it IS possible and they did it, and I'm certain the game is much better for it.
Divided opinion it seems. I'll wait it out. I try never to buy eshop on impulse, cos there's no going back...
Really slick looking environments. Good to hear it's as much fun as it promises.
This was panned everywhere on other systems.
One of the big complaints was the lack of environments. How does the switch version address this and end up at a 9?
Everything else online that ive seen says this game is a stinker. Reviewer bias much?
@Alcovitch 4 snow themed tracks were released for free on all platforms after launch. The switch version includes these.
@FTL Thanks for your point of view!
Eh...with Rocket League and Mario Kart already on the system, it's going to take a lot to convince me to get another driving game.
its these types of reviews where i question Nintendolife's bias ...
Looks pretty cool.
@jimbobolowskie You know, you're right.
They should say that a game sucks when it doesn't, just so it aligns with the score you were expecting.
Well this officially put me over the edge.... will be buying today
@Alcovitch Not really, given that it wasn't "panned" on other systems. Averaging 73/100 from 22 reviews on OpenCritic, and 77/100 from 12 reader reviews.
Reader bias much?
I’m looking forward to trying this out tonight! I just hope the online match making gets improved. Is this my new Rock and Roll Racing?
Excellent. This looked like a no brainer for me to pick up, but I backed off with the price and reports of it being light on content. I'll go ahead and pick it up b/c I loved the top down racer that came out on the Wii U (name escapes me now).
It looks really decent but I just don't like top-down racers that much.
Maybe if there was a demo I'd give it a try, but I don't see myself buying it (despite the review score).
@shani I think they are cool b/c they remind me of growing up when I had a Hot Wheels track and other racers.....
@rockodoodle Yeah I also remember playing Micromachines.
That said, somehow top-down racers are just not as much fun for me as 3D racers with a camera perspective from behind the vehicle.
But that's just me, may others enjoy it (and the game looks really good otherwise).
If Nintendolife has a bias, why isn't every game a 9 or 10? Could it be that the reviewer really likes the game? If you read the review, this comes across as an 8 or 9. Personal opinion has to play a part in any review to some extent. I know some people who don't like Ocarina of Time. They can appreciate it is well made but the game is not for them. Naturally if they reviewed it, they would give it a lower score than someone who liked it.
@Stevemc79
Funny you should say that. If this is as good as Motorstorm RC I'm sold. Yesterday a friend of mine who's a big PS4 gamer and was a huge Motorstorm RC fan was telling me how good this is. The multiplayer focus in this review makes me pause though. RC was a great single player game as well.
That’s my concern too. I put loads of hours in the single player part of Motorstorm RC. If the single player in this is limited then I probably won’t bother.
@FTL Apologies for how my comment came across earlier. I didn't mean for it to sound like I was implying your opinion on the game was wrong. I was in a bit of a rush at the time when I left that comment.
I bought the game a few days ago but I didn't get to spend some proper time with it until last night. I've been really looking forward to it for a while as Top down racers were one of my favourite genres back in the day, bought loads of them during the 80s and 90s. Games like Super Off Road Racer, Super Skidmarks, a Japanese import Megadrive game called F1 Circus as well as Micro Machines were some of my favourites but it's been donkeys years since I've played a genuinely good one. There was a couple on Wii U that I enjoyed but I knew deep down they were average at best. I bought the Neo Geo game Over the Top for Switch hoping it would scratch that itch but nope. When I saw Mantis Burn Racing announced I was so happy, I thought this is the game I've been wanting for years and now that I've played it, I honestly l couldn't be happier. It looks superb, especially on the handheld and it controls just how I hoped it would. I agree the audio could do with some work but I can live with that. It's a real shame about the online but as long as I can play my mate who has it on his Xbox I'll be happy. There is no private match options which at first had me worried that I wouldn't be able to play him but with no one else playing online, he shouldn't have much problems finding my lobby.
"Motion controls (tilt to steer) are also available if you are so inclined" - pun intended?
This does sound like a good game, though, and yes, I definitely feel like this would be the preferred platform for it as the docked /undocked flexibility would be much more important in this case than 4K.
I'll look into it!
@electrolite77 That focus is likely warranted: I've heard from quite a few people how much fun this is, and it's nice to have cross-play as well.
That doesn't mean that the single player experience is lacking, though. They said it quite clearly in the review itself:
"Clearing the seasons will keep you occupied, with the challenge increasing as you work through them; upgrades naturally helping to make things a little easier. If you’d just like a quick go on something, any of the events can be tackled outside of the career mode. If you don’t have the required vehicle (your first is a freebie, but others need to be purchased) you can still play using a “loan vehicle”, although these will not allow you to earn XP or G. All-in-all there’s a lot to keep you busy in single player mode"
@electrolite77 The single player career mode is really extensive, there's loads to it. I've read from PS4 reviews the career mode lasts around 20 hours but that's not including the DLC that comes with the Switch version. I was playing it for a few hours last night, I think it's superb. Highly recommended.
Definitely getting this at some point.
I really like this game, far better than that other rubbish top down racer, but the sound design is terrible.
Thought my speakers were broken when I started playing initially.
7/10 for me.
You know, this reminds me: I would LOVE another top-down GTA on Switch. I know that sales of Chinatown Wars on the DS were kind of terrible, but the Switch seems to have a much more enthusiastic and mature userbase that is hungry for substantive third party experiences.
@ThanosReXXX
Well, that was actually the bit that left me unsure. The review seemed to be enthusing massively about the multiplayer but the single player just got a 'plenty to keep you busy'. It's not an issue, the reviewer is true to his experience but I decided to read some other reviews. As I found others that went into more detail about the single player, along with the glowing recommendation from @OorWullie (thanks, fella), the fact that they seem to have put some effort into the port, and the PayPal UK £5 off a £20 eshop spend I've decided to give it a go.
@FTL and @OorWullie - thanks for the discussion and views.
I was so close to pulling the trigger and buying this for a car fix - as Gear.club seems half-baked and over-priced but looking at videos I was concerned that the cars seemed so slow. No review mentioned this.
Really wish there was a demo. I know it's 'only' £15 but Resi is around that, plus it's money I could plow into Zelda DLC or Skyrim or... or... or...
@electrolite77 Funny you should mention him. I saw a forum topic about this game, in which he was giving another elaborate and enthusiastic comment about it, and I was planning on referring you to that, but when I went to the site to read your reaction, I saw that there was no need for that anymore.
I personally know plenty of people that have had a pretty good time with it on Steam, so if I had a Switch and I liked top down racers (which I actually do), then buying this would be a no-brainer for me.
@Mii_duck I'd say it's pretty safe to give it a go, and use that PayPal benefit. Most videos of the Switch version show only the early races, with simple cars, with little upgrades. And it might look slow when watching, but when playing it's different.
And trust me: you NEED those early, slower levels to get used to the feel of the cars and the tracks, and when to steer, brake and speed up, things that will be essential when the speed level goes up, and it does go up considerably, and then the game really comes into its own.
Here's a clip of the PC version. Graphics are obviously better, but the speed will be about the same. Watch it in 1080p/60fps, to get a better idea of what to expect:
And here is an extensive video review/playtest by Spawn Wave:
(with handheld mode around the 12m25s mark)
Or.... you could always ask @Oorwullie why this is pretty much a must-buy if you like top down racers...
I played Rock 'N Roll Racing a lot when I was younger. I'm very tempted.
@BlueKnight07 Ah, that was a great game too. I actually installed it on my hacked SNES Mini...
@Mii_duck Your car does feel quite slow when you first start the career mode, especially at accelerating but that's because it doesn't have any upgrades yet. Once you get going on the track though, trying to negotiate the corners and pass opponents it doesn't feel that slow anymore. After the first race or 2,depending
where you placed previously you'll have your first upgrade. Each upgrade added is very noticeable, especially early on .Now you should be doing much better, placing higher, completing some of the challenges and earning even more upgrades and also enough cash to buy the sand buggy, which of course performs much better in the desert than that city car you were using. Once you're in the buggy you definitely won't be feeling like you're going too slow, you'll be zipping round the corners, getting the hang of drifting and thinking to yourself man, this game is great. Then you'll move onto the metropolis track which is on tarmac and notice that slow city car you started in isn't so slow on tarmac, especially now that it's been upgraded. Now you'll be zipping round the city, taking on hairpins and chicanes at full speed and learning the best straights to boosts.These boosts, although short and sweet start to become crucial for winning races .You can only boost by filling up a meter by drifting or going full pelt over jumps. As you reach the end of your first season you're definitely not going slow anymore.plus straights for that crucial boost are not so common and opponents are right up your rear as they're also upgrading their cars.
Sorry I definitely got carried away there
Yep I think this game is superb and scratches my Switch racing itch big time. Anyone saying it's just a simple indie racer doesn't know what they're talking about. I've considered Gear Club but for me, it won't touch this beauty. It's a real looker too, especially in handheld. Well I'm off to play it now. If you do take plunge, let me know what you think
@Mii_duck Just to help you out, some further info from my experience - I figured I’d start the game in rookie mode at first. In most ‘arcade’ style racing games, for a beginner/rookie mode, the acceleration/turning remains a little high even while the top speed is reduced to give you that responsive feel but a slower overall vehicle... where’as to me, the slower modes in this game have proportionally slow acceleration (and turning - but this greatly depends on the vehicle chosen)... so when you take off from being stopped, in the rookie mode for example, it feels ‘very’ slow for ‘some’ of the vehicles (IMO). I referenced Micro Machines ‘96, but also something like wipeout (a comparison just to highlight where the vehicles are a joy to drive regardless of the speed class).
After playing the rookie/slower modes for a bit I jumped up to the fastest mode, which to be honest, feels much better as the acceleration and turning response is equally faster.
I don’t hate this game, I just personally felt it to be a bit unpolished as far as physics.
I think if you were to have the camera behind the car, these physics might actually feel just right, but when you raise the camera above, it feels slow to me... as a practical example, in real life if you watch cars going by on the highway at 100km per hour, from a helicopter, it looks super slow but not so much if sitting in a car... I think the devs went for a realistic type of speed relative to the track, but haven’t neccessarily catered for the overhead view as well (IMO).
If there was a solid feeling from the sound effects and verticality (such as when landing from jumps) it would probably greatly improve my experience too.
I would probably rate this 7/10.. def not bad.. just not great.
@FTL
Thanks for your review. I needed to read this since Dave Frear almost had me fooled.
@OorWullie No that’s fine - It’s always good to hear others opinions and I try to be honest with mine (ie not trolling, but if it’s not good in my eyes, I’ll try to explain why).
I guess I just recently re-played MM V3 in anticipation of this and it just didn’t end up meeting the mark for me. A 7/10 though, just not great for me.
Similarly I love Wave Race, and the new Aqua Moto game was not even close...
@Aneira
Haha no problem - but just to be clear, the game isn’t terrible - i’m sure for the right person it could be great fun - it’s just not everything I hoped it would be from this type of game, and hence not really close to a 9/10 (for me).
@ThanosReXXX I just saw the notification from you after I wrote a comment as to why the guy should buy this game. I think I went slightly over board though haha. I should know better than to comment here when I've had a drink. Not much of a drinker at all but when I do, I talk too much and slaver crap. Hence why I should stay off here.
I was just really looking forward to this game and its actually turned out to be better than I hoped it would be .That doesn't happen to me too often. I'm already in gaming heaven with Odyssey, Doom and Rocket League so having this to play now too is just superb. The Switch is giving me the kind of feelings that I used to get as a wee lad with his Master System or Megadrive. Funny that.
@OorWullie I can imagine, haven't got a Switch yet (other priorities), but I do hope to be able to buy one somewhere in January/February next year, and this game is definitely on my list, since I trust my PC gaming friends, and they all say this game is great fun.
I also don't think that you went overboard, I just read a lot of enthusiasm in your comments, and I actually liked it, since it was genuine. And we've already got more than enough Negative Nancy's and Nicky NeverEnough's on here...
@ThanosReXXX Ah, good choice. I still got the original. 😛
@ThanosReXXX, @FTL and @OorWullie - thank you for the comments and extra detail. Much appreciated.
@Mii_duck You're welcome. Let me know what you yourself think of it, if you ultimately do decide to buy the game. Personally, I'm pretty confident that you'll like it, if the genre interests you.
Since I already played MK8 on Wii U like a maniac, and GCU turned out to be low end 'meh', I decided to give Mantis Burn Racing a shot. I was very suprised to find that the game only costs 15,99 Euro in Germany. But I digress. Having played (and enjoyed!) the game for 2 hours now, I can safely say it is not a 9/10 for me. More like a 7/10, which is still good enough for me.
What bothers me most is the German translation. While parts of it are solid, some screen texts are utter gibberish. I feel like they put some parts of the text into Google Translate and rolled with it without any correction. At this point I'd rather play with English text, but unfortunately that's not possible. Although I'd imagine setting the Switch entirely to English could accomplish this.
Another downside is the sound. The soundtrack is rather unimpressive and the other sounds are mediocre. But all in all I like Mantis Burn Racing! It's a nice little arcade racer with flaws that can be ignored if you're really into top down racer and need such a game on the Switch. Everyone else should consinder buying either MK8 or Fast RMX.
@FTL (re comment #4) I’m with you on this one, buddy. I also picked Mantis Burn Racing up right away and like you, I have a big issue with the sound in the game. The cars just make a monotonous drone as though you’re listening from up high in a chopper. I know it’s a top down racer with a high point of view, but the audio needn’t be. I also agree with your other points, but it’s the audio that detracts from the immersion and is therefore the most disappointing element.
I don’t hate the game by any means, but MBR is severely lacking polish and is, for me, okay at best. There’s tons of potential here, but I wouldn’t score it any higher than a 9 out of 10.
Love the game, except I have never seen anyone on line to play
So, I bought this and thought the normal racing was boring at best.
Then, just before giving up on the game completely, after 40 minutes of play, I saw a tank in the garage.
Battle mode makes the game much, much better, but it isn't obvious in the menus at all!
Battle mode is worth playing!
Battle mode is worth the price of admission!
The rest of the game was a meh fest for me.
This is probably one of the worst racing games I have ever bought, one of the only games I truly regret buying for my Switch, and I would not recommend it to anyone.
It seems to be a racing game favored by people who typically don't like racing games so I guess there is that, but I thought it was terrible.
nice game but somebody forget about engine sounds :/
graphics 8/10
sound 1/10
gameplay ?/10 (cant play without sound of car :/ )
@Mr_Horizon Sounds like you would love GOTCHA RACING 2nd, but, this game is awesome
Tap here to load 68 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...