Mantis Burn Racing

 
Developer: VooFoo Studios

Steam Release: Jul 2016

Hours Played: 3.3

Most Similar To: Little Racers Street / Real World Racing / Reckless Racing

Rating: 5/5 Stars

GAMEPLAY

As the final purchase of my set of top-down racer games, and nudging out Obliteracers which seemed more suited to the multiplayer crowd, MBR has slowly but surely won my approval. Like others, you'll take control of your chosen vehicle (be it light, medium or heavy) and bound your way around twisting and turning tracks in an effort to be first past the finish line or to crush that lap time. At around two or three minutes long, races are fairly brief but the action is always gripping and intense. The AI of the other cars keeps things reasonably balanced and, apart from very slow acceleration at the start of each race, the cars handle reasonably well. The game relies on upgrades being purchased so you can pimp your car to smash previously unattainable objectives and to fly through the campaign.
  
 

BALANCE & PACE

Your time will mainly be spent in career mode where you play through a batch of events known as seasons. Some of these events are simple races or time-trials while others are knockouts (elimination races) or accumulators where you score points based on your current position. As you play, you'll get experience points that unlock levels and, hence, upgrades that you can equip on your chosen vehicle in the garage. For each event, you'll also get three objectives and then awarded one gear for successfully completing each one. These are necessary to unlock as you can only proceed through certain parts of the campaign if you have a set amount of gears. Despite some deceptive bends on certain tracks, graphical issues and confusion as to how the campaign worked, I can safely say that MBR has proved to be a worthy addition to my library        

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

Unfortunately MBR has its limitations. The complaint that it has little variation by way of environments or locations is sadly a justified issue. Sand Town (a dusty desert landscape) and New Shangri-La (a city with surrounding mountains) are, to my knowledge, all the venues you get. It's true that varying courses give varying challenges and there is a snow themed track by way of DLC, but would it have hurt to design a few more tile-sets to add a bit of flair? Additionally, complaints of the framerate taking a hit on certain parts of tracks can be confirmed and a 15-20 second loadscreen for each race is a bit steep, particularly from an SSD drive. Tracks will have to be tried multiple times to avoid guesswork with some of the cornering but fortunately the game does offer a fixed camera alternative to the nausea-inducing swinging camera.     
   

PROGRESS SYSTEM

Slightly baffling at first, progress can be boiled down to needing to complete events on a short path a la Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed. Placing third will usually unlock the next event but you will still need X amount of gears (or completed objectives) to crack on. Some events are restricted to a light, a middle or a heavy vehicle while others give you an open choice. To be honest, the campaign is a bit of a monster with around 30 events included in the three Rookie seasons; nearly 50 in the three pro seasons, and 17 in the final veteran season. As far as the roster of vehicles goes, MBR keeps it refreshingly simple with endless cross-referencing and number-crunching being a thing of the past - a definite plus. Coins are collected and used to buy the different rookie and pro model of cars. 

CONCLUSION

Initially a game I purchased to make up the numbers, I am ultimately happy with MBR and look forward to continuing through the massive campaign. The flexible upgrade system, which allows you to add more and therefore go back and crush earlier objectives in a season, works really well. Also, although a lot more drift-like than Reckless Racing or Little Racers Street and therefore needing a bit to get used to, the actual steering works perfectly well. Another excellent feature, a trend which has taken off quite a bit of late, is the weekly challenge; only here rather than everyone completing the challenge in their own car - with as many stat-boosts as there are players - players are given a set car with fixed specifications so that everyone competes on a fair and level playing field. In all, worth picking up for a blast!