Last week, we got our hands on VooFoo Studios’ new arcade style, top-down racing game, Mantis Burn Racing. VooFoo aren’t exactly renowned for their racing games. In fact, Mantis Burn actually marks a notable turning point for the studio, moving away from their card and board game based titles and onto the racing genre so we were interested to see what they had to offer.

On the surface, Mantis Burn boasts some pretty cool modes, supporting a single player career mode, local multiplayer (split screen for up to four players) and an online mode (eight players). Spanning across Rookie, Pro and Veteran difficulty levels, players will have the opportunity to choose from eight different types of race. Mantis Burn offers common modes that you would expect from the genre, such as Race (three laps); Endurance (five laps); Sprint (two laps); Hot Lap and Time Trials. However, it also attempts to shake up average races by including modes such as Accumulator where players earn points by remaining in first place (the first to 10,000 points wins); Overtake – which encourages players to overtake five other cars to win, and Knockout, in which the player at the end of each lap is eliminated.

At a glance, the game appears to offer a lot of choice and variation however, when we actually started testing out some of the modes, we realised that ultimately, they are all incredibly similar. Basically, you just need to seize that first place position and hold onto it. It’s a shame Mantis Burn Racing doesn’t feature anything along the lines of a battle mode, something that radially changes the gameplay as opposed to simply fighting for first place.

Furthermore, in the preview build that we played, the game sported eight tracks, one type of weather condition (dry) and just one time of day (afternoon). Nonetheless, these customisable tools are of course, subject to change and will most likely diversify as development continues. Unfortunately, at this point in time, some of the tracks feel very similar. ‘The Mine’ and ‘Caves’ in particular, felt like slight variations of the same course which made each track feel quite boring to drive around. The only track that really stood out was ‘Metropolis’ as the scenery was considerably different. Then again, this track also showcased a number of issues with Mantis Burn’s camera. Due to the placement of skyscrapers on sharp corners on this track, there were a few occasions where we would momentarily lose sight of of our cars. This became increasingly frustrating as it prevented us from landing the smooth drifts that we needed in order to retain our positions in the race. There is a small selection of camera angles to choose from however, they are largely very similar - with only one angle providing you with a truly different perspective.

For the most part, we didn’t really have a preferred perspective but did find that we had to change it depending on which track we were on. One of the camera angles became problematic on the Refinery track - the placement of the objects on the stage combined with the camera angle made it impossible to see your vehicle. All of the camera perspectives were flawed in some way, forcing you to change the viewing angle at least one per lap in order to avoid bumping into parts of the track. Mantis Burn Racing seems like the type of game that would benefit from a fixed Micro Machines-style camera, and as it appears to have been partly inspired by this game, it’s a real shame that this hasn’t been included.

Our favourite feature in Mantis Burn Racing is the split-screen local multiplayer. VooFoo have included support for what has become a dying mode. You can play with up to four people on the same console, and up to eight people online. The only real ‘issue’ with the multiplayer in this game is that every player needs to be roughly the same level. Unlike a racing game like Mario Kart, there’s nothing to stop better players from completely dominating against players of lower skill levels. We don’t believe this is a genuine problem, but we feel like its worth mentioning in case you had plans of playing this game with people like your grandparents. Before starting up a local multiplayer game, remember to turn off the upgrade system in the options, otherwise your friends will be using their barebones vehicles against your souped up car.

Speaking of souped up cars; Mantis Burn features an RPG-style upgrade system that enables players to upgrade their vehicles’ overall performance and handling. Unfortunately, we were unable to examine this feature in a great amount of detail but we did catch a quick glimpse of it. From what we could tell, as you play the game you earn money and gears which enable you to upgrade various parts of your vehicle. Mantis Burn’s Garage also enables you to pick customisable paint jobs, change the colour of your vehicles boost and choose the weight of your car (light, medium or heavy) along with a number of other stats.

Additional Thoughts

Overall, we felt quite torn after our experience with Mantis Burn Racing. The game itself isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t something that we were incredibly eager to go back to either. If you’re looking for half an hour of fun trying out some of the modes with your friends, then this game is a great choice. However, we’re unsure how much longer you’d want to spend with it in one session as most of the modes and maps feel very similar. Nonetheless, if you are looking to play the Career mode or take advantage of the online multiplayer, that may be a more fulfilling experience.

If you’ve already played Mantis Burn Racing, please let us know what your first impressions of the game are in the comments below.

System Requirements

MINIMUM:

OS: Windows Vista

Processor: 2.0 GHz Dual Core 

Memory: 3 GB RAM 

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 500 series 

DirectX: Version 10 

Storage: 4200 MB available space 

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0C compatible

RECOMMENDED: 

OS: Windows 7+ 

Processor: 2.0+ GHz Dual Core 

Memory: 8 GB RAM 

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 700 series plus 

DirectX: Version 10 

Storage: 4200 MB available space 

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0C compatible

Performance

Mantis Burn will also natively support 4K on the new PlayStation Pro console.

Release Date

Mantis Burn Racing is available on Steam Early Access right now. VooFoo Studios have not yet announced an official release date for the full game, so keep an eye on their Steam Page for upcoming announcements.

Most Anticipated Feature

Testing out the local multiplayer with three friends.