Mantis Burn Racing has been out for a year on Xbox One and PS4 but is coming to the Nintendo Switch in the near future. Switch owners will be getting the definitive edition of the racer, which means all previously released DLC will be included in the package. I got a hands-on preview of the Switch version today, and here are my initial thoughts.
Mantis Burn Racing harkens back to the age of top-down racers, and it pulls this off brilliantly. There may be a limited selection of cars and tracks, but the career mode is extensive and is able to keep a player’s interest throughout. The driving is quite hard for those that are used to all the assists modern racing games tend to provide players. It does take some getting used to, but winning a race is even more rewarding than in a game like Forza Motorsport 7 or Project CARS 2. There are five classes of car: buggies, saloon-style, heavy, battlecar and super-speed hover cars. The hover cars are for real racing experts, and the devs have said these vehicles are only for those that are veteran players as they are incredibly challenging to handle.
The Switch version will include all the DLC, including the game mode Battle Cars, which is as awesome as it sounds. The cars are similar to the standard cars, but you now have guns and mines at your disposal. This adds an element of strategy to races; it isn’t as frustrating as the blue shells found in Mario Kart, but it can be a little annoying tripping on a mine when out in front.
The main question to ask is how have the developers adapted the game from consoles with your standard controller to a console that can be played in multiple places and ways. The game is adapted brilliantly and easily accessible for any Switch owner. The controls have been redesigned from the other console versions but still maintain the usual functions: right trigger to accelerate and left trigger to brake, and the nitrous boost is done by pressing A. When the game is made portable, the controls switch to the detachable Joy-Con controllers. Same concept as before, but the right shoulder button is used to accelerate and the left shoulder button is to brake.
The Switch version possibly has the coolest feature of them all, which is described as perspective split-screen. This means that however you’re looking at the screen, the game adjusts to that viewpoint for your portion of the screen. The game supports up to 8 person multiplayer over WiFi and the same player count for regular multiplayer.
This game does really bring back the nostalgia for me and is well worth picking up no matter the console you are on.
There is currently no price point for the game as of yet, but the studio says that it will be similar to what it costs on Xbox and PlayStation, which is £11.99.