ModNation Racers Review
| Game Name: | ModNation Racers |
| Platforms: | Playstation 3 |
| Publisher(s): | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Developer(s): | United Front Games |
| Genre(s): | Kart Racer |
| Release Date: | May 25, 2010 |
| ESRB Rating: | E |
ModNation Racers is the IP that takes hold of the genre, create, play, share, and brings it to the kart racing genre. This wildfire genre created by the likes of Little Big Planet and continued by LBP2. I will break the review up just like I did for LBP2.
ModNation Racers could have easily just thrown you on a couple of tracks during the campaign to satisfy your racing need and push you towards user created levels. Surprisingly, the game has a story and reason to race. The story revolves around you, the new racer on the track who wants to make it big. That’s not cliché. Luckily the game is very stylized and humorous which makes up for the rough plot. The tracks are all creative, zany, and fun to play around on as you’d expect. The game offers a nice power up system that involved a handful on unique powers which can be upgraded by picking up more power ups and all have a three tier tree. This adds a nice amount of strategy coupled with the shield to when you use your powers and when you horde them for later. The racing itself is drift based as you will be hammering on ‘X’, the drift button, a lot. A boosting mechanic is also implemented that allows players to gain boost in several common ways, and can give much needed help during a tough race. The standard gameplay offers a fairly solid experience.
The create section, the attention grabber, is just as good as you want it to be. You can customize your character, kart, and track down to the smallest details. The character customization rivals LBP2 with the ability to move certain parts, such as eyes or other facial attire, and allows you to make very unique looking creations. The kart customization is also top notch with different bodies, parts, engines, decals, and designs. You can make a slick street car or even a simple cardboard soapbox. My one gripe with the kart creations is the fact that no matter what you do to your vehicle, its racing attribute will not change. You can build a big transport and you’ll be just as fast and limber as everyone else. It’d be great if the amount of parts you placed affected your driving, but it doesn’t hold the game back either. The track creation is the most impressive allowing you to create a track by simply driving. Driving is the main way you layout your track, but it can also be tweaked and changed via other tools. There is also an auto-populate button for those not good at small details and will sprinkle goodies all over your masterpiece. In fact, I’d go as far to say that MNR offers a much easier and possibly better creation system than LBP or LBP2.
The sharing aspect is what all fans of Little Big Planet are used to. Publish levels and all that jargon. The levels aren’t as shocking and there are fewer how-did-they-do-that moments, but they are still really fun to play on. Comparing the two is still completely different beasts as LBP is much more free expression while MNR is more build a track.
ModNation Racers is a fantastic addition to the lacking kart racing genre. Hopefully people continue to support it with great content and the community can continue to grow.
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