Karting in a User-Generated haze

For those who have perhaps never heard of the ModNation Racers title before, let me sum it up for you. A nice pleasant mixture of Mario Kart, a dash of TrackMania and then a healthy chaser of Little Big Planet to top it all off. Why Little Big Planet you might ask? Well the game is a part of the Create, Play, Share ideal that has been one of the most unique elements of Sony's console. Sound like your kind of thing? Then read on.

When ModNation Racers was debuted at E3 2009, people were treated with the first glimpse of what a Kart Racer could truly do with the power under the hood of the PS3. Not merely content with creating a simple game to fill the gaping hole that was the PS3's lack of Kart racers, United Front Gaming set out on an Ambitious project; creating a Kart racer where almost all of the content involved is User Generated.

As ambitious as the project is though, almost all of the concepts used have already existed in some way or another in the racers of the world, from several games in the NES era (c. 1985) we already had ways of customizing and creating our own tracks, and vehicle creation has been around almost as long. Where ModNation Racers truly shines though, is the effort involved in making creation as easy and painless as humanly possible.

To be able to sit down with a concept in my head and create and apply little touches of that concept to an Avatar (Or Mod, as the game likes them to be called) and have them created in about as much time as it takes to think about them, is pretty amazing. Changes happen immediately, the interface is intuitive, and not fiddly at all. If you love the creation of things, there is no end to the amount of fun to be had in this aspect of the game.

Creating things is for sissies

The flip side of the game, and for some the most important side, is in its racing. While the game might hit on that Mario Kart style, the way the karts actually handle, is a whole other monster. From the build I played (and I was reminded that this could change for release) the karts actually felt and raced more like cars out of Need for Speed: Underground, with different karts having different characteristics based on things like imagined weight.

From the prebuilt tracks that were played, there were a lot of fun things. In addition to some mean power-ups (which gained levels as you accrued more of them, meaning saving power-ups was often more beneficial than immediate use), obstacles littered the course, sheep hobbled out of the way of incoming karts, and for almost a second I thought I saw my Mod flipping the bird at an overtaking opponent (He was actually shaking his fist/paw/whatever but I like it more my way).

Nothing truly felt bland or boring, and drifting in the game was absolutely gorgeous. The ability to spin your kart over jumps was pretty cool, and the fact that doing tricks and driving well (or aggressively) gave you points was great as well. Finally the ability to make a tactical choice (do I use my boost meter to boost, or power my weapon repelling shield) is a fun and interesting mechanic that a lot of more hardcore gamers are going to enjoy.

Also, do not worry if you are not a fan of the creative aspect of the game, with the games very easy and simplistic download options, you will have an almost endless combination of tracks, vehicles, and mods to download. In just a few examples we saw some crazy variations with bridges ending in a drop, some weapon fueled demolition maps, some pure racing maps, a little of everything.

Individual Uniqueness

Being 'unique' is an aspect of games that is only just now starting to be preyed upon by game developers. Mario Kart Wii had the ability to race as your Mii, and it was by far the most played option over any of the standard character fare. With Modern Warfare 2, players could customize everything to their own desires and tastes, from killstreaks to titles and weapons. ModNation Races makes sure that you always have the ability to be unique from the other players playing the game.

We have seen collections that measure in the hundreds of items for simple things like eyes and noses. You can use the color wheel on practically anything in the game to make it your own personal shade of 'light red', you can scale items in size, create layers and groups, and go far beyond the traditional creative conventions in videogames today.

I did notice some fairly lengthy load times, but this is likely just a problem with the builds that I have seen and will be fixed on the final product. Ultimately though, you have a kart racer where you can make the Ecto-1 or Batmobile. the creative possibilities are practically endless. You could even create a track that looks like a giant wang, and though we don't endorse this in any way, much like Spore you might find yourself confronted by more than a few on the first day.

So many racers recently have been made to either be played by younger people (Mario Kart, Sonic All Stars) or adults (PGR and the upcoming Blur) that no game truly spans the boundary for family entertainment. Having seen all the different ways of playing ModNation Racers, I would like to say that this game is the missing link, a perfect balance between childhood desires and adult curiosities.

Ultimately, a game like this cannot be described by words alone. You need to be able to get it in your hands and actually play the game to truly grasp the enormity of the concept. Needless to say I have and I am very much looking forward to creating some amazing tracks when ModNation Racers hits shelves.