ModNation Racers Review

Posted on 13. Jul, 2010 by Freak_c in News, Reviews

When you first see ModNation Racers it looks nothing more than a just another kart racer with HD graphics. But you would be so wrong as the games is packed with all sorts of goodies to keep people hooked for months and months after it’s release. Is the game really going to take first place or is it going to come in last place?

United Front Games have managed to tell a story in a full career mode with some colourful characters to race against and fight your way to the top. This is good because as you know there is an extremely brilliant multiplayer mode and having a single player campaign allows everyone to have a go. The story is pretty much what you would expect a young and rising racing star (you) racing through the ranks to take down the top racer in this mod nation world.

However this simply makes the single player just another cart racer. Where Modnation Racers truly shines is in its multiplayer and creation sections. This is the second game in Sony’s ‘Play, Create, Share’ catalogue of game, the first being LittleBigPlanet. And as LittleBigPlanet spawned a unique and vast community so to has Modnation Racers. In ModNation Racers, you can create racers (known as Mods), karts and even tracks that you can then upload and share with the world, which means you can download other people’s works of art, too. The tools that you have at your finger tips are made in such a way that simply anyone can make a track within 10 minutes, complete with weapon pick-ups, short cuts, tunnels, bridges, different road surfaces and filled with scenery. This I have timed and you will be able to see the track I made in ten minute if you search for me and download my track.

Track Editor

Of course for the serious modders out there, the tools found in ModNation Racer allow you to drive deeper to give you advanced controls to change and edit just about anything. How advanced? Well, you can change the width and elevation of the track at almost every point. You can add jumps, trigger events and edit the terrain and more. You’ll simply drive to lay your road and have the freedom to twist and turn however you like. The right analogue stick controls elevation, so you’re free to climb to the sky or dip low into the ground and criss-cross your already laid asphalt. All this with the extremely simple controls. These tools are carried over for when you want to edit your mod and kart. To make up your character you can jump into the colour wheel and spin through a vast array of shades, rubber, cloth or metal, and then go nuts with 247 eye types, 315 mouths and so on. Toss in the fact that there are shirts, pants, hats, horns and more, and you’re looking at a blank canvas you can do pretty much whatever you want with.

The other great aspect of the game is that you can load any of the tracks from the single player campaign and then edit them to your hearts delight. If you can think it, you really can make it in ModNation Racers.

The controls in both editing and during the game are so simple and easy to use that anyone can play, create and share when they get this game. Drifting one of the ways that you can build up your boost meter feels smooth and clean and after only two laps I was mastering some truly sick drifts. As I mentioned before drifting is one of the ways that you can fill your boost meter, other ways are by performing an air spin with your character during one of he huge jumps. You can then use what’s in this meter to boost ahead or to use a temporary shield against incoming attacks. The shield is a life saver sometimes as the later races can get really intense and the AI start hammering you with all the weapons near the end of the race.

Missile Launch

When collecting the various weapon types in the game you can also upgrade them up to three levels. this is achieved by holding on to the weapon you picked up from driving over the weapon pod and by simply driving over the pod again. Missiles upgrade from simply firing straight ahead to swarms of homing missiles. Even though there are only four weapon types,,but each has upgrade levels makes them feel varied. Along with collecting hidden tokens during each track race and having some goals or tasks to complete, ModNation Racers is a full package and worth it for anyone who owns a PS3, even if you are off-line.

There are however some things that have made the playing of the game slightly irritating. The first one I found was that in order to unlock the next race you have to finish in the top three and this can get a little tricky later down the lines as the AI are ruthless when attacking you and makes the game difficult. The biggest issue I have and one I feel must be mentioned are the load times. Even with the so called update to correct these load times, they are still stick a fork in your eye slow. And there are plenty of them the game pretty much loads every time you enter a new section or even a race and these load times can be anywhere from 20 – 60 seconds at a time. I know its not the end of the world but it does tarnish the experience. The good news is that one the section is loaded everything runs 100%.

Conclusion
A real shame that something such as load times can tarnish the experience of an otherwise fantastic kart racer. The game is another excellent addition to Sony’s ‘Play, Create, Share’, having an excellent create section for the casual gamer but will satisfy the advanced modder as well. With a great and ever growing community out there, the game will keep you playing well after the single player campaign. Fun graphics and sound as well as an all round fantastic experience, every PS3 owner should check this game out.