Modnation Racers offers an above competent racing engine and incredible creation tools that more than deserves a look.
(-) overly tough AI, and the difficulty settings are a lie / defensive play feels frustratingly ineffective / drifting feels too sharp and at times uncomfortable / no way to race against your own creations or downloads as AI
What a difference a hard drive makes. Ever sense this current generation of gaming has brought about a marriage between gaming consoles and computers, we've been able to see developers pull off some pretty amazing things that we could once only dream about. Take the "create" aspect that was first introduced by Little Big Planet, allowing players to create their own worlds and characters and share them with the rest of the gaming community. But following that, comes Modnation Racers, which attempts to bring that same pizzazz to the racing world. Although there's some inadequacies, like over the top difficulty and a awkward, and outdated drifting mechanic, Modnation Racers succeeds in what its trying to do masterfully, and whether you're itching to create something unique or just want to dive into other people's compositions, there's plenty to enjoy here to keep it a viable option on your Playstation 3 gaming sessions.
I'm gonna have to let you off with a warning at first though. First of all, Modnation Racers installs directly to your PS3 hard drive, which will down you by about 4 GB. There's also a bevy of updates that need installed first. And whether you want to download the karts, tracks, or avatars, that's going to keep adding up to your save file, so make sure your PS3 has adequate storage space otherwise you just won't get the full experience.
Modnation Racers starts off as many kart racers before it at first. You're introduced to a soon-to-be racing contestant known as Tag, who previously had a hobby of spraying graffiti across the neighborhood but decided to try his hand on the kart racing sport. He doesn't speak a word, presumably because his only purpose of living is to be molded into whatever crazy avatar you can create or download to replace him. He tries out for the Modnation Racing Championship, or MRC for short. You're not really going to care about the "story" presented in these cut-scenes, but the banter between running commentators Biff and Gary stays amusing from the cut-scenes, tutorials, and races themselves. However, at some point in the main single player mode, you're forced to play as Tag again in a predetermined kart, which ultimately affects nothing but is a bit of an annoyance when you'd rather be playing around as Pingasaurus or Ronald McDonald.
More on that right now. Modnation Racers is more of a creation game first, a racing game second. There are an incredible amount of skins, facials parts, clothes, and other ying yangs you can play around with to help make any character the way you want to. Some people have even been able to use Photoshop to further customize the looks of the faces if the already impressive line up of eyes, noses, and mouths don't break the ice. Similarly, karts can be designed exquisitely from the rims of the tires to the windshield, allowing you to personalize your racing experience as much as you like. And even if you're not in the creating mood, it couldn't be simpler downloading a limitless supply of other creations from other users. Mario? Jesus Christ? Boxxy? Kurt Cobain? Yeah, they're all there, and much, much more. Seriously, its going to shock you at how much is provided here. I was even able to find a pretty decent sketch of Red Green, a British comedy that aired on public television commonly watched by middle aged men, I never imagined I'd see that represented here. There really doesn't appear to be a limit to how much you can download, so feel free to go crazy grabbing as much as you like. It's just a shame you stuck with all the default creations as AI when racing by your self or split screen with a friend. You can't compete with your own creations, which feels like a missed opportunity. But even if you can't shove Earthworm Jim off the track unless someone else is racing as him, there's no denying the supremacy of these creation tools and its going to last people with the urge to make compelling creations for years to come.
And that doesn't even mention the track editor, which allows you to set turns and ornaments to create a vastly different experience. The game also has an auto-populate feature which allows people long on enthusiasm but short on patience to still create a good track. Similarly, the racing community has already pumped out some pretty impressive tracks that make you second guess the included 14 default tracks. For example, in the Ohio State University track, the placing of the crowds of pleased fans in a soccer stadium just outside rows of beautifully placed bushes and parking spaces really make you feel like you're tearing through an actual college. Or if you'd rather race on Mario Kart Wii's Rainbow Road, where people have expertly mirrored every degree of turn to get the nostalgic energy flowing. Although there's always the risk of people making hateful tracks that are impossible to play on, using the download search features sorting functions to take you to the highest rated or most downloaded creations allows you to browse from the best creations of the community.
If you intend to submit your own creations, however, you may want to play through the game's single player mode, which is basically five cups with a succession of races. And make no mistake, it won't be an easy ride. The AI is tough. Like, really tough. They'll routinely hit you with an item on the third lap wiping out any chance you had at victory, causing a vicious cycle of restarts. And it doesn't help that you can't tone the difficult down, even know the options menu clearly depicts that you can, it doesn't really make a difference. In my experience, playing on expert and playing on casual still had me shouting at my flat-screen TV and smacking my games case until I finally sank in my love-seat after the fourth try on all of the later races. But don't think you're done just yet, even after you've watched Gary get his revenge on Biff over all his merciless (and well-deserved) insults. Each race has up to five tokens scattered across the track, some in plain sight, others you won't possibly see your first time racing through, that you'll need to collect before you finish the race, whether you win or lose. However, the extra challenges that go with each race aren't so lenient. Racing three laps through an extra long canyon track without once hitting the walls, and winning the race, is no easy task. Nor is going to the jungle and getting x-amount of air points when that requires you to fine a super specific ramp. But you won't get all the extra goodies until you face off against your rivals in the grudge matches, which can be anything from team races to annoying point challenges which the other guy always seems to have a leg up ahead of you. But its good to know that there's plenty more to do in the single player mode, otherwise it would be pretty short and disappointing.
But when the AI opponents aren't breathing down your neck, the racing is still fairly enjoyable. As traditional kart racers have, there's item pods to break open to unleash hell on the opposition. They come in four major flavors, a missile, lightning bolt, barge, and boost. That initially sounds like limited options, but if you gather another power up it'll increase the effectiveness and change the overall nature of the attack. For example, what was once a lousy straight-seeking missile is now an intelligent homing attack that goes a staggering distance for a single opponent. But if you save that attack until you get a third power up, the ground with shake like an earthquake as numerous blazing missiles blast every opponent ahead off the track, causing a reversal in a tight spot.
If only the defensive strategies were as reliable. Modnation Racers certainly has the right idea, keeping your boost meter essential for the fastest times shared with your shield that you'll need to avoid incoming attacks, providing a smart mix of risk and reward with the already fast and generally fun game-play. But often times the shield runs out far faster than the boost, some of the bigger attacks will hit you just the same amount of time as a fully charged and perfectly timed shield, which can lead to you taking damage even when you're sure you've timed it just right. This leads to a frustrating in-balance between offense and defense, though its nothing that's possibly determinate on your enjoyment its still annoying nonetheless. Equally aggravating is the overemphasis on drifting. While its fun to take turns sharper than broken glass and cheat the track by binding the curves faster than you could do in any other racer, it can be slightly uncomfortable holding onto the x-button for so long, and these controls cannot be swapped in the options menu, which might limit your time spent playing the game even if it does use the ingenious built-for-a-racer acceleration button with the back trigger. But while these blemishes detract from the experience somewhat, it doesn't matter in the wake of the constant joy of downloading something cool off the game's servers and taking it out for a spin in a race.
The innovation doesn't stop with the creating either. If you're connected to the Internet, you'll see that the game's menu is actually a racing lounge called Mod Spot, where there's other online players hanging out all over the place, doing drifting spins, challenging others to a race, or begging you to download their creations. It takes a whole spin against providing a bland menu, and allows like-minded individuals, or perhaps arch enemies, to hang out politely or complain to each other seamlessly through text or voice chat. If you take a tour through the place, you'll see three massive statues of the top three most downloaded avatars, and karts, for the day sitting on top a beautiful fountain, and buildings dedicated to your personal create station, quick race, split-screen, online, est. But if you'd rather just quickly jump to a menu and get to a race, you can still do that too.
There are so many ways to enjoy just what Modnation Racers has to offer. You can let the creative spirit in you whip up something unique and watch it climb up the download chart earning yourself that extra bit of fame. You can join some online matches and see what kind of wicked costumes and rides that everyone else took for the party. You can bring up to three friends with you and have a split screen party. Or just simply chill out between races and randomly run into someone who fell asleep in their kart in Mod Spot. Even if the racing engine has a few disappointments, Modnation Racers whole-heartily succeeds in what its trying to do, bringing the power of creation to the racing arena for the first time, resulting in a game that a anyone from a racing fan, creation artist, or none of the above will likely get a lot out of.