Modnation Racers continues the Play, Create, Share trend; giving players a versatile range of tools to build many mods
A measly story attempts to hold the main campaign together with rookie racer Tag entering the Modnation Racing Championship with the help of an old, broken down mentor much like Rocky. The story mainly unfolds through news updates given by the two MRC announcers and cinematics featuring Tag himself who takes on the appearance of your produced mods. It's an admirable effort for a racing game, obviously intended to appeal to children but unfortunately it gets bogged down by some iffy writing and little emotion in the characters.
The bulk of Modnation Racers lies in the Modspot where players are dropped in to drive around, check out the best creations and interact with other players. The race station leads to the campaign mode, split screen and online play while the creation station launches players into the simple yet versatile creation features on offer. The design is all rounded out by the share feature where players can upload, download and rate creations to be used by the community. The sheer amount of creativity going on after two years is staggering, extending the game's length and appeal by a large margin. There have also been many theme and content packs released to expand on the game's creation tools. A level cap of 30 is also waiting for online racers willing to go through hundreds of XP races. The interface is easy to get to grips with and you'll be getting into races no problem, though the game can slow down frequently with long loading times which still haven't been completely fixed by the developer.
If you've played Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing in the past then you'll feel right at home in Modnation Racers. All the features are here including power ups, turbo pads and dangerous obstacles but the real draw comes from the creation tools which (compared to Little Big Planet's) are incredibly easy to use. To make a mod or kart, simply choose the different parts to mix and match onto you creations. The track creation is also simple; simply drive the steamroller to lay the track then select auto populate to fill the track with objects. Players also have access to wide range of helpful tutorials for all three creation options. Indeed it can take time to build an advanced track full of short cuts, road types and props, but in terms of creation you won't find a better alternative to Little Big Planet. The tracks by the developers are well done, providing good inspiration and fun. The career mode spanning all these tracks is long and maybe a bit too challenging. AI opponents are relentless on the later cups, hurling attack after attack at that precious first place you have earned. This difficulty is redeemed somewhat by the boost system which can be used as a shield but on the tracks with little jumps or curves you'll be lucky to get 1st without being slammed off the track by a level 3 power up; which are almost impossible to avoid without one third of your boost meter filled up. Those easily frustrated by racing games and people new to gaming alike can still have lots of fun with Modnation Racers but all players will have to force their way through the sometimes punishing career mode to earn all the unlockables.
At a presentation standpoint Modnation Racers delivers a bright, vibrant, cartoon art style that applies to the entire package. Again this works well for appealing to younger audiences and the music is solid across the races if a tad limited in variation. The voice acting is clear and slots into many stereotypes, but it won't matter to most especially after hearing the mentor's same advice for the tenth time, on the same race. The game runs well at all times with some good effects for power ups, weather and drifting.
Modnation Racers is a great game that embraces the genre created by LBP a year earlier and makes it simple and easy to build the mods, karts and tracks of your dreams. If you're a fan or racing or creation games and can stomach the long load times and difficult career mode, there's no reason to avoid another worthy addition to the PS3's exclusive list