There have been probably dozens of
kart-racing titles produced over the years and while ModNation Racers
looks like another in this long line, go a little deeper and you'll
discover plenty of innovative features under the hood. If you log in and
begin playing right away, you won't notice that much. The single-player
mode makes for some interesting and challenging gaming. At its core,
ModNation Racers is basically a well-produced kart racing game but offers
much more than you'd expect. Most of the gameplay mechanics are standard
for the genre and players who enjoy the kart genre will find a fairly
satisfying experience. The selection is fairly good with 25 tracks and
these default solo player tracks are smartly designed with a good variety
in design and presentation. The career mode is fairly decent and allows
you to build up skills and points through a series of races. Each race has
its own goals and defeating them allows you to earn points for performing
acts such as knocking out a certain number of opponents or finishing in
the top three. The courses themselves are fairly decent, with plenty of
twists and turns, tight corners and other obstacles to navigate. Some
courses feature short-cuts and other secret sections that you can use to
improve your lap times or evade enemy attacks. You'll also have to contend
with other racers on the tracks who will relentlessly attack you with
their weapons to try and knock you off course. There are loads of weapons
and other power-ups to collect on each course, and they offer a wide
variety of uses such as zapping opponents and stopping them cold with
electric shocks. These allow you to get ahead of opponents and knock them
off the track fairly easily, and also can be used to impede your progress.
While its not the deepest racing titles
you'll ever play, ModNation's accessible gameplay makes it easy to get
into. The game's physics are decent, with drifting and drafting techniques
that add a semblance of realism to the gameplay. In addition the track
designs offer obstacles such as bombs and moving walls that you need to
avoid. Players can also gain temporary speed increases by driving on boost
pads or by hitting its jump ramps that propel them forward at much faster
speeds. These gameplay elements combine to give ModNation Racers all the
traditional trappings of kart racing and on this level, the game is fairly
successful in bringing a decent kart racing title to the PS3. All of this
is wrapped around a silly, yet entertaining plot line that unfolds between
races, presented in a humorous series of sequences that introduce you to
the characters and events in the Mod world. It's a lot of fun to play
these first few rounds, but go a little deeper into the menu system and
you'll discover that ModNation delivers much more than the first few solo
levels imply.
The ability to create, share and play
your own levels was an incredible innovation with LittleBig Planet and
applying this approach to kart racing proves to be a successful idea. The
game's customization options are extensive, so we'll begin with outlining
the basic creation process. Players can start with their own character or
mod, with their appearance and personality tweaked using a simple menu
interface. There are loads of different clothing options, face tools and
hats that players can use them to create their mod character, and once
complete, this character can be used throughout the game's different
modes. You can then move on to your kart itself, and select different body
parts, paint jobs, wheels and other accessories to create your own custom
ride. This is another cool feature that allows you to make a distinct look
as you race around the tracks. Beginning with these features, you can get
the hang of the basic interface and tools that you'll use later on for
more complex tasks. When you're done creating your character and their
kart, you can take them onto the track and use them to win races and, more
importantly, earn points that you can use to purchase additional items to
upgrade your mod and vehicles. As you gain access to more of thee items,
you can return to the menu system and further edit your main character.
These initial character and kart modifications gives you a good tutorial
in using the game's basic set of tools, while introducing its creation
interface, but now it's time to move to the big time.
Creating
your own track might seem intimidating at first, but ModNation Racers
makes it a fairly easy to understand process. You begin by laying out your
track, which is done easily enough with a rolling truck that paves the
path you want to use and then lets you manually move forward, creating
turns and pathways as you move. You can edit the height and depth of the
track layout on the fly by pressing the shift buttons and also create
banks and drops as you go along as well. You can create either a very
short course with easy corners or a long one that has many difficult
turns. Once you've completed your basic track layout, you can add some
personality to it by populating it with roadside scenery such as trees,
building and lights. Each of these items can be scaled, turned and moved
on the track manually, or you can let the game auto-populate this if
you're in a hurry. Finally, you can add other track items such as speed
boosts, ramps and obstacles to your course. After you're done creating
your basic track layout, you can edit and tweak the settings until you're
happy with the results. The game allows you to test drive and race on your
created tracks so you can see what's working and what isn't. You can then
go back and edit each section and element of the track manually, and try
and improve your creation. Using the track design interface is a fairly
easy task if you want to create a basic layout, but more elaborate courses
require you to go a bit deeper into the interface, which can be a little
bit confusing until you get the hang of things. It's a fairly easy to
learn set-up that gives you plenty of options and versatility once you get
the hang of its menu and navigation system. Once you've created a decent
mod, kart and perfected your course design, you can then move on to the
final step and share your creation with the outside world.
ModNation Racers' extensive online
community is one of its strongest features. Instead of creating and
playing in isolation, the game gives you the opportunity to share your
creations with other players. Conversely, you are also able to play and
use other users' tracks as well. This opens up the game and creates an
expansive online experience. You navigate through this in a similar way to
the main game, driving your kart around the main hub and entering various
sections. The game's servers show the top karts and mods that users have
created and others have ranked, and gives you the ability to test drive
tracks that others have made. This adds to the fun, and can also offers
inspiration for you when you design your own tracks, creating a win-win
situation that benefits both the individual gamer and the larger
community. You can then download these onto the PS3's hard drive and play
them in other modes as well. You can also enter numerous online contests
and tournaments, including the Hot Lap mode where you compete with other
users online to see who has the fastest lap. Players can also see which
users are on top of the rankings in terms of races won, try to increase
their rankings by winning races and gain more by sharing their own created
content. While the offline game includes a split-screen mode, the game
goes further than this. You can also compete in multiplayer matches with
other players, and battle it out to see who ends up on top. Online races
can take place on either standard or created courses and the game supports
up to 12 players simultaneously, which makes for some fairly exciting
matches. Using and navigating the game's online features is fairly easy
and setting up and playing matches is easy, online rooms and match set-ups
can be done automatically which makes for a smooth experience for the
player without a lot of glitches. The design and presentation of the
online hub is very smooth and polished and matches the look and feel of
the main game, making the transition nearly seamless. We did encounter a
few matches that seemed a little weird with some off-putting course
designs, but nothing that really ruined the experience. This solidly
implemented and innovative online component is ModNation Racers' most
impressive feature, creating an expansive and fulfilling experience that
consistently streams refreshing and interesting free content to download
and play.
From an aesthetic standpoint, ModNation
Racers is fairly decent by PS3 standards, though its more cartoonish
appearance and somewhat simplistic track designs, by design, don't have
the visual thrust and impact of some other PS3 titles. Its music is
surprisingly different from the tinker-toy songs and substitutes a jazzier
feel for its slightly older audience. The biggest problems most players
will have are the somewhat long loading times between races and when
jumping between the creation and racing modes. This slows the momentum to
a degree, but this shouldn't really be a major deterrent for most players.
Its worth the occasional wait because ModNation Racers delivers an
innovative gaming experience that gives you much more freedom than most
other titles. Its basic kart-racing mechanics are solid and entertaining,
but these are only the basic building blocks. The real enjoyment most
players will have with the game comes in creating and using their own
unique characters, vehicles and tracks. The easy to use navigation system
makes creating and editing content a simple, straightforward process. You
can create and use an elaborate course in a few minutes and then share it
with a large community of gamers. These community features also allow you
to benefit from a massive amount of content, giving the game an expansive
set of tracks and racers that should keep growing as more users join in.
Its basic gameplay mechanics are fun and accessible and the challenge of
keeping up with other players online makes ModNation Racers a title that
offers an almost unlimited amount of replay value and depth.
- Michael Palisano
