ModNation Racers

25 December 2009 by Charles Hamel, 2 Comments

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You have probably heard the title “Little Big Planet” and if you own a Playstation 3, there is a good chance you have played it. Little Big Planet (LBP) takes one of the most popular games of all time (Mario Bros) and turns it into a Creation Sandbox that allows you to create your own levels, characters and just about anything your heart desires. After all of this creative energies is released, you can upload the level to the Internet for all others to play and rate. If you have not played this game, I highly recommend it.

Little Big Planet

Next on the scene is ModNation Racers. Lets take another one of the most popular games of all time, Super Mario Kart, and apply the same level of creation as LBP sports. Now you have got a cart racer that you can build your own tracks, customize your own characters and build your own cars. At first glance, ModNation Racers looks a lot like a slightly modified Mario Kart. In many ways, the basic game is almost identical to Nintendo’s popular cart racer, but there are enough differences to make it stand out on it’s own. Unlike Mario Kart, your kart choices are all basically superficial. You can design and customize your own characters, but this is to alter their appearance but not their play style. Every racer starts out on evil footing, which should be a welcome bit of change to Mario Kart players who found themselves scrambling to get the “best” character.

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Racing is pretty straight forward. Players are encouraged to zoom around the track and overtake other racers. Like in Mario Kart, however, this is made more complex by the addition of weapons and items that are scattered in floating boxes located around the track. Running into one of these boxes yields a weapon, which can be anything from homing missiles to a speed boost to a laser blast. These weapons are single-shot but can knock an enemy racer for a loop, allowing you to make up some much-needed ground. You can actually “upgrade” your item by holding on to it and collecting another item. This means that it might not always be worthwhile to hit that boost the moment it comes up, and it adds an interesting layer of strategy to this title.

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One of the most interesting ways that ModNation Racers deviates from the Mario Kart formula is the Boost Gauge, which fills up as you perform tricks such as drifting, hitting enemies with weapons, and performing stunts in the air. You can use the gauge to boost and get a leg up on the competition without having to worry about the whims of fate.

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In addition to boosting, the gauge can be used for offensive and defensive purposes. You can spend some of the gauge to activate a special shield that allows you to block weapons at the press of a button. This “costs” a fair amount of your boost gauge but can protect you from danger. You can also use the right analog stick to sideswipe an opposing car, which is a valuable attack that can be used at any time but also costs some boost. This adds a layer of skill that games like Mario Kart lack, as you’re no longer completely at the mercy of weapons. A skilled player will be able to boost, shield and sideswipe his way through opponents, hopefully alleviating some of the “Blue Shell” problems that plague Mario Kart.

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Before you even get into the races, you’re going to want to customize your racer. Like LittleBigPlanet, Customization is the name of the game. It may seem simple enough to customize your racer, especially since all of your options are completely cosmetic, but there’s a ridiculous amount of available options. Not only can you customize every aspect of the person riding your car, but you can also customize the vehicle. You’re effectively given a blank slate to work with and can select from a staggering amount of different parts to create the perfect racer. My favorite bit of customization was being able to alter the car’s engine sound, which is a feature that can quickly become annoying in a kart racer unless you find just the perfect rumble. There are also simpler changes, such as colors and symbols. You’ll find that making the perfect car and driver is a very addictive way to spend your time, and the creation process is almost as fun as the actual racing. You can even trade characters with other players to see others’ creative ideas. If you’re feeling less creative, you can also randomize everything to yield some rather hilarious-looking weirdos.

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The real selling feature of ModNation Racers is going to be the track editor. The game ships with a handful of developer-made tracks, but the replay value is going to be in seeing exactly what users can come up with. Creating a track is surprisingly easy, and there are a lot of options for what you can do. Before you begin laying the track, very simple tools allow you to alter the time of day, weather, and even the ocean level of the racing area. You can create mountains, valleys or lakes to add a little extra spice to the track, or you can choose to keep things simple and level. Once you’ve created the racing area, you make the track by simply controlling a steamroller that lays asphalt as you drive around. You can alter the elevation of the racetrack with a button press, and the game will automatically delete obstacles in your way, so all you have to do is drive the path that you’d like to race. Another nice feature is the Auto-Complete option, which will automatically loop the track back to its starting point. Once you’ve created a loop, your racetrack is complete.

charles hamel

ModNation Racers has the potential to be one of the biggest hits of the year. It’s rare to find a gamer who doesn’t enjoy Mario Kart, and United Front Games realizes this. They’ve slightly improved the formula to allow gamers to retain the same basic crazy fun that makes Mario Kart so appealing. At the same time, some new mechanics offer the chance for more dedicated gamers to really improve their skills. As if that weren’t good enough, the available customization options are mind-blowing. Being able to create an infinite number of racetracks has the potential to give ModNation Racers nearly unlimited replay value, especially since the track creator is both easy to use and full of options. While some of the more complex elements were locked in our preview build, what I saw made it obvious that dedicated creators could make some truly amazing tracks. Assuming everything comes together, ModNation Racers could be the surprise hit of the year for Sony, and those with a PS3 should make sure to check it out when it hits in 2010.

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This is a must get on my list of games for my new Christmas present the Playstation 3, I spent countless hours trying to get all gold stars on Mario Kart and I am sure that ModNation Racers will also equally take up hours and hours of my time.

Charles Hamel

Tags: charles hamel, LBP, Little Big Planet, Modnation, ModNation Racers, playstation, playstation 3, video games

2 Responses to “ModNation Racers”

sdfsd 1 January 2010 at 11:42 am #

hahaha! take that 360!! MODNATION OWNZ ALL!!

Japan, Gaming, Anime