Modnation Racers

Platforms – PS3, PSP Genre – Racing/Creation Classification – G

Mixing a Kart racer with Little Big Planet it is the wonderfully intuitive creation tools that set this apart from any other racing game on the market today, allowing any lounge room wannabe game developers artistic juices to flow and keep on flowing. I found it so incredibly easy and fun that I had modelled my character, kart and a basic track in less than an hour on both the PSP and PS3 versions and I have all of them published and online for everyone in the world to now download and play. I must say I did feel a great sense of accomplishment when I went to play it yesterday and was informed I had levelled up because my track and character had been downloaded over a hundred times. There are Kart loads of different mod materials, objects and interactive props that squash, burn, thrust, jump and power up available right from the very start, but there are also hundreds of items that need to be unlocked by completing objectives in the main career mode. Let’s face it there needs to be some incentive to actually play the racing side of the game and not spend all your time creating. The PS3 version features a wide open social meeting place where I literally bumped into other players from around the world and interacted via headset or text inviting them to either come join me in a race or prompt and beg them to download my creations. It is from this central hub that I could also challenge them to a race on either mine, theirs and other people’s tracks or of course the ones that come packaged with the game. As you would expect there is a 4-player split screen for local play, but the excellent feature for all four of you to go online together makes it a great party game. The long loading times are the only thing that let this version down. The PSP game is basically a stripped down version of its big brother. It still offers the creation aspect and a similar single player racing experience but it doesn’t have the wide open feeling of its sibling. The online interface reminds me of most other games, where the race options are listed rather than the sense of a bustling community. The single player career modes of both versions are great to play offering great functionality, smooth controls and the usual array of power up orbs seen in other Kart including boosts and a variety of weapons. But winning is not the only thing that needs to be achieved to earn unlockable tracks and creation items, different objectives and challenges like drifting, drafting, taking short cuts and using side swipes and weapons to take out certain players in a making you work hard for rewards. If I was to take away the creation element of both versions they are still solid titles and in my opinion would still be spraying the champagne over their competitors from the winner’s balcony. Mario has held the trophy as best kart racer for as long as I can remember, but now it is time to step down from the podium and let Modnation racers take its place at the top.