Game review: ModNation Racers - PlayStation 3

At face value this might come across as being just another generic kart racing game, but take it for a spin and you’ll discover it’s so much more.

ModNation Racers is the most fun I’ve had with a racing game in a long while.

It would be easy to say it’s the most Mario Kart-like game since, well, Mario Kart but that would do it a disservice.

There are undeniable similarities between the two games – both are awash with bright colours, wacky characters and frantic weapon-based racing.

But there are also significant differences, with ModNation being fuelled by humour and personality all of its own.

From minor things such as the bickering broadcast co-commentators to more major elements of the experience like the delightfully imaginative game world, there are plenty of features to distinguish Sony’s release from Nintendo’s Italian plumber and his chums.

What really sets ModNation apart is the sheer amount of inventiveness it allows its players.

All the creation takes place, naturally enough, in a magical place called the Creation Station.

Among the things which can be modified are the mods themselves, the bobble-headed doll-like characters who race the karts.

There are thousands of appearance and costume customisation options available. Seriously, you can have your mods looking any which way you want. Think of a look and you can almost certainly create it.

Karts can also be redesigned or built from scratch. There is a massive array of bodies, liveries, wheels, embellishments, seats, steering wheels and more to choose from. Your kart can be a sleek sporty machine or a bizarre steam-powered soapbox derby type contraption.

These elements don’t actually affect the kart’s performance, they are purely cosmetic, but it is fantastic having so much freedom to design.

Making mods and karts is just fun, pure and simple. It’s like having endless supplies of Plasticine and Lego.

However, the really cool part of the Creation Station is the track builder.

It is here that artistic free will comes into its own.

After picking a theme from alpine, desert, seaside or jungle, players then use a steamroller type machine to lay the course.

There is then a choice of whether or not to auto-populate the course by letting the system put in all the track objects and landscape features. Selecting auto-populate means the job of creating a track takes just a few minutes.

Alternatively, you can painstakingly design everything yourself, taking hours to hone and tweak everything from the position of trees and signs to the level of the terrain.

Everything is simple to do (and undo), and having potentially an endless supply of tracks to race on adds a huge new dimension to kart games.

As with LittleBigPlanet, the design possibilities increase the more you play and the more unlockable items you collect.

Following the LittleBigPlanet blueprint again, everything made in the game is meant to be shared among players, meaning you can grab hold of other people’s creations if your own juices run dry and you can show off your inventions to the ModNation community.

Once you’re done in the design studio there are four modes of play.

Single-player options are quick race and career. In the career you follow a story revolving around competing in the 28-event ModNation Racing Championship.

To race against other human players you can either go online or do split-screen on the same console.

One of my favourite things about the game is the Modspot which serves as the main hub.

The Modspot is a sort of interactive menu screen which you can drive around, visiting various buildings and sites (such as the Creation Station) to access game content, enter events or view other people’s characters and karts.

Laid out in a big circle, the Modspot is like walking through the ticket booth at a theme park and seeing all the great attractions in front of you.

This one inspired idea sums up the cleverness of ModNation Racers and epitomises the charming style in which it’s all presented.

Obviously the success of any racing game rests on how it performs on the track. It needs to be fun and fast with reliable handling – and ModNation has all these qualities.

In truth there isn’t anything groundbreaking on offer here. It’s mostly been seen before but ModNation is very solid and does everything well.

Racing is expectedly mad from the off, with up to 12 racers drifting around corners, deploying weapons collected from item pods and trying to get to the finish line first.

The weapons include lightning bolt, sonic pulse and missiles.

Surprisingly there are a limited number of items compared with Mario Kart, and ModNation also doesn’t quite capture that lovely warm feeling of evilness to be had from zipping around the track with three red bombs hanging off your kart ready to detonate if anyone gets too close.

What it does to compensate for these things is introduce a smart weapons upgrade system, which allows players to really add some extra pep to their projectiles.

Players also have access to a boost meter which can be used for bursts of speed or activating a useful shield.

The kart racing is as good as any Mario Kart game I’ve played before, but ModNation doesn’t set out to copy Mario, instead introducing a couple of twists to the familiar format.

Developer United Front has done a great with this game overall and problems are few and far between. However, there is one annoying issue which is long loading times.

Although they are only about 30-45 seconds, the breaks in play while moving between different areas of the game are painfully long. It’s especially irritating as there already a large data install required when you play the game for the first time.

Luckily my enjoyment of this fine game hasn’t suffered too much from this regular inconvenience but it’s disappointing games on a high-spec machine like the PS3 still require such arduous loading times.

ModNation Racers is a game I’ve been eagerly looking forward to. Everything pointed to it being special. Now it’s here, I’m not disappointed.

With its crazy racing action and limitless creative possibilities, all wrapped up in a charming presentation, ModNation Racers is a unique and long-lasting experience.

If you devote your time solely to this hugely likeable game, it could be years before you need buy anything else.

Verdict: 9 out of 10 – ModNation Racers allows players’ self-expression to run wild with its bottomless bag of design options. Its madcap racing is just great fun. A brilliant game.