ModNation Racers Review

[$nowstorm]

ModNation Racers continues Sony's line of "Play, Create, Share" titles that began with LittleBigPlanet. It offers some familiar but intense racing with the added benefit of competing on a potentially endless stream of user-designed courses.



Gamescore : 4/5


The Pros
    * Six-player races, online or off
    * Quick and intuitive course designer and lots of customization options
    * Strong racing mechanics

The Cons
    * Analog steering inferior to digital
    * Limited play modes
    * Blurry textures

Simultaneously released for both the PS3 and PSP, ModNation Racers continues Sony's line of “Play, Create, Share” titles that began with LittleBigPlanet. Yet the emphasis on customization doesn't mean the action is left napping in the back seat. ModNation Racers offers some familiar but intense racing with the added benefit of competing on a potentially endless stream of user-designed courses.

What the world needs, it's been said, is love sweet love, not another sugary sweet kart racer. Grinning mascots large and small, worthy and unworthy, have all taken this dubious rite of passage, most of them racing on cruise control. Far too many sputter along the perfectly safe, uneventful route instead of going full throttle on the road less traveled. ModNation Racers for PSP has cutesy characters and all the familiar elements of the textbook kart racer. Its customization features, however, are truly in a class by itself.



Running on Empty?

If only the play modes offered as much ingenuity as the design studios. You can participate in a single race (on or offline) and a basic career. The former has you choosing from three variants, including a "pure" race without power-ups, an "action" race with everything, and a "last kart standing" option, which adds a countdown timer after each lap. The racer in last place when time expires is eliminated until only one remains. Adjustable settings include number of laps (from one to five), game speed (fast, faster, and fastest), opponents (zero to five), and difficulty (easy, medium, or hard).

There are no battle arenas, stunt challenges, or even a score-based option, and kart racing vets will speed through the career in approximately three to four hours. The minimum requirement to advance is third place or better, and the lack of a cumulative point structure, multiple kart classes, seasons, or divisions is disappointing. Instead you'll progress in a linear fashion, one three-lap race after another, until all 27 pre-designed courses are completed. In between races is an amusing storyline told through video cut-scenes, but your character is a mere bystander to the proceedings, which focus instead on your unstable mechanic and mentor.



Lap it Up

ModNation Racers doesn't introduce anything in its gameplay that you haven't experienced before in Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing, and similar titles in the genre. At the same time, it's comforting to own a racing game where you never have to settle for the same tracks, the same vehicles, or the same characters. This is the perfect racer for the fickle or easily bored, though an online connection is a must to get the most bang for your buck, scream for your green, or holler for your dollar. And if don't give a flying turtle shell about innovation as long as the game plays well, then take ModNation's criticisms with a drop of motor oil.