ModNation Racers MMOMFG Beta Impressions

ModNation Racers Beta Impressions

With limited access to the ModNation Racers beta, MMOMFG was extremely excited to get our hands on early access to the amazing looking kart racing title. Luckily for us, Sony has really opened up the garage with a ton of features, vehicles and sharable content that has PS3-users ready and waiting at the wheel for the full title to release.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Mods – The first thing I noticed with this title is the sheer amount of options characters (Mods) are able to utilize when making their little kart racers unique. I must have seen 1,000 different looking racers out there while perusing the lobby and during actual races. I love the sheer amount of customization and must have played around with changing my guy for hours.

You call this a lobby? – I jumped into the game with online on, so I was immediately placed in a gaming lobby where karts were whipping around like it was a Nascar race. The sheer number of things you can access during the beta from the lobby was quite impressive. Available during the beta, players can view the Top Mods, Top Karts, Creation Station, Share, Mod Racer Championship standings, Top Tracks, Hot Lap times and Race Station. The full version will open access to the limited in beta locations for the Coming Attractions and Showcase Series. I probably spent two hours just power drifting around in the lobby area until my kart’s tires caught on fire and left blazing trails.

Not your typical kiddie racer – This game packs more content than you could even expect. The customization of racers I’ve already touched on, but good lord the options for editing karts, tracks, and vehicle parts is unrivaled. This is only covering the editing, you can also create your own tracks piece by piece, as well as karts. I watched my girlfriend spend four hours creating her character and kart. It was thoroughly entertaining. Surprisingly, the vehicle was a beast and looked like something that would make Vin Diesel blush. The final version of ModNation Racers should have the community of creators, sharers and downloaders dying to see everything the game has to offer.

But how does the actual racing stack up? – MNR delivers a racing experience that I haven’t found rivaled since the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Kart. The racing is fast paced, fun and keeps you stuck to the edge of your seat. With the ability to build up your energy meter by gaining skill points with drifting, power jumping and finding access to hidden various track shortcuts. The higher you build up your meter, the faster your kart will go, higher you’ll jump and more experience points you gain at the end of the race. Beat your previous time trials, other racers and you’ll level up your kart faster than you can say, “Man, this beats the hell out of Crash Bandicoot racing…”

Was it all a dream? – Sorry Biggie, not everything was perfect in terms of the beta for ModNation Racers. The load times were nearly unbearable at times. In every beta, you know going in that this is not the finished package, but you’ve got to hope that the load times are bumped up drastically, as I sat twiddling my thumbs A LOT. I love so much about this title, that I’m dying to gain access to the additional customizable content, sharable updates and final list of tracks, karts and racers. Granted, I took everything in the beta that I claimed “less than perfect” due to it being a beta, but with sluggish online performance at times and load times, let’s hope all is clear for the final release.

ModNation Racers is one of the surprise titles that, to quote the Wu Tang Clan, will “rock and shock the Nation like the Emancipation Proclamation.” Finding another fun kart racer without having to be a true gear-head who knows the importance of torque or rear end suspension levels is very exciting for someone who just enjoys the racing /customization experience in a cartoony atmosphere. I also loved the fact that both my girlfriend and I had fun playing the game and any title that a hardcore gamer and a casual gamer can share the experience is a good thing! MMOMFG can’t wait to see the final product, as PS3-users might have another winner on their hands.

Got a news tip? Send it to press@mmomfg.com and we'll shower you with love!