ModNation Racers PS3 – The MMOMFG Review

ModNation Racers PS3

ModNation Racers is the pinnacle of kart racing for the PlayStation 3. There, I’ve said it. How’s that for the start of a review? I hope you’ll keep reading, because I plan to give you the skinny on what you need to know about Sony and United Front Games’ inspired kart/creation/sharing title, which hits stores today, May 25. I was lucky enough to get some hands-on experience for the past week and really got to see what ModNation Racers has under its proverbially hood and from what I’ve been left with in terms of gameplay and enjoyment, all cylinders are in-line. An impressive kart racing game which hosted a successful beta and an equally heralded PSP release, MNR is likely a game to be permanently lodged in PS3’s around the world for months to come. So that leaves us with whether this is a day one purchase, a borrower from a friend, or something to leave up on the shelf, right? Read on and I’ll dip your brains in Mod-goodness.

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What’s Good

Speed is the name of the game – Fresh out of the gate, speed is what will blow your Mod’s hair back and keep you on the edge of your seat. ModNation is a mixture of speed, style, shine and explosions. Racing around the track, you’ll find yourself watching out for being side-swiped, rammed from behind or have a hail of lightning rain down from the Mod heavens and take you out of the race as quickly as you can powerslide to victory. Stay on your toes, or you’ll find yourself going from first to last in a matter of seconds, so be sure to keep up those shields.

What to do next? – There is a great mixture of gameplay, creation and sharing elements that keep you feeling like you aren’t sure what to do next. That is never a bad thing to have in a game, especially considering a number of titles that have recently hit the market only provide 6-8 hours of story or so, and that is it for an equal $60 price tag as ModNation. However, with MNR, you may as well dedicate 20+ hours just for looking around at other people’s creations and then possibly downloading/trying them out. Funny enough, some of the first creations of Mods I saw were of Super Mario, Spider Man, and Mega Man. Some of the most popular karts were the A-Team van, General Lee and a kick ass train. How could someone not love the sheer millions of potential creations available and simply get lost in the creation process? Bravo to United Front Games for providing so many options that combination options are practically limitless.

Tired of the racing? Mix it up – The ability to take and modify anyone and everyone’s creations allows you to instantly change your gaming experience by never having to run the same track twice. Granted, there are benefits for finishing each of the three challenges per career mode track, as you gain new collectors items. You should also collect all of the tokens scattered through each track, which allows you to unlock additional creation items for levels, karts and Mods. Oh happy day! It’s just one more incentive to jump into the core mechanic of the game: the racing. There are a great deal of modes for racing, including online races, which can provide direct competition with your fellow gamers, as well as the ability to level up your Mod. The typical single player modes are there too with a career mode, as well as track challenges and ghost lap speed races. The XP gains allow just another way you can prove you’re top of the class in MNR, even if your creation abilities may not be up to par.

So cute, you’ll forget you’re competing – Similar to Little Big Planet’s Sack Boy, you’ll love just how cute the Mods can or cannot be. I’ve made my little Mod look hilarious, scary, tough, pathetic and absolutely hideous, and each time it was awesome. Funny enough, you can even forget that the whole concept of the game is about competitive racing. True fact. Despite your urge to grip the wheel and put the pedal to the metal, you may be locked in to just cruising around testing your track creations, as well as determining which rims you want to slap on your bath tub kart. MNR could even be used as a babysitting tool where the combination of mix and match could keep someone glued to their TV for hours. Luckily, United Front Games decided to include the token perks for actually racing, or some players may skip the racing entirely. Something I forgot to mention in my PSP review is the fact that the humor aspects and presentation are priceless. The ModNation Racers circuit TV presentation and announcers make watching each cutscene worth your time. Hilarious and capable of getting a second watch, which typically isn’t the case with a number of racing game cutscenes on the market.

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What’s Bad

LOADDDINNNNGGGG – I want to feel the action of the tracks, the flow of the wind through my mods hair and the sounds of the tires lying tread on the hot asphalt, but instead I’m staring at a loading screen that has no flavor and seems to move at the speed of an elderly turtle. This is not exactly my idea of getting pumped up for a racing event. Maybe to get pumped up to play a game of bingo or Scrabble, but in terms of a high speed kart race, I could think of a million better ways to hype up a gamer.

The racing seems to play second fiddle – Sadly, I don’t feel like the actual kart racing is the shining star in ModNation Racers. I’ve spent countless numbers of hours customizing things and creating/downloading /sharing, where I really only do a handful of races per night, because I’m more interested in the creation process. I actually like creating tracks more than I enjoy racing them. This may be a personal preference, or it may be not wanting to deal with the above mentioned load screens. Call me old fashioned, but the racing should be the main attraction and the rest of the features should be the icing on the cake. At times, I feel that the racing is almost too repetitive, and the hours I can spend checking out other people’s Mods, Karts and Tracks available keep me from revisiting the actual racing.

Limited gameplay experience – I’ve raced nearly 50 or 60 times, at least, but after about 10 races, you’ve pretty much seen it all and done it all. There are tokens to collect, challenges to beat and shortcuts to be found, but the action is limited. You’ll be seeing the same attack items, shield uses, sideswipes and everything in between way too often. You aren’t going to likely do the career mode twice or play Hot Lap over and over again, but you may enjoy the XP racing online. During the review process, there were only limited gamers online (likely other reviewers), but with more racers online come Tuesday, there should be a lot more replay value with others to enjoy it with..

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Worth Remembering:

Similar to MNR for the PlayStation Portable, the PS3 version is easily one of the most customizable games to date. Just picture Little Big Planet, but with cute little racers instead. I literally spent hours playing around with different tires and bodies for my karts, environment types and ramps for my tracks and every hairstyle or hat available for my Mods. You’ll never have to settle for what you look like, drive or race on thanks to United Front Games’ extremely deep and rewarding title. This is kart racing for the next generation and it only solidifies that kids and adults alike can both enjoy a title that rewards them for putting in the time and for getting creative.

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Worth Forgetting:

ModNation Racers is one of the best family/girlfriend games I’ve played in quite some time. I tend to miss out on the “cuter” style games, but MNR had caught my eye from day one and its similarities to Little Big Planet (a huge girl-friendly title) sold me. ModNation provides hours upon hours of enjoyment and sharing abilities, as well as offers the whole “hey check this out” aspect to gaming, which keeps its content fresh. If there were more variations to what you can do once you’re behind the wheel, I’d say there is nothing worth forgetting. However, the actual racing experience is my only slight negative to a jam-packed Blu ray disc. The racing is still in the top 20% of racing titles available, but alas, each review must have something worth forgetting. So take your pick between repetitive racing or longgggggggg load screens.

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Let’s just say that the PSP version of ModNation Racers is the appetizer to the full course meal that is the PlayStation 3 version. I loved both versions and surprisingly they both shared a number of aspects that I really enjoyed and some I could have done without. The positive drastically outweighs the negative, which is few and far between. If I had to recommend one addictive, family-friendly title able to provide hundreds of hours of creativity and fun, I’d say ModNation Racers is the PS3 game to purchase for 2010. Not often do I find myself enjoying the additional “side modes” more than the core gaming element, but the creation, editing and Modding are the heart and soul of MNR. I’d go out on a limb to say that if any gameplay DLC comes out, it could keep ModNation Racers fresh for a long time. Long story short, fill up your plate with some ModNation and stay full well past your next few meals (or at least the next few months).

*MMOMFG was provided a review copy on PS3 from Sony

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