Modnation Racers – REVIEW

Does Sony’s new racer finish up first place or does it need to go in for a pit stop?

If you’re not the reading type then just watch the above video review. 

Gameplay
The game opens up with a beautiful cinematic introduction giving you the understanding and basic know-how on what is going to be going down in the Modnation world. You are greeted by two commentators Biff Tradwell and Gary Reasons. Throughout the career of Modnation Racers you will hear a lot from the commentators but over a few races their cheesy jokes grow on you and strangely become enjoyable to listen to what they are saying about each other. 
After you are greeted by the commentators you are then placed into your first race. This first race isn’t too important due to the fact that it is your first race to learn the buttons. During the race there are certain challenges you have to do such as collecting 3 power-up item boxes and going on 3 speed boosters. Pretty simple really and if you do these challenges you will unlock more unlockables for your character which I will explore in-depth later on.

One thing that may take some players time to get to grips with like myself is the actual control of the kart rather than the game controls. The kart is quite hard to get to grips with at first since the analogue stick and the car itself has a very high sensitivity level which can’t be altered. Apart from this the game-play runs really smoothly and is constantly changing due to the power-ups.  Each power up can charge up to 3 bars giving it a more of a powerful attack/defence depending on what power up you have. It acts as a charge up for your power-ups but it is down to you if you want to save it or use it as soon as you get it. This of course stands out in the game-play compared to other racers of its kind.  There is a huge variety of weaponry at your disposal including rockets, sonic bombs and electric shocks. Weapons can also be fired backwards. To do this, the secondary version of the weapon has to be selected. There is a lot of variety at your fingertips to be explored. 
 
There are multiple game-play modes you can get your mitts on. In the Modspot you will notice that you can have the opportunity to do time trials,  online with 12 players, split-screen, career and even just chill out in the lobby in a party. There is a nice added feature I particularly find enjoyable which is the ability to boost. Boosting is similar to Nitro in other racers but in Modnation it differs due to ‘Drifting and Drafting’. Drifting helps power up the bar by getting perfect drifts around corners and jumps. Drafting points occur when you’re close to the other driver who is front of you. Pretty simple and it is a nice function to have that changes the race. Another game-play feature to mention is the photo mode where a player can pause play and take a photo of a moment in that race, making a record of your races in photos!
After doing your first race you will be welcomed to the Modnation ‘Race Station’. This is where you will be able to play online, split-screen, career, join parties, view the players’ list, top tracks, track time records and see the best Mod’s/vehicles of the week along with an amazing customization section called “Creation Station”.
 
The game as a racing title stands strong to its competitors and really does stand out as a far superior racing title.
There are a lot of things you can do with Modnation due to how much   choice you have when racing. You can do a career mode that takes place over many different locations, race tracks and environments. During the career races you will be able to unlock many unlockables for your racer, kart and even track builder.
You can do multiple difficulties on the races depending on if you have completed the racer already. 
In the ‘Creation Station’ players are given so much freedom with customization, it really is the only racing game that I have played to have such a big customization system. You can  customize your character and car as you would expect but the amount of detail you can change it in is amazing. You can design your character from scratch or choose a random design. If you choose to create your own character you will notice how many different items your character can wear at one time. You can seriously “Mod” your Mod racer! The one thing I really noticed about the character design is the fact that you can put stickers on every part of your clothes, rotate, stretch and make your character look like the racer you want. After finishing races and completing the certain challenges, you
will be able to unlock more items for you to place on your characters. There will also be premium content to be downloaded for your character. 

The kart creation follows a similar style to the character creation. It allows players the opportunity to add accessories to your kart with items like a skull on a stick, bull horns or a mail box. There is a lot of customization with the karts that you wouldn’t even imagine. You can also add other items such as engines, suspension, tyres, rims, seats and also steering wheels.  With the paint there is one significant difference from the mod and kart customization. The kart even allows the modification of material design to change the look even more by changing the ‘Metal, Rubber and Candy’ which you can also do with your character!   

Lastly and certainly not least is my favourite point of them all so far, creating a track. The track creation is designed to be user friendly and trust me when I say, it is. It didn’t even really  need to be added due to the fact of how much customization there is already available but it is a great added feature to have, and oh boy are we glad that they did put it in! I have always wanted to create a track and share it online and for those who felt the same… Now you can! All the tracks you create on the track maker can be shared online with friends, downloaded by random people and even rated. Think of LittleBigPlanet’s levels but instead of levels, a track system. Sony have definitely aimed this section at creators and I’m sure there will be a lot of crazy race tracks designed by the community. There are multiple things you can do on the track designer and how you want your track to be laid out. Every track you create will have to be placed on an environment scheme which includes Jungle, Desert, Seaside and Alpine. When creating a track you can choose your terrain template and start “painting” your race track with a starting point to the finish.
You are given a wide variety of what you can modify such as deformation of the land, mountains, surface texture, item pick-ups, plants, trees, lakes and time-of-day settings. The list goes on! It’s a shame there’s not that many terrains but it seems there could be more due to there being space for more and the staff from United Front games have already confirmed they have made it  possible to download 30 of their created tracks for free. 
The customization is just amazing when you consider how much you really can customize. If you like customizing then this racing title is definitely worth just picking up alone. You can seriously make some crazy tracks, racer characters and karts. I’ve just spent an hour making myself a devil character. Loser maybe but he looks awesome! Oh and watch out for those Devastator obstacles, you will get squished!

A final comment would be access to the shop where you can spend tokens to unlock those items you have not yet got your hands on through the career and challenges modes.

Design
When looking at the design you will notice it does have that LittleBigPlanet feel especially the characters. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it suits the game really well. The use of detail on the race tracks themselves are pretty much mind blowing. There are small but significant details in the foreground of the race track that mainly stand out to me but the objects in the background of the race track look and fit the whole racing experience and landscape well. The Kart’s alone look amazing. I know it could be hard to understand that a 3D animated object which isn’t meant to be ‘seen’ as realistic due its genre of game looks stunning and realistic. Looking at every small detail such as the tyres and how realistic they look is unimaginable. The sounds also help with the tyres and breaks with how realistic they sound when you break, skid or hit into another kart.  One of my most favourite things to do with the kart’s is when you are drifting for so long the tyres start to set on fire… It’s awesome.  
When you’re in the Modnation ‘Race Station’ there’s so much around you which is evidence of the high content in the game. In the background you will notice in the sky a helicopter, stage lights, balloons, the wind blowing the trees, blimps, and even cracks in the race tracks! They all look so good for insignificant details. The interactivity is like no other throughout all the sections in the ‘Modspot’. When going into the ‘Creation Station’ you will notice so many small things that are also insignificant to the game but carry on the effort made with the graphic design for the game such as the posters, clothes and karts garage. The design and sounds are pretty much perfect and I can’t say I have any complaints. Sony and United Front have really spent a long time creating Modnation with a key eye on design. There are so many details in the game that I could talk about for hours but it is time to move on.

Multiplayer

The Multiplayer has two modes (not including the Modspot lobby). The two modes consist of online multiplayer and split-screen. As you would have guessed, split-screen allows you to have 4 players on one PS3 on the same screen. The split-screen allows you to play any race tracks you have created and also the ones you have unlocked through career. The split-screen frame rate tends to drop and the lobby does experience some lag. This seems to be when the game is connecting to online.
During the time of writing this review the Modnation Servers were not up so we can’t currently reveal much information about the online other than the fact you will be able to race against 11 other opponents 

Soundtrack
The soundtrack just makes this a perfect package. Perfect jingles during races, waiting for it to load, editing your tracks etc. The soundtrack is just so well placed and well made it really does make the experience even better. I promise the soundtrack will remain in your head for days and will make you want to wait for the loading screen during races just to listen to the soundtrack. 
As you would have guessed due to the prior comments, the sound effects are also perfect. Hitting in to other karts, drifting, getting hit by a power up, driving under a massive sheep are just some examples where the great sound effects come into play. Another point to mention would be the amazing voice over of the commentators and race advisor. The sound effects and the soundtrack just combine together and make a beautiful sounding baby called Modnation…

Overall – 5/5 – A Push-Start Highly Recommended Game. 
Modation Racers is a ground breaking kart racer that will revolutionise kart racing for some time. Sony and United Front Games have really shown us what they can do with the kart racing genre. The game-play, soundtrack, design and even the multiplayer alone is worth picking up this game. This game is definitely made also for the designers out there who will realise that the game has similarities to LittleBigPlanet but the game is different in many ways. This is a must have for any PS3 owners and anyone thinking of getting a PS3.