By Shane Willoughby of thegamingliberty.com
The ‘Play, Create, Share’ paradigm is an interesting one. Who would have thought that just 3 years ago when the world was first introduced to a Sackboy on a Skateboard that playing, creating and sharing would become so big? Sure, the premise seemed appealing enough, everyone who is anyone would surely want to create their own levels and challenges and share them with friends online. But surely the success of the play, create and share mentality would hinge on how it would first be executed.
LittleBigPlanet, the Playstation 3’s first play, create and share forum (with some two million user generated levels so far) quite simply rules and was the perfect first introduction to this creative paradigm. Its success makes you hope therefore that this whole play, create and share idea would grow wings and catch on elsewhere. Luckily for us it has, only there are no wings in sight, only wheels. ModNation Racers is play, create and share on wheels and its potential is simply astounding.
Developed by United Front Games, ModNation Racers is a good old-fashioned kart racing title that packs a collective bevy of charm, challenge and customization that deems it more than worthy of the distinguished play, create and share tag. It’s all in here. Creating your very own ‘Mod’ and your very own kart is the definition of simplicity and with the bottomless pit of customisation and personalised options on hand, creating a Mod ode to yourself, Solid Snake, Master Chief, Mario or even Lady GaGa (probably!) is just minutes away.
Kart customization is just as robust and the more you play the game’s single player modes, for example, the more customisation items you will unlock. Although these Mods aren’t exactly as charming as the Sackboys of this world, you will still find yourself spending hours creating and remixing your Mod just to the way you like it. After creating your Mod you can then share it online for others to download, use and re-edit (remix) how they see fit.
What about level customisation? Well, it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that level customisation in ModNation means track creation. Track creation is probably the jewel in ModNation’s crown and manages to retain the simplicity of Mod/Kart customisation without ever going over the players head and veering into complicated and annoyingly intricate territory.
Learning curve
In fact, though the vigorous and full bodied nature of LittleBigPlanet’s level editor remains king in the editor stakes, ModNation’s track editor probably isn’t as initially intimidating as LBP’s and as such you will probably find yourself creating your best MNR tracks quicker than you created your best LBP levels. The learning curve isn’t as steep and with some really helpful in-game tutorials, you will be creating classic tracks almost instantaneously.
The game is built around a pretty simplistic but original and stylised cartoon aesthetic that really complements the game’s community features and general fun stakes. But don’t let the visuals fool you. MNR is not easy; in fact it’s actually quite difficult. Progression in the game’s single player mode is surprisingly difficult, at times overwhelmingly frustrating. The AI gets incredibly good incredibly fast. Placing first is difficult and you will find yourself restarting races over and over again just to finish in the top three on the podium to open up the next track in the campaign. Such is the delicate nature of ModNation’s gameplay.
One mistake will probably cost you. Get knocked off a track, hit by a rocket or crash into one of the environment’s many obstacles and you can probably kiss first place goodbye. It’s challenging, sometimes annoying but ultimately very rewarding. You have to be as creative in your actual driving technique as you are with the editor’s tools to actually do well in MNR. Boosting at the right time, using your shield, drifting, taking advantage of shortcuts and using weapons intelligently is beyond crucial. If anything, the toughness of the single player experience is actually quite good training for online play because, as you know, online play can be very unforgiving.
Online, MNR is again great fun and very accessible. You can challenge other Mods to a one-on-one race by simply driving up to them or you can just join ranked races and work on building your XP. The online experience is enhanced by the fact that you can race in customised tracks with customised Mods, rating your experiences and adding the tracks and creators you like most to your list of favorites. But MNR also provides a good old fashioned split-screen multiplayer experience and can even host four players which is a real credit to United Front Games. Local split screen multiplayer gets ignored far too often these days, especially since there is such an impetus on online play now.
The most disappointing aspect of MNR is the loading times, all of which are quite frankly inexcusable. They are as bad as any other game we’ve seen this generation and we include Bayonetta PS3’s awful loading times in that also. There’s talk of these times being improved with an update in the near future, so let’s just collectively hope that the update comes sooner rather than later.
ModNation Racers is incredibly fun. So what more could you want? Sure, it’s no Mario Kart, but if you can find a better non Mario-themed racer outside of MNR then we’d really be surprised. MNR is a gift that keeps on giving, a deep karting game you will constantly find yourself returning to over and over again. It’s another notch on Sony’s play, create and share belt and another must buy for your PS3.
Format: PS3
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