ModNation Racers Review - PS3

It’s impossible to make a kart racing game without drawing some influence from the seminal Super Mario Kart. It just is. The biggest reason why is that Mario Kart has always combined simple driving with ramped-up the madness via weapons and environmental hazards. ModNation Racers follows this template to the letter, while also adding plenty of its own flair into the mix to give it a personality and identity all its own.

The style and tone of the game are established immediately with the game’s opening cinematic which tells the tale of the world famous ModNation Racing Championship, the premier racing event for the boldest and bravest kart racers in the land. This sequence also introduces the game’s two ESPN-inspired commentators, Biff and Gary. The duo’s banter is genuinely hilarious -- even if Biff’s unending disdain for Gary does go just a tad too far at times -- but the humor doesn’t stop there.



The game’s single player career mode tells the tale of Tag, an inexperienced punk of sorts who is given the chance to compete in the MRC. The story is told over a series of cut scenes throughout the course of the 28 races that comprise the five-tour career. The cast of characters are across-the-board fantastic, from the voice acting to the character designs.

Another fantastic demonstration of just all around smart design is the game’s ModSpot, which is basically the menu system built out into in-game objects. Every mode (career, online, customization center, etc.) is represented in building form built, all placed within a virtual town square. You can drive around the square and pull up to any feature and open it up. You could also access all of the modes by a standard menu system, but what fun is that?

Leave It All On the Track

Without fluid driving mechanics and satisfying over-the-top weaponry, your kart racing game isn’t going to go far. Fortunately for ModNation Racers, it has both of these covered in spades, and stickers, and paint and anything else you might want to toss in for good measure. For the most part, the karts handle well, but there are moments when the handling can be a bit slippery, which can cause you to fly off the track in unexpected and unappreciated ways. It’s even possible to get stuck on the other side of the track wall if you hit a jump the wrong way, which not only looks ridiculous, but is also infuriating.

Like too many other racers, ModNation Racers also includes some serious computer AI rubberbanding. Racing flawlessly is never really enough to ensure victory, and that’s doubly annoying because the computer is able to pull off one perfect maneuver after another while you have to fight for every inch of track. Throw in some perfectly-timed computer attacks, and you have a recipe for some Dual Shock-chucking scenarios. But as maddening as slippery handling and rubberbanding are, they’re still not awful enough to destroy a fun and well-designed kart racer.



Vehicle weaponry obviously plays a huge part in the game, and for the most part, each item does its job well. Each device has three tiers of potency, which adds even more strategy to the game, since you have to decide whether to hold onto the level two rockets in the hopes of nabbing a third weapon pod, but at the risk of losing the rocket entirely. In terms of performance, the rockets in particular seem a bit fickle as they don’t always behave the way you’d expect. A lot of times, they don’t take out anyone, even though there are several karts right there in front of you. That being said, it’s immensely satisfying to watch as your adorable kart unleashes a hell-storm of missles that blows apart every other kart on the track, or watch as poor fools run directly into your EMP mine that you placed perfectly on the inside of the final turn.

The weapon setup is a bit frustrating at times. It can be hard to tell when a projectile is about to hit you. The genre-standard warning beep you get when one is locked onto you doesn't speed up to indicate proximity, so you’ll have to carefully time your shield or it’ll expire too early and still leave you vulnerable. The projectile does appear on the track map, showing you how far away it is, but it’s too risky to take your eyes off the road for even a second, and even then, it isn’t always clear how far away the in-coming weapon is.