Review: Modnation Racers

To be honest I wasn't really interested in Modnation Racers. I thought it was going to be just another crappy game. I was wrong, so, so wrong.

• Name: Modnation Racers
• Genre: Racing
• Players: 1-4
• Multiplayer: Online
• Platforms: PS3
• Developer: United Front Games
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
• Price: R600
• Reviewed On: PS3

*Note: from now on all picture used are ones I took using the in game camera.

At a glance Modnation Racers looks like nothing special, just another kart racer for 5 year olds. Wrong! No matter how much of it you consume it will never make you sick it’s just too damn good. This title that may just seem like another Kart racer but, it is actually so much more.

Welcome to Modnation. Every Mod drives a kart, but only a few enter the MRC or Modnation Racers Championship. Meet Tag (guy in pic above) a local graffiti artist who decides to enter the MRC. You start the game off as Tag and you take it from there.

Before I go into detail relating to the game modes, and so on, let me explain the Mods. The Mods are a population that drive Karts which are only cream or pale blue. Only the MRC racers have tricked out Karts. The MRC was started way back when by a guy with a big mustache and a top hat and during the intro. All of this will be shown and explained — so that’s where I end on the Mods. I just wanted to say the guy had a big ass mustache, really.

As soon as you qualify for the MRC you are taken to the Mod Spot. A place which serves as the Games Main Menu. It is an original open-plan menu where you drive to the options.

• Race Station
• Creation Station
• Share Station
• Hot lap
• Coming soon
• Top mods
• Top karts
• Top track

The ModSpot — as well as being the main menu when online — will serve as a meeting ground. This is where you can meet and chat with your online friends, or who ever is there actually. Challenge friends or random people to races from this part of the game.

A nice feature is the ability to see who all is in the current ModSpot. Yep, there are many ModSpots happening at the same time. To see who all is in the current ModSpot, one could drive to the screen or simply press R3.

If you are to lazy to drive to a station press start, and voila. You have your own menu right in front of you. Froody.

The Creation Station:

This is where you make everything happen. Inside the creation station you can create your own Mod, Kart and/or track as well as share your creations with the world and buy items or exchange tokens obtained in Career races for items to use on your mods. Regarding Mods and Karts and even Tracks, you have Carte Blanche to make what-ever your heart desires. If you can dream it, you can make it on Modnation. I’ve seen an Iron man, Spiderman and Mario Mod during my time with Modnations. Kart Wise, I’ve seen a taxi when racing some Local Guys, the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo as well as the A-TEAM van. There are enough primitive shapes sticker wise to create almost anything.

You can create really cool stuff in no time, and it all looks as if it belongs on the disk.

The Race station:

This is where it all goes down. Here you have the option to choose between Career, Online, Quick or Split Screen races.

The Career lets you play through an impressive Offline Single Player mode, even though the game was made for Online Multiplayer. You really do get your money’s worth here. You’ll enter a world of colourful characters, tracks and so much more. All of it worth it.

Online Racers: there are two types, Casual Races and XP Races. Casual Racers are just for fun and do not increase your XP.

The XP races are similar to the casual races except, well as the names states, they are for increasing your XP, which in-turn increases your rank and unlocks certain things.

Whilst in the Pre-Race Lobby you can chat to others in the Lobby, look at your opponents Mods and Karts and there is even a feature that allows you to pass a vote to change the host, in case he fell asleep.

Quick races are there for your quick fix. You can choose between a race or time trial. Any track you have unlocked or that you have made can be used in quick races. In offline time trial you race against a ghost rider of yourself and your best lap time. During the online time trial you race against the ghost rider of the best person in the Modnation Community.

Split Screen races are between you and your buddies. You can have up to four people on screen split. Split Screen races are held on any track which you have unlocked, or created. They are quite fun. It isn’t just you and your buddies though, the rest of the grid will be populated by A.I.

Share Station:

This is where you upload your creations (Mods, Karts and tracks) for the world to download, rate and comment on. You can also rate, download and comment on others’ creations and customise them to your liking. If others decide to download and customise your creations, don’t stress because you will still get credit for it.

Coming Atractions:

This is where all the upcoming DLC is displayed nothing more, nothing less

Top Karts:

The top 3 rated Karts each week are displayed here. The week I played Modnation Racers the top 3 Karts were The Mystery Machine, an F1 car and the A-TEAM van.

Top Mods:

The same as top Karts, except the top 3 rated Mods for the week. The top 3 I saw where Mario, Iron Man and Spiderman. Who knows, maybe your Mod will be up there next week?

Top Tracks:

Your imagination says — the top tracks, right? Right.

Hot Lap:

This is the tournament of the day, and XP can be gained from it.

Now that everything has been cleared up, let me explain the racing elements. Well obviously you in it to win it, therefore you have to win. 2nd or 3rd is good enough, but you unlock certain bonuses if you finish first, and if complete certain set challenges. This is all referring to career races though.

Drifting, drafting, side swiping, shielding, boost and weapons are all essential in races.

Drifting and drafting all add to your boost meter which,  when used correctly, is essential because the boost meter is not only for boost, but it also allows you to side swipe opponents and shield oncoming attacks.

Every Kart contains an expensive piece of technology called the “Boom Box” which acts as the weapons system. Weapons are picked up in orbs on the track and are used respectively.

Modnation Racers is such a perfect game. It achieves every thing it aims for. I don’t think anything bad can be said about it…wait scratch that.

The one problem I had with Modnation Racers were the servers, even when playing Local Players. Then another day the servers worked marvelously. I guess you just have to try your luck. The Lag isn’t bad at all, and sometimes it’s really bad. Take a leap of faith here. But then again – South African interwebs do fail.

Enjoy the randoms:

A picture says a thousand words, right?

Here are some pictures of a Track, some Karts and Mods that I made. Oh, there are also a few random races.

Modnation Racers achieves everything it set out to do. It is fun, the graphics work, and all in all — it is pure win. Modnation Racers is a great game. Forget realism. This is fun, awesome and truly epic.

I recommend this to every gamer out there, be it a casual or serious/competitive gamer.

Modnations plus friends equals a new level of greatness.

Name: Taahir Ahmed
Location: Port Elizabeth
Position: Editor, News

Taahir has published 372 posts. Read all of Taahir's posts.

• Email Me
• My RSS Feed
• Follow Me On Twitter