Hands-on with ModNation Racers for PS3 – Sony’s latest game in the evolving ‘play, create, share’ genre
Giving people the chance to express themselves, share their ideas and creations with others, is becoming a common feature among games today. Last decade, the internet paved the way for empowering users thanks to the rise of blogs, social networking and sites such as YouTube and Flickr – something that has become known as the Web 2.0 movement. Games soon followed with Sony’s LittleBigPlanet becoming the poster child for a new age of ‘user-generate content’.
Empowering users has rapidly become a key selling point for games. ModNation Racers is the latest title in what Sony have dubbed the ‘play, create, share’ genre. Vancouver-based United Front Games are behind this upcoming PS3 kart racer. In the same way that LittleBigPlanet allows users to create their own platform levels, this game gives users the power to design and build their own racetracks.
In development since October 2007, ModNation Racers is putting a fresh spin on the typically cutesy, but sometimes shallow, kart racing genre. The game’s art style has been heavily inspired by urban vinyl toys, from manufacturers such as Kidrobot and Toy2R, and has found its way into everything from the character and kart creation system to the graffiti art dotted about the backgrounds.
Where some complained you needed monk-like patience and a head for physics in order to craft skilled levels with LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers aims to have players of all ages creating racetracks in minutes. Track creation is very easy thanks to the game’s real-time track generator. You drive a machine that lays track as you go, automatically adjusting the terrain to the gradient of your pitch and direction. Once you’re happy with the general structure of the course, you can edit parts in detail and begin to add finishing touches, for instance power-ups, trees, buildings and other trackside elements.
United Front are confident that they are delivering a title with immense creative potential. Speaking in an interview with UK games publication, Edge, producer Dan Sochan said: “We really want to make it so that our tools have that depth to it. Our road editing tools are basic and really simple if you just point and stretch the track, but then there’s a more advanced version that allows you to tweak corners and everything else.”
Does this stylish kart racer and its Munny-like characters have the potential to become PlayStation’s customisable answer to Mario Kart?
Toys, Power-Ups and Automobiles
Dropping into the world of ModNation Racers is a bit like waking up in Pixar’s Cars film with a lot of funny, big headed critters driving around.
While in the ModSpot (the game’s always-online hub world) you can drive right up to players, view their stats, download their creations and challenge them to races. When viewing the pause menu in the ModSpot you have access to each of the game’s basic play modes, and you also contact friends through the built-in messaging system.
Though the purpose of this beta didn’t seem to be to show-off the game’s race gameplay, but rather its creation tools, we couldn’t help but notice a few things. As reported by several US beta players, the camera feels too low and too close to give you enough peripheral vision of the track. The weapons in the beta may not be final, but it was hard to get a sense of their power. Some weapons sent us right off the track, costing us valuable leads, while others seemed to have little effect.
Boosting is also independent of power-ups – filled by power sliding and activated manually. This adds an interesting dynamic of its own, as you may be just on the heels of the frontrunner and overtake them using your saved boost. In a way, it’s chasing the coat-tails of Mario Kart. At the moment it feels very raw, there are good ideas but United Front need to get the balance right.
In the edit suite – the ‘creation station’ – you create your own ‘Mod’ racer; clothing, colouring and accessorising them as you see fit. The personalisation options are plentiful, and there’s sure to be no shortage of madcap designs once the community get their hands on the finished product. It’s the same for karts too. There’s a colour wheel and tons of interchangeable options, many with parts to adjust of their own.
It’s not quite up to the level of Forza 3’s paint shop (that can have you resorting to online guides), but we can certainly see enormous potential for user-created karts and characters. Taking a look at the share station we came across pages and pages of licensed characters created by users. But, hopefully, once the game is out you’ll start to see some more original creations populating the top spots.
Tracks, however, are another matter. We were able to create several simple and more complex tracks in a matter of minutes. The game’s auto populate button adds the finishes for you. Although, it is still up to you to adjust the placement of boost pads and power-ups if you want your track to have more competitive value. The ability to instantly test drive (and test race) your tracks helps in that sense.
We also downloaded a collection of tracks uploaded by beta users to race on and re-edit. Corkscrews, bumpy straights and some complicated looking crisscrossing gave us some idea of the flexibility of the track creator. One track that had a section completely covered by evergreen trees shows some of the devious ideas you’ll be subject to.
We’ve only played a small part of this artsy toy racer but already it is evident that United Front has put together something special. All the creation elements are up to spec, now let’s hope they can tie down the gameplay some.
ModNation Racers will be out in spring 2010. Look for the full review on platform-online.net.
Aaron Lee
