ModNation Racers

"A new kart racer for a new generation! Race against friends on a track that you built. Over 25 outrageous tracks with realistic physics and upgradable powerups!"

—Quote from the back of the ModNation Racers Blu-Ray case.

This article is about the PS3 version of ModNation Racers. For the PlayStation Portable version of the game, see ModNation Racers for the PlayStation Portable. For the series of games called ModNation Racers, see ModNation Racers (series).

ModNation Racers is a creative kart racing game developed by United Front Games for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. Both versions of the game were releasd on May 25, 2010 in North America. ModNation Racers has the same motto as the popular LittleBigPlanet game series, which was "Play, Create, Share." User generated content is the central aspect of gameplay. The users are able to create their own character (or Mods), racing vehicle (or Karts) and race Tracks. Players were then able to publish creations onto a central server where other players could download them. Even though the original servers were shut down, there are some developers in the Discord server of the game trying to make private servers for it, potentially arriving this summer.

Plot[]

In ModNation Racers, you take the role of Tagger, a male graffiti artist who received an MRC Flyer advertising a new season of the MRC. Tag shows it to his Mother, who then finds her old friend who is a Crew Chief and former racer and gets him signed up for the MRC. It is revealed that the current champion of the ModNation Racing Championship is Espresso, and Tag has to race and win twenty-eight different Tracks in five different Tours (the Home Tour, Mayhem Tour, Range Tour, Grim Tour, and Grand Tour) to win the ModNation Racing Championship season and break Espresso's wining streak.

Story[]

Main article: ModNation Racers Storyline

Gameplay[]

ModNation Racers's has an offline racing mode which allows up to two people to play locally with AI racing bots and four players to play without any AI racers.

It also has an online racing mode where up to two players on the same console to race with up to twelve people and AI bots together on any published track. There are also XP Races and XP Series races where players race against up to eleven opponents to earn XP by racing on United Front Games's selected UFG tracks and track Series.

Racing[]

Main article: Races

Weapons[]

Main article: Weapons

When racing, there are Item Pods that when collected, players will get a Weapon. If they aready have a weapon below level three, the weapon they had will be upgraded to the next, more powerful level of that weapon series.

For example, the Bolt weapon is a purple bolt of electricity that attacks players like a fast rocket, and when it hits a player, players near a certain radius will be stunned. When upgraded to level two (the Chain Bolt), the bolt is a homing weapon and the stun radius is larger than the level one bolt. The level three Bolt, the Bolt Storm, is a rocket that goes up to the air when launched, then the sky will quickly become cloudy and purple thunderbolts will rain on players that are farther ahead of the player that fired it and will make them lose their weapon if they get stunned by it.

Another example is the Secondary Weapon which is a colored mine. At level one, the mine will explode after a few seconds, but level two and three mines only disappear after it hits somebody. The level three mine has an increased radius which is marked by a colored ring around it.

Boost[]

In races, players have a Boost Bar which fills up by collecting Boost Points. These are earned in one of six ways, Drifting, Drafting, successful Spins, hitting orange Boost Pads, firing Weapons that hit a player, and successful Sideswipe attacks (though Sideswiping in itself requires 2,500 boost).

When collected, Boost Points are used by players to Boost and do three other things. Boosting will gradually use up boost faster than drifting will replenish it. This means players will need to determine when is the best time to boost so they can Shield against attacks when they need to.

Players can also Shield attacks by other players and terrain (which will use up a minimum of 5,000 boost and requires more for it to stay up longer), including Sideswipe attacks.

Another thing players can use is the Bolt Shot which uses up 2,500 boost points if players want to activate a Shootable Trigger and not use up a weapon. This Bolt Shot can also be used to shock ModBots and cause them to act incorrectly for a certain amount of time.

The final thing the player can use boost points on is the Sideswipe attack, which requires 2,500 boost points to use, but if they successfully hit another player with it they gain 3,750 boost which is more than they used to start the attack. If the Sideswipe attacks hits multiple players (which is possible), players will get 3,750 boost for each player that he or she attacked.

The ModSpot[]

Main article: ModSpot

The ModSpot is the main menu of ModNation Racers.

Mod and Kart Studio[]

Main article: Mod Studio

Main article: Kart Studio

Mod Studio and Kart Studio are where you can create your own character (called a Mod) and Karts that you can use in other parts of the game. They are also parts of the Creation Station.

Track Studio[]

Main article: Track Studio

ModNation Racers also has a mode where you can build a new track, named Track Studio. Custom tracks can be raced on like the built in tracks and can be published so other players can race on them. It is also part of the Creation Station.

Online[]

While online, ModNation Racers is also compatible with online voice chat and microphones, including Bluetooth devices, and the PlayStation Eye's audio input. This obviously requires the user to enable voice chat (but voice chat and custom music cannot be enabled at the same time, as when voice chat is enabled, the game automatically disables custom music when voice chat is available).

Reception[]

Reviewer	Review Score
GameRankings	83.38%
Metacritic	82 out of 100
1UP.com	B
Computer and Video Games	9.1 out of 10
Eurogamer	7 out of 10
Game Informer	9 out of 10
GameSpot	8 out of 10
GameTrailers	7.9 out of 10
GameZone	9 out of 10
Play Magazine	9 out of 10
VideoGamer.com	8 out of 10
IGN	9 out of 10
Giant Bomb	4 out of 5
X-Play	4 out of 5

ModNation Racers received very positive reviews upon release. It was rated 9 out of 10 by IGN and Gamers Globe, both praising the impressive creation options and general gameplay. ModNation Racers' only major problems noted by users are the extensive load times, and aggressive AI (artificial intelligence).

Trivia[]

After the first update released, when starting up the game, players can choose to go to the ModSpot, directly to the Creation Station, or continue Career Mode (or, after completion, to the Career Mode menu).

Gallery[]

A gallery page that includes pictures and videos about the page's topic can be found on ModNation Racers/Gallery.