Let’s cut through the usual review introduction fuzz and get straight to the point: ModNation Racers is a karting game that every PS3 owner should own. It is a fun racer, but it is not the best racing title out there. It is kind of cute and pretty, but it is not the best looking game out there. It is not the most challenging game, nor is it the game that Sony will use to show off its powerful hardware. It has cool online features but nothing we have not seen before. What sets ModNation Racers apart though is how all the features come together in a perfect blissful whole that everyone will enjoy playing. And that is its biggest feature: FUN!

Fun for Everyone!

Gaming should be about fun, and fun should be shared. Playing alone is not nearly as fun as playing with someone. ModNation Racers is all about sharing the fun. At its very core, the game is a karting racer. You drive your kart around a track with crazy ramps and tight turns and steep banks. You drive over power-ups that give you boost and arm your kart with all sorts of wacky weapons. You can also gain boost that will speed your kart for a short while. Finally, you can drift and draft your way around the track, trying to outwit your opponents rather than drive faster than anyone else.

The controls are very simple, and everyone should be able to pick this game up and play within two minutes. Accelerate, brake, turn left, turn right. This is all it takes to finish a race. After a few minutes you can learn how to drift around corners for a bit of a speed boost. Then you can learn how to shoot your weapons that you don’t even have to aim. Add to this the four player split-screen, and the fun will find everyone!

Since the days of the first Sims, customizing your player character has been vital to casual games. Often more time will be spent creating your racer than actually racing them! You start with a blank little character, called a Mod. Then you can change his skin, colour, hair, eyes, ears, clothing, everything. Then create the perfect accompanying kart that will suit your Mod best. Starting with a blank chassis you can add a body type, suspension, engine and wheels. Change the colour and patterns on these until they look as unique as possible, and you are ready to go race. All karts are equally powerful and all modifications are only for aesthetics.

There is a career mode, but it is easily forgettable. The racing takes over all the fun and unlocking new tracks is all you need to worry about. Achieving certain milestones during races, like shooting two other racers or drifting for 10 seconds, unlocks new items to customize your Mod or kart with. It also gives you XP which can be used to unlock more items. Unlocking items manually is a bit of a gamble. They are sorted by either 1, 2 or 5 star items. The higher the rating, the better the accessory, but it unlocks a random item from that class. You can also go online and purchase more accessories with your real cold hard cash.

Create your own fun!

If you are unhappy with the wide variety of tracks available, then hop into the track editor mode and create your own. The creator is very easy and very intuitive. Starting with a blank slate in one of four themes like desert or alpine, you drive a bulldozer that lays track behind you. Make a few turns, change the elevation a bit and then hit the X button to return to the start and autocomplete the track. You can now either let the editor populate the track with weapons and power-ups for you, or you can painstakingly decorate it yourself. You can also fine tune the camber, width and angle of the track until it is perfect. Fit in a few trees, buildings and even sheep and you are ready to go. Challenge your friends to a race on your track and if you think its good enough, upload it for others to try. Just don’t be surprised if others beat you at your own track!

Everything you can create in ModNation Racers can be shared with others. Every track, kart and Mod is available to download and rate. It took a mere day after release for someone to create a very authentic looking Mario Mod. Yes, you can turn ModNation Racers into Mario Kart if you want, and I dare say it might actually be better than the epic classic. Karts are more popular downloads though. Your Mod is personal, but karts can be someone else’s creation. Everything from a Formula 1 Ferrari to the A-Teams black van can be downloaded.

Come together in the lobby

With such a great presence online, ModNation Racers needed a killer game lobby to bring it all together. It delivered just that in the form of the Mod Spot. This is a little hub that feels like a race track on race day, where you can drive around and literally bump into random friends online. You can challenge them to races, look at their stats and even ask them to rate your creations. You can also drive into any of the creation shops and race sections to start them. Go for quick race, time trial, or career mode. See other racers fastest laps on big screens, and look at other racer’s creations. You can also find daily and weekly challenges where you have one day or week to post the fastest time or highest score for a certain track.

All online play provides further unlockable content and more XP that can be used in the single player mode. If your console is connected to the web you will hardly be able to tell the difference between online and offline play, it is that slick.

Being a family focused game game and online at the same time, you always run the risk of one of the competitors doing something naughty in front of your kids while they play. If this ever happens you can make use of a neat little feature called Good Grief. This allows you to lodge complaints against other racers. This includes everything from foul language to just plain indecent Mods or karts. This has done a lot to keep the younger audience safe.

Broken fun

There is only one thing that prevents ModNation Racers from scoring full marks: long, slow and painful loading times. This is a huge detractor from the fun. Getting everyone ready around the TV, amped to go head to head, and then having to wait a few minutes for a track to load really breaks the momentum that the rest of the game creates. Considering the simple nature of the game and the graphics, it is beyond me how levels could take this long to load. If this was due to the track being downloaded when playing online, then I could understand it, but tracks, mods and karts download to the lobby in seconds. Even installing the game to the PS3’s hard-drive does not help in the slightest. If United Front can get the loading times down to a few seconds, rather than a few minutes, we have a true 5 star game on our hands!

With the incredible ease of creating your own custom content, and the insane (yes, it’s crazy and out of its mind and should be locked up!) amounts of fun you can have with everyone, gamer or not, this game convinces me that casual gaming is the way of the future. Inevitably the hardcore gamers out there will be pulling up their noses, and will vow never to cave in to the casual market. The thing is though, they have obviously not tried ModNation Racers yet! And shame on you! If I can get my gran to play, what makes you better than her?

The good: Brilliantly easy yet very powerful creator; seamless online play.
The bad: Terribly slow loading times rob the game of its fifth star.
The ugly: The first Mario was cool, now the place is infested with unoriginal Marios.

Purchase: