ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers is kart racing game for the PlayStation 3 in which you get to not only race but create your kart and your avatar. You'll also get your chance at creating courses of insanity and difficulty. You'll get to race against friends and foes a like, and the fun never quite seems to stop.

Graphically this game looks great on the PlayStation 3. All the little changes you make to your avatar and kart are easily reflected and seen by all who want to observe them. Now the editing tools for your avatar and kart are robust and yet they are easy to understand for those who aren't the graphical geniuses that some have shown. The track building system follows the same path. There's a lot to tweak in the track creation mode, but at the same time if you don't want to delve deep into all that it has to offer you can still create one hell of a track by auto-populating after the track is complete.

The sounds of the game fit in with the motif. There's not a whole lot to say about it, it just fits. What you would expect in a kart game is what you're going to hear in this game.

The controls take a race or two to master, but once learned you can do some pretty amazing stuff, and you're going to have to to win some of those races. 

So there is the basic game in which you are trying to race yourself into the history books. When you win a race and are able to complete the side objectives you open up more stuff for customization. It could be a new kart body, could be new eyes for your avatar, it could be the actual racer you just defeated, whatever the case when you come through with the win you feel like you rule the world. Now of course there is more to the game than just the rising through the ranks, and that's the customizations that you can do in the game. Creating your own avatar from the doll body you start out with can be a lot of fun if you're willing to put some time into it. Actually any of the customization features (avatar, kart, course) can be absolutely amazing if you put some serious time into it. One of my favorite things to do is to jump into the map editor and then create the track and let the system auto-populate, then go back and add a little extra flavor. This game is meant to be played with several people either on the same console, or online. The power ups is another thing that can set this game apart from the rest. You'll get a chance to collect a random power up and then as long as you don't use it, if you can collect 2 more power up orbs, that power up increases in strength. There's a speed boost that will power up to a warp (which kind of reminds me of Back to the Future), or you could have picked up the missile power up that powers up to a barrage of heat seeking missiles. My one issue with this game, and one of the things that kills me about the game is the load time. If you're loading into a race you might as well go get a sandwich, or walk around the house because its going to take a noticeably long time before you get your chance at racing. I do wish there was a way that you could queue up a couple of race tracks so that you didn't have to load in and then load out then load back in between tracks.

This is a solid title for PlayStation 3 owners to have. It by far surpasses Mario Kart, and why wouldn't it when if you put some time into it you can basically recreate the Mario Kart tracks and characters. This game is a worthy purchase, and if you can stick out the loading times you're going to have one hell of a game to play against your friends, and create some insane tracks. This game gets an 8.9 out of 10.