ModNation Racers

Anyone who played this game in it's prime and actually took the time to get good at it knows this is one of, if not the greatest Kart Racing game ever made. I played this from when I was 12 to when the servers shut down so I'm admittedly a bit biased, however I truthfully believe a 2.87 is far too low. The gameplay was much faster paced and had a much higher skill ceiling than Mario Kart, which has a over 3.92 on this site, the combat mechanics were unique and have yet to be replicated and the creation is still unparalleled in kart racers. Pretty much anything you could think of could be created in this game. Is Modnation a 10? Well maybe not. I understand the criticisms however those are kind of minor when you consider what was could be done in this game compared to other kart racers, especially Mario Kart which even though it's a good game. I can't understand the praise for it when this game was basically Mario Kart on steroids. Objectively this game is probably more of a 4/5 but I'm giving it the full 5/5 because it was my game.

Edit: Also this game is over a decade old and the servers are no longer running so its kind of hard to give it an accurate and fair rating anymore. You had to be there. I am biased, but a 2.87 is really selling this game short.

Pros:
+ Surprisingly large and kind playerbase in 2018, even if they are on the younger side
+ A bevy of creative tools for player, kart, and track design provide tons of hours of replayability for those interested
+ Drifting mechanics are somewhat not horrendous in that the boost is only stored upon clean exit of the drift
++ Some user-created tracks are legitimately interesting
++ Tracks and races without a ton of racers or power-ups show off some satisfying senses of speed

Cons:
- Typical 2010 bloom and color correction makes everything look washed-out and cheap
- Story, while obviously aimed at children, is below even children's television standards and grating to watch
- Not a single memorable or interesting standard track in the whole game, and every track is too short
-- Tutorials pop up in the middle of races in career mode, quite literally pausing the action to explain obvious mechanics
-- Power-ups are ridiculously overpowered, as almost all of them have significant homing ability on a single target or follow the path of the track while doing damage to everyone
-- High precedence is put on holding on to power-ups to up their level and attack power, but laps are so short that there is never any way to implement real strategy with them
--- Every single kart and racer is statistically indistinguishable from one another despite the wide variety of cosmetic customization, meaning races are always exactly the same with no strategic variation between drivers at all
--- Completely unacceptable load times that make navigating menus, the career mode, and even the lobby world a tedious hassle
--- Horrendously garish art direction, to the point where almost everything in the game looks like a mid-00s LEGO or Tech Deck rip-off and no defaults are palatable

An obvious attempt to take the LittleBigPlanet money to the kart racing market, Modnation Racers' creative suite is as good as it needs to be, both on the character side and when it comes to track creation, with some terrifyingly good creations available for both. However, it is pure style over substance. You may be able to race Elmo against Spider-Man, but between unbalanced power-ups and generally unsatisfying driving mechanics, you won't have a fun time doing it.

I've always had a soft spot for kart racing games. Although they don't require or utilise the same kind of rigour as racing games proper, they offer enjoyment in a different sense. The lack of focus on realistic, or otherwise highly sophisticated racing mechanics leaves a lot of room for the fantastic—elements that would ruin the structure or gameplay of the more traditional racing genre. This coincides nicely with the typically cartoonish nature of most (if not all) kart racing games. A frequent and comfortable home for company mascots, and a highly accessible environment; kart racing games generally do a good job of standing on their own apart from other racing titles.

Although there are the seemingly yearly entries in the Mario Kart franchise, by the late 2000s it seemed like kart racing as a genre had more or less run its course. The heyday of the N64 era seemed generally to have passed, and the likelihood of a comeback seemed slim at best. The announcement of ModNation Racers made me do a double take—there was the initial surprise that a game like that was being made, and then a sense of excitement. It looked promising.

Retrospectively I can say with complete confidence that my excitement was entirely misplaced. ModNation Racers had a lot of potential; it was marketed as a traditional kart racer mixed with the aesthetic opportunities of LittleBigPlanet. The ability to customize the appearance of your kart and avatar in conjunction with online play made the game seem like it would be a way for me to relive a passion of my youth. This was sadly not to be the case whatsoever.

The kart racing part of ModNation Racers was alright, not really able to touch the heights of the genre in concept, level design or campaign structure, but decent nonetheless, at least initially. Problems really arose after the opening few hours of play. The idea of open customization based on LittleBigPlanet ended up being a big detriment to the game. In LittleBigPlanet you're able to customize your Sackboy outfit with few restrictions, but you're always the same Sackboy. This doesn't matter however, as platformers generally don't need to rely on different classes or abilities in order to make the gameplay consistently fresh and exciting. On the other hand, kart racers typically provide a variety of classes. This plethora of attributes allows players to refine their playing style by being able to choose classes that accentuate their pre-existing inclinations. Much like class skill trees in RPGs, the ability to choose between different types of vehicles diversifies the gameplay tremendously.

It is here that ModNation Racers falls completely flat, and beyond salvation. The game's customization options are, like LittleBigPlanet, solely aesthetic and provide no gameplay enhancements. This wears thin very quickly when it becomes glaringly obvious that everyone is playing as the exact same character. It's dull, repetitive, and frankly quite boring. The lack of variation worked in LittleBigPlanet because the multiplayer elements that existed were inherently cooperative (for the most part), and the structure of the game required players to prioritize team survival over individual achievement. By contrast, however, ModNation Racers' gameplay structure is inherently competitive—you are not a solo player, or team of players, working towards a common goal, but instead a group of individuals seeking to outmanoeuvre one another. Without any variation beyond appearances this task becomes less and less interesting, until ultimately you give up completely, as I did. It's an exasperating process, and the quicker you figure it out the better off you'll be.

I've always had a soft spot for kart racing games. Although they don't require or utilise the same kind of rigour as racing games proper, they offer enjoyment in a different sense. The lack of focus on realistic, or otherwise highly sophisticated racing mechanics leaves a lot of room for the fantastic—elements that would ruin the structure or gameplay of the more traditional racing genre. This coincides nicely with the typically cartoonish nature of most (if not all) kart racing games. A frequent and comfortable home for company mascots, and a highly accessible environment; kart racing games generally do a good job of standing on their own apart from other racing titles.

Although there are the seemingly yearly entries in the Mario Kart franchise, by the late 2000s it seemed like kart racing as a genre had more or less run its course. The heyday of the N64 era seemed generally to have passed, and the likelihood of a comeback seemed slim at best. The announcement of ModNation Racers made me do a double take—there was the initial surprise that a game like that was being made, and then a sense of excitement. It looked promising.

Retrospectively I can say with complete confidence that my excitement was entirely misplaced. ModNation Racers had a lot of potential; it was marketed as a traditional kart racer mixed with the aesthetic opportunities of LittleBigPlanet. The ability to customize the appearance of your kart and avatar in conjunction with online play made the game seem like it would be a way for me to relive a passion of my youth. This was sadly not to be the case whatsoever.

The kart racing part of ModNation Racers was alright, not really able to touch the heights of the genre in concept, level design or campaign structure, but decent nonetheless, at least initially. Problems really arose after the opening few hours of play. The idea of open customization based on LittleBigPlanet ended up being a big detriment to the game. In LittleBigPlanet you're able to customize your Sackboy outfit with few restrictions, but you're always the same Sackboy. This doesn't matter however, as platformers generally don't need to rely on different classes or abilities in order to make the gameplay consistently fresh and exciting. On the other hand, kart racers typically provide a variety of classes. This plethora of attributes allows players to refine their playing style by being able to choose classes that accentuate their pre-existing inclinations. Much like class skill trees in RPGs, the ability to choose between different types of vehicles diversifies the gameplay tremendously.

It is here that ModNation Racers falls completely flat, and beyond salvation. The game's customization options are, like LittleBigPlanet, solely aesthetic and provide no gameplay enhancements. This wears thin very quickly when it becomes glaringly obvious that everyone is playing as the exact same character. It's dull, repetitive, and frankly quite boring. The lack of variation worked in LittleBigPlanet because the multiplayer elements that existed were inherently cooperative (for the most part), and the structure of the game required players to prioritize team survival over individual achievement. By contrast, however, ModNation Racers' gameplay structure is inherently competitive—you are not a solo player, or team of players, working towards a common goal, but instead a group of individuals seeking to outmanoeuvre one another. Without any variation beyond appearances this task becomes less and less interesting, until ultimately you give up completely, as I did. It's an exasperating process, and the quicker you figure it out the better off you'll be.