ModNation Racers Review

Review by EuroGamer 7/10

Well, I managed to resist it. In all the hours I spent toying around with ModNation Racers’ fantastic suite of creative tools I restrained myself from making a single character which even vaguely resembled a set of genitalia. Nor did I craft any of the Mario Kart characters. I didn’t even infringe the copyrights of Batman, Wacky Racers or the Dukes of Hazzard.

Not that it’s impossible to do so – the depth and flexibility of the editors on offer here is more than capable of translating almost any popular character, car or track into the game’s shiny, colourful engine – but to use these abilities to imitate just seemed like a bit of a waste.

Instead I, a man of limited artistic ingenuity, rattled off any number of unique and striking little creations, starting simply and progressing to more subtle, layered designs. These, although lacking the professionalism of the offerings downloadable from the United Front development team, managed to make the atrophied creative centre of my brain quite chuffed with itself.

ModNation Racers Full Review

Review by Games Radar 9/10 Awesome

After years of having to deal with petulant games journalists, vocal forum members and an increasingly fussy buying public, we’re not surprised that more and more developers are turning to us and saying “Fine! You don’t like what we’ve done? Why don’t you do it yourself, then?” After all, if we are given the responsibility of creating the game, we’re going to make ours absolutely perfect, right?

This is where we put our hands up and say “no”. We’re staring at our little blank, naked kart racer with a head like a boiled egg and we’ve got ‘developer’s block’. We’ve got a blank canvas, endless opportunities and we don’t know what to do. It doesn’t help that ModNation Racers’ brief beta trial showed how clever you could be if your mind worked quick enough; Kratos, Kermit the Frog, Spider-Man, Captain America, a Killzone soldier, Mario, Sonic. If you’ve thought of it, chances are somebody has already made it.

Even if you haven’t, you’ll kick yourself for not thinking of it first. In the end we created our version of The Stig (easy, already been done better), Chun Li (took ages, looked crap, already been done) and internet meme Techno Viking (but only because we started with the beard). Equally bereft of innovative ideas, we also managed to cobble together a kart that sported last years’ Brawn F1 livery, a rusted, ‘rat look’ muscle car and, er, a camouflaged school bus. MNR’s potential stretches far further than the creator’s imagination…

ModNation Racers Full Review

Review by IGN 9.0/10 Outstanding

Is there a new king of kart racers?

For the past few weeks, it seems like all I’ve been talking about is ModNation Racers. Recording video reviews, working on previews, and just chatting with friends — United Front Games’ baby has been on the tip of my tongue. Being engulfed in a game this way can often lead to a person getting sick of the title in question, but that hasn’t happened here.

ModNation Racers is just too damn good.

Been ignoring IGN for, say, the last year? Well, first, welcome back, and second, you missed a whole bunch of ModNation awesomeness. At first glance, this game is just another kart racer with HD graphics. It comes with a career mode, a plethora of colorful characters to race against and earn for your stable, and an experience point-packing online universe. But as you settle in behind the controls, you’ll find ModNation is so much more than just a kart racing game.

For starters, this is the second title in Sony’s “Play, Create, Share” catalog of games — a lineup that started with LittleBigPlanet — and it’s worthy of that prestigious distinction. In ModNation Racers, you can create racers (known as Mods), karts and even tracks that you can then upload and share with the world, which means you can download other people’s works of art, too. Before you say “Oh, I never create anything in games,” give these tools a look. You don’t have to worry about adjusting body types, heights and what not when you’re making a Mod; they’re all the same body size, so it’s just up to you to decorate them. It’s like working with a really, really advanced Easter egg.

ModNation Racers Full Review