OMG, I can not believe how much fun this game is. I usually suck at racing games, and gets me frustrated for the most part and that's why I rarely don't play the ones I have, but I had so much fun with ModNation Racers I can not put this game down.

I played last night at around 10pm and didn't realize how much time had past, I looked outside and the sun was already out, it was already 6 in the morning!! I seriously couldn't believe it, I have never spent so much time in front of the tv playing a video game. My driving skills have improved, so much that the people online now are always trying to shoot me or bump me off the road now cause I have gotten at least in the Top 5 now when I race online. Fierce competition from fans online. Awesome gaming experience though anyways, always up for a challenge!

10 out of 10 stars for me! This game has me hooked like a drug! ;)~

• from

Being a PS3 and Wii owner, I own both this and Mario Kart Wii, and I must say, that after playing Mod Nation all week, and going back and playing Mario Kart again, Mod Nation Racers is easily 100 times better in every way. Graphics are crisp, clear, bright, and fun. Gameplay is hilariously addicting with all of the power-ups, drifting, boost, and AI character's interactions. Some of the intro movies and sequences are cheesy, but kinda funny. And by far the best aspect of this game is the customization. I've spent countless hours already creating about 20 different karts, a handful of Mods, one being Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and a couple of tracks as well. The amount of detail you can go into when creating a kart, mod, or track is simply amazing and one of the most in-depth customization set up out there today. Now how does this rank to players who prefer a more realistic game like Gran Turismo or Dirt 2? I also own both of those, but Mod Nation will be played way more than both of those just because its that much fun. So stop reading and just buy the game! Its worth it at any price!

• from

I'm not very good at writing reviews but I love this game so much that I just gotta express it! :P

Drifting! Drifting is such a blast I could just sit in the modspot and go around in a circle all day. The track editor constantly wows me, and creating mods and carts couldn't be better. It's just so much FUN!

There are two things that I don't especially like, however. I think it's all been said that the load times are ridiculously long, although, I find that playing music on my PS3 make the waits go by in a snap... The graphics aren't anything to brag about either, in fact they're pretty bad at times (in some cut scenes especially), but it's the gameplay really make up for it IMO.

• from

I ordered this for my boyfriend as a birthday present, and he absolutely loves it. Amazon was true to their word and I received it on the release date as it was stated.

• from

This game is quite simply, outstanding. Every little detail has been carefully thought out and well put together. The user interface is new, fresh and different. It sort of has an online "open lobby" feel where you drive around this circle in the center of the city called "ModSpot". From there you can enter various stops outside the city in which you can enter a "customization" shop, racing, see top karts showcased and even watch updates on the big screen in the middle of the city (like Times Square in NYC.) Racing options include a single player "career" mode with unlocks, online XP modes, casual races and the like.

However, the best part of this game is the customization. You can virtually customize every aspect of the game. Your Mod (your character) has unlimited creation options including clothing, hair style, colors and even the voice. You can have more than one and even download others from the online directory created by other users. You can even download creations made by your friends if you'd like. The same goes for karts, TONS of options. I am currently riding around in a shiny black SUV and "racing green", tricked out 1950's roadster. It lets you pick engines, wheels, body style, paint options (even including how glossy you'd like the paint) and everything else imaginable. And by far the best part of the game, track creation. You got it, create your own tracks, download creations made by others, download your friends tracks. This is a total game change and allows ModNation to not only plow over other kart racers but other racing games in general.

Overall, this game is not only a solid buy but a must have for any PS3 fan. I honestly believe this game has a serious shot of taking game of the year. It's been said that ModNation is sort of like "LittleBigPlanet+Mario Kart". Although that's somewhat true given that it's a kart racer with lots of customization and level creation but to compare it to Mario Kart is a complete insult. This game is outstanding!

• from

ModNation Racers seeks to do what no other kart racer has done; allow unlimited customization and involve a community to be creative and share their ideas. While it's similar to LittleBigPlanet because of the "Race, Create, Share" tag that Sony and United Front Games have put onto this title, I feel that it expands on this idea even further than Media Molecule's hit. The controls and interface a simple to navigate and the developer went to great lengths to personalize the experience with ModNation Racers.

Everything you do within the game occurs in the ModSpot. A central hub where about 5 other players (when you're online) will congregate and you can see them drive around. There are all kinds of things to do in the ModSpot. Here you have access to the races, including Online, Online Split-Screen (up to 2 players split-screen), Offline Split-Screen (up to 4 players split-screen) and the Career Mode.

The Online racing experience is pretty smooth. Players can join a random match, or they can host matches with their friends, or just for other players to join. You can choose to race with "XP Mode" where your online profile will gain XP to rank up among other players. The competition is pretty intense though, so make sure you're familiar with how to handle the karts before heading to this mode. If you're not in the "XP" mood, you can just race casually for fun. All of your stats from races are tracked to your profile, and you can see the stats for each track that you've raced on as well.

Driving karts is a breeze. I equate this something slightly more complicated than Mario Kart 64. You accelerate and brake, fire weapons after picking up the powerups, and you *absolutely* must learn how to drift. Pressing and holding the 'X' button allows you to perform a drift around corners which fills a boost meter on the side of the screen. The boost meter is used for sideswiping opponents, boosting your speed, or using the shield equipped to your kart. It will take a lot of practice to get the timing down on your shield as it only lasts a few seconds with a full meter of boost, but it can make the difference between placing 1st and getting blown away at the last second of the final lap. Weapons come in 3 different styles: Missiles, Lightning and Sonic attacks. Each powerup can be upgraded up to 3 times. Stage 1 attacks are pretty light and can only hit 1 car (the Sonic level 1 weapon has a pulse discharged from around the car so it could potentially hit multiple enemies), Stage 2 attacks will hit 2 to 3 racers in front of you, and level 3 attacks can knock everyone out (think 'Blue Shell' from Mario Kart) if you manage to fire it from last place. It can be difficult to do this though, as if you are hit with a weapon, you will lose your current weapon and have to pick up a new powerup. Weapons appear to be random too, just like other kart racers.

So far, it sounds like a pretty good game right? Well, it is; the only catch is that with each thing that you do in this game, you might as well take a bathroom break or go fix a sandwich, because you will literally be waiting over a minute for some of the tracks to load. Not that this is a game-breaking deal for me though, the developer has stated that they will be patching the game to reduce load times which will be a well-liked feature when it is finally released.

The Career mode pits you the player against 25 different courses with challenges and shortcuts littered throughout the courses. It will probably take you a few tries to beat each track, especially since there are "achievements" within each track to unlock new items used in the Creation Studios. You will likely want to collect all of these, as the creation tools expand exponentially every time you add a new item to your creative pallet. Some of these challenges are "Grudge Matches", where after defeating an opponent on the track AND finishing 1st place, that opponent will challenge you 1-on-1 for the right to use their mod in the game. These matches are TOUGH, and you will need to be an expert at the course and handling your kart if you even are going to stand a fighting chance at beating these. Also littered on each course are tokens that can be used to purchase new items in the Shop, which is located in the ModSpot and the Creation Studio.

Now for the cream of the crop: the Creation Studio. Everyone has likely been comparing this game to Little Big Planet because of the customization you can do. In my opinion, this allows way more customization of your character than LittleBigPlanet. Through the use of unlocked accessories, hair pieces, clothing, shoes, gloves, hats, eyes, ears, noses, mouths, etc. you have the option to make your character as strange or awesome as you see fit! After putting the body together, you can change the color of anything you place on your mod, including different styles (which can be tweaked with a full color wheel) that can be unlocked. The color system is something that I tremendously applaud for this game. Anytime you place an object on your mod, or use something of a certain color, that color is added to either of the "Mod Colors", or "Kart Colors", so you can easily match colors and set things up just the way you want quickly and easily. It's so easy I was able to create look-alike characters from TV shows and movies within just a few minutes. There also is an aspect of stickers for the creation studios where you can layer and tweak each and every sticker that you want to put on your mod. From shapes, letters, numbers and other decals like flames, etc. you can dream up your imagination and put it on your mod or kart. Then you can resize, rotate, skew, cut, copy, layer and repaste your sticker designs on other parts of your mod or kart and even save them as sticker sets to use again later.

Each portion of the Creation Studio is divided into sub-menus which are not too complicated, but you will need more than just the game's instruction manual to become a master. UFG really did an excellent job with the creators, allowing simple creation, or really advanced creation. Each part you put on your mod or kart can be left as is when it first goes on, or you can dive into the deep customization abilities to create something so genuine that only you could create it. The L2 and R2 buttons are used to move to the next "area" of that specific menu, and the L1 button is usually reserved for advanced / basic edit toggling. The triangle button is typically the color option, whereby a color wheel can be viewed by pressing triangle again. Once you get the system under your belt you'll be amazed at the creations that you can come up with in ModNation Racers.

To top it off, you can then select your mods and karts that you have created, OR downloaded to race with friends and online/offline. That's right. Upload your creations to the PlayStation Network, and let other people download them. You can also allow players to "remix" your creation, where they will edit your creation and then re-upload it to the PSN. You still get the "creator" credit, and they get the remix credit. This system is absolutely solid, and it works extremely well. The Share spot of ModNation Racers is really easy to use and the developers took care to make sure that the karts, mods and tracks people create would be easy to find and download. There's an area for "Most Downloaded", "Most Raced", "Newest", or you can search by keywords which are used to describe your creation when you publish it.

The Track Studio is the only creator I haven't talked about. It's massive, and incredibly deep. Choose from 1 of 4 themes for your track and you drive a steam-roller to pave your track. You can create a simple loop, or you can go back and add monster jumps, bridges, tunnels, bank the road, make it narrow, add road hazards like construction barrels, crates, even rotating platforms. I could literally write a whole review on just this editor. It is that deep. You can change the elements and the direction that the sun shines, level of the water, and the type of road you will drive on. You can also create shortcuts, forks in the road, and add boost pads and weapons. Just like in LittleBigPlanet, all of the tracks in the career mode were made using the Track Studio. It's just incredible.

I played this game for literally 7 hours straight and I could not stop playing. It is FUN to play, and the community's imagination will blow you away. I saw downright amazing mods that looked like Mario, Iron Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and even the Master Chief from Halo. Over the coming months players will upload unlimited content to choose from, and race from. If you don't like what other players do, create your own! It's that easy. Oh, and if you're worried about creating a super-looking track that people would actually want to play, you can just Auto-Populate your track in the editor which automatically adds scenery and gameplay items to the track so it looks like it took hours to make, when in reality it was only mere minutes.

I've waited a long time for a game like this to surface. Finally we have something on the PS3 which rivals the greatest kart racers of all time. Long load times will be fixed down the road, but the next generation of kart racing is here. If you're skeptical about your purchase, download the demo off the PSN. Trust me though when I say, if you buy this game, you will NOT be disappointed.

• from

I've been a Mario Kart fan since the Nintendo 64 era and have owned every title since then, but with Modnation Racers "play, create, share" experince it has stolen the crown as the king of kart racing.

The big advantage of this game is the ability to create your own characters, vehicles, and even tracks to share them with the online community. This is similar to Little Big Planet, however the tools and interface Modnation are quite easy and intuitive considering the complexity and variation of tracks you can create. I own LBP but have never created a level, hovever I've already created 3 decent tracks in MNR and I've only had it for 2 days!

What's Good?

- Great Track Creation Tools: terrain, track width & banking, item pods, shortcuts, alternate routes, ramps, boosters, hazards activated by triggers, buildings, animals, lighting, and much more

- 25+ Tracks: infinite possibilities with the creation tools

- Character and Kart Creation Tools: I've been playing with a creation of Ronald McDonald in the Ecto 1

- Easy to enter, difficult to master: anyone can pick-up and play, but can be perfected over time

- Controls: a bit different than Mario Kart, but still feels great with a nice sense of speed

- Drifting: sliding around corners fills up your 'boost meter' (does not give immediate boost)

- Drafting: following behind someone fills up your 'boost meter'

- Turbo, sideswiping and SHIELD: you can used your 'boost meter' energy for extra speed, attacking and defending

- Weapons: there are 4 weapons types that with 3 different levels for each - 12 total (I would prefer a bit more variation)

- 4 player offline split-screen, 2 player online split-screen, 12 player online

- Looks great and sounds great

What's Neutral?

- 'Rubberbanding' AI: can be frustrating when slammed by several weapons in the last lag of the race

- Little customization on how the karts perform on the track

- Great interface, but takes long to load

- I imagine there will be add-on packs to keep the expanding possibilities with new themes

What's Bad?

- Yes, the load times are miserable (apparently there is a patch coming that will speed this up)

- There have been some server issues when playing online(I'm assuming this is because it was just released)

- No Battle Mode: seems like a lost opportunity with the track creation tools

Despite it's few flaws, this is still the best kart racer available today due to the unlimited track potential. A must buy if you like Mario Kart.

• from

I am a big fan of Mario Kart. I have played all the games from the franchise but, ModNation Racers is over the top. With a lot of customizables and extreme tracks and weapons, this game is a must-have. Remember.....there's endless content on this game, you will never get bored.

• from

Modnation Racers is the newest Kart Racing game in the Genre, and in my opinion, it is way ahead of the competition. Of course, this game is being compared to Mario Kart. Having never played the newest Mario Kart for Wii, I can't really compare the two much. I have, although played the older Mario Kart, and if the Wii version is nearly the same, I believe Modnation Racers tops it.

The Good: Modnation Racers is the kind of game that anybody can enjoy. The Track, Mod, and Kart creator are super simple and it has loads of different hairstyles, clothes, shoes, stickers, accessories, etc. I can easily see this having a huge library of user created content just like LittleBigPlanet. When you start the game, you automatically are entered into the MRC Qualifiers race and after a brief introduction you are taken to the ModSpot. Here is where everything happens on Modnation Racers, such as entering Online races, Split Screen, and Career races. There is also an area where Top Mods and Karts are displayed. I've seen mods of Mario, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Joker, and many more. With this many mods in just a few days, I'm positive there will be a TON of amazing mods in weeks. Other players connected to the PSN are also in the same ModSpot as you and can just ride around drifting or just simply enter one of the areas in the ModSpot.

The controls are also great. Drifting is easy and insanely addicting. When racing an Action Race, collect pods and you receive weapons. If you're tired of getting blown up, select Pure Race. Before you enter a race in the Career Mode, there is a little cinematic, sometimes with these two Hosts, or with you and your mechanic. These cinematics are filled with humor to give you a laugh or two before a race.

The Bad: The load and install times on this game can get ridiculously long. Though it's not something to keep you away from the game, sometimes you'll just want to jump into a race but have to wait almost an entire minute to begin. Mic support is a good feature, but I wish there wasn't so many people cursing and talking crap through their headsets, but there isn't really a way to fix that. Other than those two things listed, there really isn't much I've run into that is degrading to the game. *One more bad I ran into recently is that it takes forever to start up an XP race, which is what gives you the chance to progress on the Multiplayer side of Modnation. I'm not sure if people just don't know their way around the menus, or they all want to just race casually. Although it's a little disappointing as of now, I'm positive that in a short amount of time there will be much more people on the XP races*

Overall, in just a few days that people have had the game, there has been some really neat creations coming from the community. Hopefully in the future, there will be an update to help the load times.

All PS3 owners, GET THIS... or at least try it. :)

• from

I got this game last weekend and was really impressed by it. Being able to create your kart and character is a great idea. You can be very creative when making your stuff. For example, i made a cardboard kart with a hamster wheel as my engine. Then i have a another kart that uses a nuclear reactor for the engine. Character creation is really cool. I have seen a lot of creative people making iron man, punisher, mario, luigi, a helghast from killzone, jason voorhees, freddy krueger, star war characters. My game came with a download of sackboy from little big planet and i have been using him in career mode.

For career mode, its pretty challenging trying to win a race. You usually have to make 3rd place in order to win a race for the first part of the game. I'm in the middle of the game right now, and it just changed to where i have to win first place to advanced. So be aware of that. For each race, there is a challenge to knock out an opponent or dont bump the side walls and win first place to unlock stuff. Some of the races are easy and some are hard and have to keep restarting to beat it. If you find yourself getting frustrated, take a break from the game and then retry later on, and you'll beat it.

The ingame announcers are hilliarous and they insult each other a lot. Its funny listening to them. When you lose a race, they will make a funny rude comment about your driving.

The special weapons in the game are cool but can be annoying to. Especially when your about to win first and then you struck by lightning. How it works is you pick up a weapon, if you dont useit and pick up another one, you increased the power of that weapon. If you get a third one, its maxed out and you can do some serious damage with it. There is also a speed boost, if you get three of those and use it, it will send you warp speed and catch you up to the race or help get in winning position. It saved me a lot of times.

The downside to this game is the load times, especially in multiplayer. I heard rumors that there will be a fix to speed that up but i dont know if thats true or not.

Overall, its a really fun game. The demo version was somewhat ok and it made me hesistant to buy it, but when i bought and played, i'm glad i got it. Reading game reviews is what helped my decision.

• from

Just as I state in my title this is the best of those two games in one, all out fun experince...all the pro game reviews have given this game a 8-10 and I say they are being modest with that when the only complaint is load times...come on load times? Do yourself a favor and get this game today, just as we have all been playing LBP since it's release in 08 we will be playing this just as long!

• from

After seeing the preview videos, I had to buy this game. It's even better than it looked in the previews. The graphics are great, and I was surprised the racing mechanics actually felt much better than similar games.

The customization is obviously the big draw to this game, and there are so many options to change your character and cart that you would think it would be overwhelming. But the developers put in a brilliant creation system where you can actually put in as much time into the process as you'd like. Either randomize until you get something close to what you want and change the colors, or custom edit every single component, accessible yet amazing amount of functionality.

What finally blew me away was when I finally ventured over to the online gaming part of the virtual town. I was thrown into a game with several people, and found myself racing around on some incredible user-created maps. Being the second day of release I didn't expect this at all... I thought it was a map created by the publishers! It was a blast and after every race I was prompted to rate each track and given the option to download it.

Bottom line - it's a blast out of the box. But given a couple months of user created content, I think this game will become absolutely phenomenal.

• from

I'll bulletpoint my review to make it more concise.

Graphics:

They are pretty well done, everything fits the personality of the game. It include well detailed maps and characters that give alot of personality to the game and gives me the idea that the developers who made Modnation Racers that they care about the consumers and will not hold back on what they are capable of. The racing tracks are pretty nicely detailed, and so how are the carts and characters. (Well, the main storyline characters.)

Gameplay:

I know I will sound like a fanboy like this, but the gameplay on Modnation Racer is ALOT more enjoyable than what Mario Kart had to offer. I feel more in control of the game and the controls feels alot better. I like how the drift button is placed. Makes sense.

Customization:

Thia is what they have done PERFECTLY. It's like Little Big Planet, but on a racing scale. Custom cart, character, track, and designs. This makes the experience of the game last ALOT, and on the PLUS side you can get XP for having people who use your design...and being able to BANK off of it. That's truly rewarding.

Con:

Probably just the load times I had with the game, and sometimes when I get knocked off track it takes awhile for the game to pull me back into the racetrack. Just minor flaws that will probably be fixed with an update.

• from

If you loved little big planet, Mario kart, and Sonic then you'll love this game. The graphics are incredible. It's freakin funny and challenging. All you have to do in this game is to be creative. I highly recommend it.

• from

I have to say what a fun game. The raceing is more fun then mario kart, it is more involed. Overall this is one of the best games for PS3.

It was pretty easy to pick up this game and play like a champ. It is just like any other raceing games, the steering easy. The weapons are great, you can level them up from a level one to level three, ya there is only four different types of weapons, but being able to upgreade them it makes it feel like there are more.

In this game you get so much, it seems like your $60 you spent for the game is worth it, unlike heavy rain(12 hours of game play for $60), you get unlimited game play. In the career mode, there is so much more things to do then just race, you got other task to do to unlock more stuff. Then you got online raceing, so much fun, online is more fun then mario kart wii!! Then you can create your mod, I spent like 30 min. on my mod, and I have only unlocked a little bit, then you have your Kart, I spent an hour on that.

The best part of the game to me, is the Track Creator!! It is the best thing to ever to be put in a game, unlike like LBP, it is simple and easy to use. You can take 5 min. to 5 hours building the track of your dreams, and it is so fun.

This game is a must buy for anyone, that likes to have fun.

• from