The most realistic racing game ever made!!
Over the past six months I have found myself paying more attention to the racing genre. What was once something I considered a stale type of video game. Games like Burnout Paradise and Wipeout HD have shown me the error of this type of thinking. Racing games can be fun! Racing games can be sporadic and unpredictable! Racing games can be good.
With those possibilities in mind, I played the ModNation Racers Beta.
As far as video game ideas go, there is nothing very revolutionary about making a kart racing game. It’s the distribution of the user created content and a community based upon personalization which will set it apart, much like the under-successful LittleBigPlanet. With vinyl figure inspired racers, customizable karts, experience points earned by racing online opponents, public high scores, professional created tracks (though I only got to play three of them on the beta), and a fun sense of humor, ModNation Racers succeed where LittleBigPlanet failed.
First we must ask ourselves the big question though. “How is the game?” Good. Honestly, I wished the beta included more tracks because I over played the ones it had. I had a lot of fun.
The kart racing feels really substantial. It’s impossible to not draw comparisons between ModNation Racers and LittleBigPlanet conceptually, but it is also equally hard not to be reminded of LBP’s tactile nature while racing along rocky roads in your custom kart. When you are driving across cobblestone, there’s a real nice well… at the risk of sounding redundant… there’s a real nice “bumpiness”. The same way LBP made the levels feel like they were dioramas made of wood and string your character was knocking itself through, ModNation Racers feels like you are controlling an kart in actual, physical space.
Complexity is an issue with kart racing games. How complicated do you make the system? How many tricks do you throw in for the hardcore racers to master without making the game too simulation-like. How much do you rip-off from Mario Kart?
I’m serious, that’s an honest question! Mario Kart is the standard all other kart racing games are judged upon. Plus, it’s the control mechanics most gamers are familiar with. Do you steal liberally and risk players calling B.S.? Or do you try to build a better mouse trap? Well, hopefully people realize the answer is a compromise of the two.
ModNation Racers seems to have found that compromise. There are items you find on the road and can use as weapons or boosts, reminiscent of Mario Kart, but they can level up if you collect more. It’s a nice spin on a standard kart racing mechanic. My favorite item to upgrade is the speed boost. On its own, your kart is given an extra burst of speed. If you collect three though, it’ll create a portal which will teleport you way ahead of the track if you drive through it. I cannot wait for those special, “OH YOU CHEATER!” moments while will come from racers appearing out of nowhere right into the finish line as you were about to take the gold.
I was pleased to see there is going to be a single player campaign mode, but since it is located in the hub world, I wonder if it is playable offline. I sometimes have trouble with my PS3’s wifi, so the possibility of having to be connected just to do a few quick races on my own is worrisome.
Admit it, given all the most intuitive, deep customization controls for making amazing innovative race tracks, you too would spend most of your time making Iron Man. Adorable Iron Man!!
That hub world is pretty cool though. It’s clearly trying to improve on the distribution of content mechanics which LittleBigPlanet had some problems with. Driving through the hub world to your destination you can see large displays for what will eventually be racers with the fastest times, highly ranked player created tracks, popular designs of racers and karts, etc. etc. It’s a nice way to encourage people to take advantage of the community stuff, even if they are like me and have no interest in doing anything besides leaching off of the hard work of others.
Now for the real reason anyone plays Betas: the horrible, awful bugs.
The first one I recall involved being on a screen where the game waited for other players to join as a time counted down for the race to start. Then the timer ran out. Then I heard the sounds of everyone else racing. But I was still on that screen. You see, my friends, I was not kart racing. I was watching a screen waiting for other players while I heard the sounds of people across the country having fun. Fun I should have been having! The game seemed to have thought I was in the race though, so it made it impossible to leave the loading screen. I had to wait for the 10 minute race to be completed and then hope the next screen allowed me to participate. It diiid.
I was still sour.
Another bug involved getting stuck in between a hill and a fence. I didn’t finish that race either, on account of the fence. And the hill. This made me feel cross about hills and fences for a couple days later. I got over it, but sometimes I still see a fence and just want to go home.
There was a pretty fun bug I discovered as well though. Your kart, being able to jump, could work its way into a crack between two posts that was obviously supposed to be off limits. Once there, your kart could drive up the sides of the posts and hover.
That was neat. Hovering is neat.
Things to fix:
Load times need to be shorter! I don’t want to wait 3 minutes to play a 7 minute race.
Race ruining bugs.
I want some bots. Even the SNES Mario Kart technically had bots. Make me some bots.
Do I want to play more:
I want to see more first. An offline mode on its lonesome would make this a highly considered purchase for the kart racing on its own.
Then with a BANG came Space Invaders Infinity Gene onto the iTunes App Store. It was a shooter which paid homage to the father of the genre while at the same time introduced a funky new theme of evolution interwoven with 80’s vector graphics nostalgia. Was this the game shooter fans have been waiting for while checking Twitter on their iPhones? Nah.
