ModNation Racers [PSP]

ModNation Racers got me through a 6 hour delay at the airport with my sanity intact. The game is fun to say the least. What sets it apart is style, comedy, and of course Play, Create, Share in a hand-held package. ModNation Racers for PSP has all the same features as the PS3 version – custom racers or “Mods”, custom Karts, multi-player, and most importantly custom Tracks. You also have the ability to download other users creations and edit them or use them in-game as well as upload your own creations. Apply this formula to a Kart racer and you really cant beat the replay value that comes from an ever growing library of new content thats all free.

In terms of gameplay, ModNation is solid and fairly simple with a few hiccups. Nothing bad enough to break the game or ruin the experience but you may be tempted to toss your PSP from time to time. If you’ve played Kart Racers before you can pick-up and play ModNation with no problem. Your standard heavy-footed, drifting, boosting, E-braking driving method applies along with a nice selection of weapons you can pick-up along the way. ModNation does deliver a bit more depth with drafting, side-swiping, and stomp abilities; there are also 3 challenges per race and an Odd-Jobs list that you need to get done to unlock more customization parts. The challenges are based on completing a certain task a number of times and placing in the top 3 and you will need to take down “Elite” racers to unlock Grudge Matches. Win a Grudge Match and you unlock the Elite Mod and Kart you beat for your own use. Odd-Jobs are a bit more random and not always related to races such as downloading and editing a track created by another user.

The sketchy bits are mostly related to control, the drifting is a bit odd and tough to get used-to. I actually find myself avoiding it more than I try to make it work because it just doesn’t work as it should. There are also a few obstacles that can knock you off the track; hitting select will put you back on…which is fine in theory. The problem is that with certain obstacles you will be placed on the track just before you hit the same obstacle that knocked you off to begin with, only this time with no way to avoid it so you end up hitting it repeatedly. This leaves you pretty much screwed for that race unless it happens at the very beginning, and if it happens at the end you now have to do 3 laps over because of 1 obstacle. Finally theres the stomp feature, basically this entails pressing down at the end of jump to land on another racer if they happen to be close enough to you, once again fine in theory but its extremely difficult to actually pull this off. Whenever you jump a ramp in ModNation your Kart with follow a sort of set arc and path along with all the other Karts, your speed doesn’t seem to affect it and the only this you control while in the air is rotation of the Kart. This makes it nearly impossible to try to position yourself for a stomp and basically you have to rely on dumb luck. It worth noting that most of these issues are non-essential winning races, you don’t “need” to drift or stomp to get by, but some of the challenges require you to do so for unlock-able items.

ModNation Racers may not be perfect but in my opinion its single player features far exceed what you’re probably accustomed to on a hand-held game. The multi-player component is missing some community and chat functionality but works well for Play, Create, Share. The story is skip-able but entertaining and I thought it fit the game nicely and the customization options for the Karts, Mods, and Tracks are all pretty solid and definitely add style to the game. Some of the gameplay hiccups can be frustrating but mostly forgivable…at the end of the day I found it to be a lot of fun and if you’re looking for a PSP racer with tons of replay value – ModNation Racers is worth a look.