Video Game Vintage Title: ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers is a kart racing game developed by United Front Games for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. User generated content is a central aspect of the game, such that it uses the same "Play, Create, Share." adage as LittleBigPlanet to convey its basis in online user-generated content sharing and level creation tools. Modnation Racers for PlayStation 3 was announced and first shown publicly at E3 2009.

The PSP version was announced in February 2010. Both versions of the game were released in Mainland Europe on May 21, 2010, the UK on May 19 and North America on May 25. An online beta was made available for the PS3 in the US in December 2009 and in Europe in January 2010.

ModNation Racers Plot

The story centers around the character created, but is commonly known as Tag and never speaks words in cutscenes throughout the whole game. The story starts with Biff Tradwell and Gary Reasons, reporters for the Modnation Racing Championship (known as the MRC) announcing this year's tour. Biff likes to annoy and make fun of Gary constantly. Tag, after doing some graffiti art on his kart, walks in to his mother's paintshop with a MRC flyer. She tells him that all he needs is a kart and a crew chief, which his grandfather (known as Chief) is. Chief criticizes the look of Tag's kart. After Tag qualifies for the MRC, his Uncle Richard, boss of the Conservative Motors company, which makes cheap, bland and uninteresting karts, tries to make him sign up for sponsorship. After Village Run, Tag's mother tells him that they can't afford to keep up repairs for his kart. After the Home Tour final, the kart blows out. Chief is about to give up, but Tag's mother thinks of turning the paintshop into a Kart Bodyshop Garage. During the 3rd Tour, Chief finds that the BoomBox Weapons System on Tag's kart is badly damaged, even though they were meant to be indestructable. Tag's mother asks if the BoomBox of Chief's old kart still works, but Chief replies that his BoomBox is one of the reasons he couldn't race after his wreck many years ago. At the beginning of the Grim Tour, a bomb detonates underneath Tag's Kart. Chief falls into a coma, and Tag can't race without a BoomBox. Tag's mother offers to sell the shop to pay for a new BoomBox but Tag signs his Uncle's sponsorship contract instead. For 3 races, Tag has Richard as his crew chief (who apparently knows nothing about racing), and when Chief wakes out of his coma, he tells Tag that he was too petrified to race after his wreck, but still has the BoomBox of his kart which is still functional, so he gives it to him. The MRC reigning champion Espresso, a mad Italian driver, caused Chief's crash years ago and plans to try and do the same to Tag too. After Tag wins the final race of The Grand Tour and becomes the new MRC champion, Uncle Richard gets arrested after the police find his fingerprints on the bomb that blew up Tag's kart, which was planted because he wanted Tag to sign up to Conservative Motors too much. Chief gets revenge on Espresso by punching him off the track when he tries to steal Tag's trophy, and Gary finally gets revenge on Biff by knocking him out with a vulcan nerve pinch twice.

ModNation Racers Gameplay

Players are able to accelerate and drift, successful drifts allow players to fill their boost meter. The meter resembles a multi-tiered thermometer which allows players to the choice of activating a turbo boost to increase the kart's speed, a shield to protect their kart from incoming attacks or sideswiping other racers. Players are able to collect weapons as they race which can be upgraded to up to three levels of power, weapons include sonic attacks, missiles and lightning strikes. For example a first level sonic attack emits a series of rings around the player knocking nearby opponents off the track while a third level sonic attacks sends the rings forward, knocking all racers ahead of the player off of the track. In addition to the emphasis on user-generated content, the game includes a full-fledged single-player mode featuring a story by professional Hollywood writers.

Reception
ModNation Racers received mostly positive reviews. It was rated 9 out of 10 by IGN who commended the game for its excellent kart racing mechanics and the robust level design tools stating, "If you can dream it, you really can make it in ModNation Racers." Gamers Globe, a Danish gaming website, also rated ModNation Racers 9 out of 10, and said "the game isn't a creative breakthrough as LittleBigPlanet or a go-kart game so complete as Mario Kart - it's a solid combination of both, which borrows the best of two worlds." Eurogamer scored the game 7 out of 10, criticising long load times and saying that the dynamic game difficulty can make the player feel like they're "operating at a distinct disadvantage" but that when playing online or split-screen against other human players, "ModNation allows its own charm to shine through".[33