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ModNation Racers is a kart racing game developed by United Front Games and San Diego Studio. It was released in May 2010 for PlayStation 3 and PSP, and would lead to a third game in 2012 called ModNation Racers: Road Trip.
Gameplay[]
The game is similar to LittleBigPlanet in that the main selling point is the advanced track creation mechanics and ability to customize your character and racing kart. The characters in this game are called Mods, thus the title ModNation. Later, the developers of the game on PS3 would develop LittleBigPlanet Karting, a similar style of game for the LittleBigPlanet series.
The PSP game is not as advanced as the PS3 game likely due to hardware limitations. Track creation is far more limited, with the ability to make branching paths and "breadcrumb" paths on the track removed. It also isn't possible to physically shift the track after it's been placed, nor is it possible to take out parts of the track or fence to make "off road" segments, big gaps for launcher ramps, or account for breadcrumb paths. Bridges can't be made either, and attempting to loop over a part of the track causes an error and requires the player to roll back the track. Props cannot be placed on the track except for specific ones, and they cannot be resized and usually are required to be stuck to the ground. In fact, the default tracks are not created with Track Studio as they are on the PS3 game.
Similarly, the Mod and Kart creation is also dumbed down. Sticker placement is gone, and the ability to place 3d objects where you want or resize them is also gone. Color selection is limited to 128 options, or around 6-8 for objects or textures with more than one major color on them.
ModNation Racers: Road Trip, being a port of the PS3 game, would return these features into the game.
Plot[]
The game features a career mode with Tag racing to become the number one racer of the ModNation Racing Championship (MRC), defeating the current champion Expresso, who put Chief, Tag's mentor and Crew Chief, out of racing. Early on, Tag's mom is experiencing financial issues and was planning on selling her old shop off, but she later converts it into a paint shop for customizing your kart.
During the early part of the game, the kart's "Boom Box" is shown to be having issues, which may end up with Tag out of racing in the MRC as they can't afford to replace it. After the third tour, the Boom Box explodes, harming Chief and breaking Tag's kart. Conservative Motors CEO Richard Short then signs a contract with Tag so he can race with a new kart and Boom Box, but this comes at the cost of the having to wear a fixed outfit and driving a bland kart. After a few races, Chief recovers and reveals he in reality has a Boom Box left from when he retired from racing, and Tag is able to resume racing in a customized kart and away from the restrictive and drab CM clothing.
At the end of the game, after the Crazy Crater race Chief gets his revenge on Expresso with him crashing in a similar way to Chief's crash shown at the start of the game. Richard claims that since Tag won the race after he signed a contract with Conservative Motors, that means CM won too. However, the police arrest him on charges of damaging Tag's kart and harming Chief, after they found out Richard had fingerprints on a bomb that blew up his kart, leaving him completely free to customize himself and his kart.
PlayStation Home space[]
The shop in the ModNation Club space.
The ModNation Club was a space in PlayStation Home dedicated to ModNation Racers, released on 27 May 2010.[1] The space showcased game footage and screenshots, and featured a lounge area for players to meet and converse with one another. There was also a mini-game titled Skee Racing in which players could build a car of their own design, then race it on a short course to do many tricks and jumps. A white t-shirt with the ModNation logo was awarded if the player could achieve 4000 points.
References[]
- ↑ Weekes, Alex (26 May 2010). PlayStation Home: ModNation, Red Dead Redemption And More!. PlayStation Blog. Retrieved on 8 March 2021.