Sony’s E3 conference was big on highlights, in fact the highlight reel is practically the event in it’s entirety, as it was that good. Featuring new hardware, massive multiplatform games, and the first party behemoths of Uncharted 2, MAG, GT5, God Of War III amongst others and even a third party exclusive coutesy of GTA developers Rockstar called Agent. One of the amazing looking Sony exclusives however was Modnation Racers, it’s currently being described as LittleBigPlanet meets Mario Kart.
Watching the conference excerpt below it is easy to see the comparisons, as the game features a level of creativity never seen before in the racing genre. Modnation Racers features a simple looking and intuitive creation mode, which works in a very similar style as LittleBigPlanet, it is possible to create absolutely everything you see from your character, your vehicle and even whole courses and any of these can be uploaded to share with other users, and obviously you can download their creations as well. The track editor (called Track Studio) looks absolutely amazing and even easier to use than the Popit Menu. You actually design the track by driving a vehicle around, and then add in obstacles and scenery with the Track Studio menu. Just like LBP though it’s not all about creating, as the racing action looks to rival Mario Kart in the fun stakes, with some frantic action and some pretty nifty looking power-ups.
It’s exciting to see Sony expanding on the whole Play.Create.Share ethos of LittleBigPlanet and once again the sky is the limit with the possibilities for Modnation Racers, as you can download every single character, vehicle and track that other users create. Who wants a racer with over half a million levels? well that’s certainly possible if LittleBigPlanet is anything to go by.
The video below shows the customising of characters and vehicles, then the racing action before getting to grips with the fantastic looking Track Studio.