The first previews for Sony’s new LittleBigPlanet Karting have gone live, and with them some new details on United Front Games’ ditching of ModNation and the move towards the presumably much more valuable Media Molecule IP. Last time we checked, Sackboy sells.
First things first, the slow-loading but rather pretty ModSpot has been canned in favour of something that resembles the usual LittleBigPlanet Pod, albeit one that is now “a gigantic cardboard spaceship” which allows four players to simultaneously customise their characters and vehicles.
“And while building tracks, dressing up characters and toying with basic racing mechanics like weapons and drifting feel familiar,” say IGN, “what sets Karting apart is the world in which it’s immersed. This game feels like LittleBigPlanet.”
It does sound like UFG have nailed the LittleBigPlanet character here, the visuals are definitely close to Media Molecule’s past efforts (with levels based on past LBP levels like The Gardens) but it’s the way that the game feels more like an adventure than a racer now that interests us the most. Even the grappling sponge makes an appearance.
“I think Kart racers appeal to the kid in everyone,” says William Ho, design director at UGC. “There’s a universality to driving around in a go kart in fantastic places – and there’s a universality to the materials in LittleBigPlanet.”
“To have that in a modern game taps into all those base memories and those base instincts, those notions of imaginations without boundaries. We didn’t care when we were little kids; we weren’t self conscious back then… With LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet Karting, maybe we should be able to express ourselves like we did as children.”
“While playing the game, you’ll find yourself comparing it more to LBP than to other racing games, and exploring each map is almost like playing a platformer rather than a kart racer. Score bubbles even pepper the track to lead players forward, just like in LBP,” say IGN.
The handling, too, seems much refined –Â “natural, comfortable and less ‘loose’ than those of ModNation,” said one preview, with the vehicles far more likely to stay on track, especially when drifting. We didn’t have a big issue with the MNR handling, but many did, so it’s good to hear that work has been done here.
Customisation also sounds like it’s a perfect blend of past MNR games and LittleBigPlanet, with players able to access the exact same level development tools as the game’s designers. Â “Nearly every element of a course can be controlled, from the frequency of weapon spawns to the appearance of the track itself. This fits perfectly in a franchise famous for letting players build things from scratch,” said IGN.
Sadly, the load times still sound nasty – despite trying to cover them up with a fly-through video of the upcoming track – and the framerate isn’t anywhere near perfect, although the code previewed was clearly labelled as ‘work in progress’. One preview did say that the technical issues were better than in MNR, though.
We’ll hopefully be able to see for ourselves soon.
Youles
Queue the DLC-milk-train, choo-choo! That said, some of the PS3-game related LBP DLC was awesome, so maybe there will be car related DLC such as some vehicles from MotorStorm and WipEout which have both already appeared in LBP.
Ed the Penguin
Oh yes, it’ll be abundant with DLC. Let’s hope there’s some good seasonal stuff too. I’m just shocked by how excited I am for this game!
Youles
Indeed, it has the potential to be really good!
minerwilly
After the loading times and having to rewind cassettes back on games like Chase HQ , Outrun , Buggy Boy and Operation Wolf i personally dont find the loading times excessive at all in Modnation Racers !
nemesisND1derboy
Man, what is it with United Front and load times?
Still, pretty excited for this. I always though Modnation had the potential to be great, but the execution just wasn’t there.
In fairness, I was pretty much sold anyway when I saw that Kevin Butler pre-order costume.
cc_star
Pretty sure we know how this is gonna play barring any feck ups, so the only thing that will make me part with money for this game is loading times, acceptable or not?
I know it’s because of the infinite levels of customisations that are possible, which mean every asset from everyone participating in an online game needs to be uploaded to everyone else and in-turn downloaded to everyone…this can only happen as fast as the slowest connection.
LittleBigPlanet & MNR were barely playable online, with people pinging and lagging all over the screen, hopefully the netcode is tightened up further, but it’s still limited by the slowest person’s upload speed.
I know it won’t happen, but I really, really hope there’s an online mode which allows for all user customisations to be disabled, and default circuits which everyone already has on their systems through being included in the game so you can just get on with a race…
Bilbo_bobbins
As much as I am looking forward to this, the mention of slow loading times is now worrying me. I will not be picking this up until I know the load times are a lot less than MNR…now going to have to wait till after its released. It does sound fantastic though.
bunimomike
If people can wait seconds and seconds with every door opened in Skyrim then I feel like we can all be collectively patient (or have a mobile game to hand to keep us going during the loading). :P
cc_star
What fucks this up, is some company owns a patent on the ability to play mini games whilst a main game is loading, think it’s Namco although I may be wrong
bunimomike
Ah, shite. Really? That feels awesomely selfish and of no real monetary gain to hold onto. Muppets.
cc_star
Yup, it’s Namco… you can play Galaga whilst Ridge Racer is loading
Would be awesome to play an 8-bit minigame from the same genre as the game you’re actually playing.
Bastards!
Although EA got around it with their arena in the sports games and Uncharted/God Of War stream the cutscenes, elsewhere it would be nice for something better than “Loading…” to happen whilst waiting.
Forrest_01
Yeah, i think it is namco, as i seem to recall a vertical scrolling shoot em up whilst Ridge Racer 7 loaded.
Strangely enough, they seem to not use it very often which i find a little bizarre, but in the case of Ridge Racer Unbounded, it isn’t really required, as load times are barely an issue.
element666
awesome can’t wait for this,i love LBP
JBoo
As long as i can use the ‘X’ button to ‘Accelerate’ & the ‘Square’ button to ‘Brake’ then i will be HAPPY:P (Hopefully i won’t be forced to use the ‘R2’ + ‘L2’ buttons to do that :-/ if so i might not buy it & that would brake my sack-boy-heart) LoL:D
tantalus_blank
This is looking pretty awesome – I never liked Modnation because I expected it to be this. Let’s hope UF nail it this time
TSBonyman
The only thing i really liked about MNR was the create modes . i’m glad to hear the driving has been refined and hopefully it will be enough to make the loading times tolerable.
enroene
looking really good and tempting