There is an old belief in the industry that if given the ability, gamers would jump at the chance to take part in the creation of the games they play. While this idea has grown in popularity thanks to games like LittleBigPlanet and an assortment of ‘build your own character’ JRPGs, the roots of gamer’ participation runs much deeper. The original Excite Bike on the NES is one such example of a game that allowed its players to create tracks; of course, this was done in a very simple manner.
Now we have huge hard drives to store bits of information, Blu-ray discs crammed full of tools to build your own masterpieces, and a nearly endless online community to spread your creations throughout the world. With the upcoming release of ModNation Racers on both the PlayStation 3 and PSP, we see the ideals entrusted in the gaming community, that they can play, create, and share the games they play with anyone and everyone.
And so, we take our final look at ModNation Racers, digging away at the create functions, and dissecting just what will keep everyone busy come May 25 when the game is released on both platforms.
Track Builder
If you haven’t paid attention to anything regarding ModNation Racers, you should know that it’s a multiplayer kart racing game that allows you to build your own tracks, characters, and karts, and share them with a vibrant online community. The PSP version is nearly identical to its PS3 big brother, but with some minor differences. In case you missed our first preview on the game’s play aspect, check it out here.
Jumping into the level creator tool is quite simple. Once you’ve picked your location you’ll drive your kart around a fairly blank zone to lay down the track. You can go back and change the track’s texture, making it wood, dirt, pavement, or more. You’ll also use a simple tool to lay down objects along your track, including boosters, animals, and random road blocks. Of course, you can adjust the level, or pitch of your track by simply pushing up or pulling down the earth. This allows you to make big hills and valleys at the click of a button or two.
Since we are obsessed with getting big air, most of the tracks we created featured enormous jumps. One of which was just too big, and after giving it a test drive, we realized we needed to either make it smaller, or make the landing strip longer. This was done through the game’s simple test drive feature, which, as the name suggests, allows you to test drive your track and see how it plays. Once we learned we needed to fix something, we simply pulled up the editor, and made our jump smaller and our landing strip longer.
The test build we played didn’t allow for us to share our tracks online, but after realizing how easy it is to build a track – literally, our first track was finished in about 10 minutes – we can’t wait to see what people will come up with.
You can check out this video for more on the track builder.
Kart and Mods Creator
Your characters are called “Mods.” It’s ridiculously easy to alter your Mod to look just how you want it. We’ve already seen perfect examples of this through the creation of some of Sony’s favorite and classic characters. Yup, you can play as a Kratos, Nathan Drake, Ratchet & Clank, and even a Sackboy from Mod’s stepbrother LittleBigPlanet. The simple point is, you will be able to create a character that’s fitting to play against the world.
Check out this video to see how the folks at Sucker Punch play and create an inFamous inspired kart, mod, and track.
So now that you’ve seen others make a track, we want to know what themed track and mod you’d like to see in ModNation Racers. Leave us comments below, and who knows, with just a little effort, you could replicate your favorite game in kart racing form. We’ll see you on the tracks on May 25 when the game is released on PS3 and PSP.