*PLEASE NOTE: this was written while internet was down, so full online features were not accesible*
As those of you that read the store update will have seen, a closed public beta for Mod Nation Racers was released on thursday, and i jumped on it straight away. It looks nice, all shiny and cartoony, but this beta was aimed primarily at letting you fiddle with the ‘creation zone’.
The only thing i can think of comparing it to is the wrestler creator section of any SMVR (Smack Down Vs Raw) game, incredibly in depth. On SMVR 2007 i created an actual spiderman look alike. Not because there was that particular costume option. No. because you can layer up as many stickers, the colour of which you choose, until you have run out of space (indicated by a bar on the left of the screen). So all you have to do is layer up the red stickers until he’s red, and apply blue stickers under the arms and to his, um, tights.
But i divulge, using the limited materials available to me in this beta version of the creator, which in my view is far superior to the sackboy creator, i managed to create an England Football player and Cart.
As for the track building, it really is the easiest thing to do, right analouge stick controlling gradient while you drive about and a track forms behind you. after you finish you can auto-populate the track which adds trees and little things like that (which to be honest, noboday can be arsed to insert manually).
You are only allowed to access time trials, but the driving is fun and pretty mental. R2 to accelerate, X to jump and hold to power slide- a little hard to get used to, L2 to break and reverse, all pretty simple. However, there is one way to experience a proper race, on your custom created track, youcan test race, and race against computer opponents. It’s good fun, with pick ups providing rockets, boosts etc. It works.
The main menu isnt a menu as such, you’re in your cart, and you drive round a little plaza with branches off to various areas including ‘Splitscreen’ ‘Online’ ‘Career’ ‘Quick race’ and ‘Creation Zone’ (includes cart, character and track creator, but also the upload/ download system- which i’m yet to try as my internet hates me at the moment).
In all, this game has the charm of LBP, Mariokarts’ driving, an indepth character creation to outdo SMVR, and on every level, it reeks of Crash team racing. which is a good thing. yes.
wish i got the beta now. nice screenshots!