No need for racing puns here, ModNation is just crap!
Of
all of Sonys exclusives the Modnation series is
pretty high up on the” who gives a shit” list. That’s not to say the
series is
bad in any way, it’s just so unimaginative and plain in many regards
that it’s
difficult not to dislike it. The completely underwhelming response I
received from my fellow gamers when I first showed off the PS3 version
of the
game speaks volumes. “Soulless” was one of many phrases tossed about to
describe what I was showing. It's hard to disagree with that statement
and Modnation Racer Road Trip does nothing to rectify the problems with
this unpopular franchise.
Thankfully the PS3 version redeemed itself in some ways with a
fantastic track editor which even my peers, whom turned their noses up at the
games campaign, became enthralled with. Top it all off with the ability to go
head to head with friends online and offline and the game wasn’t half bad.
Unfortunately (and inexplicably) the Playstation
Vita “ModMation Racers Road
trip” is some what a disaster of a game. Not only is the creation system broken
in many ways, the developers have seen fit to excluded online multiplayer
altogether. When you consider both the PS3 and PSP versions supported online
multiplayer the lack of it here is inexcusable.
The track creator works fine if your looking to
create very basic (and I mean VERY basic) tracks. Tracing the layout along the
touch screen works well and the “drive to create track” returns too making the
whole process fun and simple. Auto populating the track with objects is the
best way to get the track filled with weapon pickups, traps and boost pads.
Placing them accurately yourself demands use of touch controls and is, to put
bluntly, totally broken.
No
word of a lie, tapping to place a jump ramp had
the game at one point placing it somewhere metres off the track despite
me
having zoomed the camera right into the exact spot I wanted the ramp to
be.
Attempting to rotate this ramp once finally positioned somewhere close
to where
I originally wanted it was just impossible. The ramp flew half way up
the
track, fell through the terrain, hell it did everything but rotate a few
degrees left which was all i wanted. There is no reason why the original
creation tools and controles arn't in this game. It is incompotance on
the part of the developer, no question about it.
Now if none of the above has put you off you may be
happy to know the actual gameplay isn’t too bad. Yes the steering is ultra
sensitive, but if you have played ModNation on PS3 you’re used to this.
Furthermore the game, for the most part, runs smoothly. There is slowdown on occasion,
particularly when the screen is cluttered with karts, but its never game
breaking.
New weapons have been introduced as well as
favourites from the previous games kept. Weapon pickups are few and far between
on the track, a change made presumably in response to the criticism of the PS3
version that races were too chaotic. It’s nice to not be constantly hit with
rockets the moment first place is claimed however find yourself in last and be
prepared to use boost to catch up not weapons as the AI are very good at
collecting them before you can.
The main focus of the single player is a career
mode consisting of five sets of five races plus a bonus stage. Difficulty ramps
up pretty quick but thankfully any race can be restarted, you don’t have to
restart the entire set of races if you screw up. Doing well enough in the
tournament will unlock the next set (all of which will be new tracks). I think
this is mode most players will choose to play. It can be beaten in an afternoon
though there are challenges to complete on each track such as earn a certain
amount of draft points or take out a certain number of opponents.
The
game looks good on occasion and rather plain on
another. It looks a lot more washed out than the PS3 version and the
track design isn't as good. There are no memorable characters in the
game and
the story element seen in previous game is nowhere to be seen. The menus
require
touch controls to swipe through which is bad enough but when you
consider that
there is no way to go directly to the mode you want without swiping
through all
the ones you don’t the problem is made worse. Add to this a small pause
to load
each new mode menu and you have an infuriatingly incompetent system
here. On top off all this the loading screed are long... really long
which, when you consider the game is cartridge based, is inexcusable.
Final
comments
San Diego Studio has utterly failed at bringing a
decent kart racer to the VITA which may explain why the series is (I assume)
being dropped in favour of the recently leaked “LittleBigPlanet Karting”. The
£35 price tag may be an insult but the same thing can be said for so are many
of the VITAs launch titles. It’s hard to have any positive comments to sign off
on when it’s easier to recommend the PSPs version of this franchise over the
VITAs.
4/10
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