Modnation Racers

Background

Modnation Racers (PS3) is a late title kart-racing video game published by United Front Games on May 25, 2010 for both the PS3 and PSP, with its main selling point being the ability to create, to play, and to share user-generated content, with custom content creation akin to assets within the PS3 LittleBigPlanet series, and gameplay similar to the Mario Kart series. There also exists a sequel to the PSP version on the PS Vita, called Modnation Racers: Road Trip. For the PS3 version, this user-generated content included characters ("mods", hence the game's title), karts (vehicles), and tracks. Custom content could be shared onto the game's central server for uploading and downloading; however, the severs were shutdown back on October 10, 2018, and the game's various asset DLC were also delisted from the PSN Store since then.

Similarly to the LittleBigPlanet series, mods and vehicles could be customized with 3D parts, colored paint materials, and stickers.

As for track creation, the game included its own 3D track editor (the Track Studio), with:

Sculpting for terrain
- Think CAD terrain shape sculpting tools
Spline rail-based workflow for the roads
- Think something similar to the F-Zero X Expansion Kit track editor on the infamous N64DD addon
- Minus the anti-gravity driving
- Minus floating strips of road

As for gameplay, races consist of:

Up to 12 kart racer opponents
Powerups
Track obstacles
Various kart stunts which can earn boost points

The game also consists of powerups and boost points:

Powerups
- Obtained by touching various item pods scattered throughout the race track
- Can be upgraded to upto 3 more powerful levels
  - By touching more item pods while holding a powerup item
  - Similar to Diddy Kong Racing or Lego Racers
Boost points
- Earning points fill up a boost bar
- Points allow player to
  - Perform a boost move
  - Shield themselves from enemy powerup attacks
  - Perform a counterattack sideswipe onto opponent karts
    - Similar to that in F-Zero GX
  - Shoot a boltshot
    - Can hit trigger points on the track without using a separate powerup
- How to earn points
  - Drifting
    - Like powerslides in Mario Kart
  - Drafting
    - Trailing behind a kart like in Mario Kart Wii or Sonic Riders series
  - Successful kart stunts while in the air
  - Hitting boost pads
  - Successfully hit a player with powerup
  - Successful sideswipe attacks

The game also included local offline and online multiplayer on stock or custom content tracks, and a single player story career mode (where you can earn more content parts, pre-defined mods, and stock tracks, by winning races and completing objectives).

MNR IGN review from BITD

Modern day status on the online gameplay

At the time of this writing (September 2021), since the MNR server shutdown in May 2018, most of the gigabytes of MNR custom content within was archived online by the community (at the LittleBigArchive's Internet Archive content), and a server emulator by the community has been in the works for a replacement, private server (failed the karting-archive WIP, Derole's legacy server, Derole's current server) to access both the old pre-shutdown archive of content and newer content post-shutdown within MNR. This server emulator will also support LittleBigPlanet Karting, due to similarities between the servers. Progress on the server-emulator can be found on the MNR Discord server.

Also at the time of this writing (September 2021), the server-emulator can currently handle connecting to the Share Station for uploading/downloading of newer MNR content (mods, karts, tracks). Instructions on connecting your PS3 here and in the below picture. Server link address here (access this from PS3 web browser)