SummaryExclusive to the PlayStation 3 and PSP systems, ModNation Racers empowers the player to customize their entire kart racing experience. Enjoy karting fun, where you can shoot, boost & drift your way to the finish line. Create your unique racing experience with the same tools used by the development team. Express yourself by creating your own Mod c... Read More
Rated Efor Everyone
Developer:United Front Games
ModNation Racers
Released On:
May 25, 2010
Metascore
Generally Favorable
82
User score
Generally Favorable
8.1
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
82
84% Positive
71 Reviews
71 Reviews
16% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
98
Annoying load times aside, I can't fault ModNation Racers for the nearly perfect package that it is, and for that reason I feel safe in proclaiming Sony's masterpiece the best kart-racing title in the history of gaming. Period.
90
The creation is as deep or as automatic as you want it, the online as time sapping or as casual as your heart desires – MNR is a game for everyone without ever making anyone feel left out, and in the days of hardcore first person shooters and single player epics, surely that's exactly what we all need just now?
User score
Generally Favorable
8.1
74% Positive
137 Ratings
137 Ratings
20% Mixed
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
6% Negative
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
May 13, 2026
10
Best pure racing game ever. The customization feature, the mod-hub (even though online is gone) is brilliant. MarioKart needs to take notes from this game. And the whole design-your-own-cart, and levels is as groundbreaking as it gets. I've spent many a days just conjuring and cultivating unique levels, with crazy-allowed features. It's my kind of game, and one that I cherish to this day.
Mar 15, 2026
10
The best Kart Racer ever created. This game wipes the floor with Mario Kart with its customizable tracks and carts, offering so much replay value and hundreds of hours of experimenting with crazy layouts and challenges. A Mario Kart ripoff with custom tracks already sounds like a neat idea, but this is not just another knock-off, it is an honest attempt at improving on a now ancient formula, and they definitely did improve it. The boost meter is the best inclusion of this game; do tricks, draft opponents, sideswipe, drift, and get air time, and you'll fill a meter that can be used to both speed past other racers and generate a forcefield to protect you from powerups. That one addition made the game perfectly skill-based, with the opportunity for good players to learn timings on attacks to block them at the right time, and to gain back their meter through tricks and advanced techniques. There is still an absurd amount of chaos, and if you are in first you will undeniably be hit with too many powerups to block them all, but the fact you have a skill-based reward that allows players to fight back against the odds is a gamechanger. I really hope Sony doesn't abandon this franchise forever, because a sequel could truly be something special.
85
ModNation Racers is a great addition to the world of kart racing with the full support for a robust online community.
81
The custom tracks, cars and drivers make the game much more than just the sum of it's parts. Shame I wasn't able to try out the multiplayer races, so the score is based purely on the singleplayer experience. [June 2010]
80
Entertaining racing game comes with a full scale track editor. The amount of fun depends precisely on the players themselves and their imagination and creativity. [Issue#191]
75
Maybe you'll just play online. Maybe you'll spend all day crafting tracks and new costumes for your online avatars using the schwag you win in races. If you do, you'll find ModNation to be a thoroughly enjoyable kart-racing knock-off.
60
You don't have to drive many laps of ModNation Racers to realise that developer United Front Games has been putting more effort in the parts of the game that let you build your own courses, cars and drivers, than in the actual driving. In the end, the tools for construction are great, but the actual gameplay isn't.
Oct 6, 2025
10
This game feels better than other modern racing kart games. It has a custom kart, mods, and most importantly, maps for racing. This is most best and craziest thing ever
Aug 4, 2017
7
Fun and creative, but could've been a little better. It's got a decent story and it's cool how this was basically LittleBigPlanet with cars (until LBP Karting came out), it's just sort of hard to really make a decent track. This is a good game overall though.
Aug 21, 2010
7
There's defiantly something missing from Modnation racer's that Little Big Planet and Mario cart have but it doesn't stop it being a good game rising over any issues you may have heard about.
Dec 18, 2013
4
It's hard to say what is really wrong with this game. The racing and feel of the cars isn't bad, although the cars feel to light and there's no sense of speed really, it's still better then LBP planet carting. The biggest flaw are actually the weapons, there's just no satisfaction in it. The point of games like Mario cart and crash team racing is that it gives you satisfaction to personally screw one guy over by hitting him with a bomb or some other weapon. But in Modnation the weapons are two powerful and there's not personal because if you wait for them to be more powerful you can always hit more enemies. It feels like you're playing alone even though there's a lot of other racers there somehow. Also, all the racers look alike. It's fun to play with crash or his friends in Crash team racing because all the characters are completely different and their reaction to getting hit was fun. They forgot to put the fun in Modnation Racers.
Apr 30, 2011
2
Eternal loading times, you spend 1/3 of the time loading. It's even worse because the "lobby" or main menu is another circuit so it has to be loaded too, so you spend like a minute loading the race and after finishing the lobby will have to load and then the next circuit. The drift mechanic is good, but the other mechanics in the game are really poor: power ups are few and badly done, circuits have a lot of unpredictable hazards and taking shortcuts can be exceedingly punishing is you make an error. It's like the developers spent too much time doing the "modding" part of the game and left the real game unfinished. A poor Mario Kart clone implementing the create - edit - share mechanics of LBP.
