By Jay Wiliiams

ModNation Racers is the latest in Sony's "Play, Create, Share" catalogue, the first being LittleBigPlanet, and what a success it was.

On the surface ModNation Racers comes across as just another kart racer with HD graphics, but it isn't. After you have played the game for a while you soon realise that ModNation is more than just a simple kart racing game - much, much more.

The game features the traditional career mode which sees you racing against a colourful cast of characters, with the ultimate goal being to win the ModNation Racing Championship.

You have to draft, drift, and boost your way into 1st place in over 25 colourful obstacle-filled tracks and in order to get the edge on your competition you're going to have to collect some crazy upgradeable weapons like Sonic Bombs, Electric Bolts, and more!

Drifting is the core of this game and without it you're going to have a hard time beating the competition. Controlling a drift is easy and very satisfying to say the least. As you perform a drift you earning points that fill a meter on the right side of the screen. This meter, which can also be filled by getting airborne and nudging other racers with your kart, can then be used to boost or put up a temporary defensive shield.

The shield is a life saver, especially if you hit the lead early on in a race, as you'll be forever battling off projectiles from the trailing competition. It's also a unique feature to ModNation Racers and is very necessary as the weapons are pretty full on.

As you're racing, you'll notice item pods shattered throughout a track, these pods give you a weapon or an ability. If you can hold your nerve throughout the race you can upgrade whatever item you are carrying to one of three levels. Electric Bolts become devastating, missiles that fire straight ahead become groups of homing missiles that shower down from the skies, while  nitro-boosts become portals that teleport you down the track. Each weapon/powerup is equally spectacular to see and are  very effective.

In addition to career mode you can play with up to 12 players online, or 4 players offline in Split Screen mode.

But, the main thing that is going to attract buyers is the full character, kart and track customisation that allows you to create whatever you want.

Your only limitation is your imagination!

Customising is made easy by the user friendly tool set that lets you create in minutes or hours. I found myself fiddling around for hours creating and modding my character and kart, in fact I found this aspect more fun than the actual racing. There is no shortage of facial features, clothing, and even voices to choose from which helps you put a bit of your personality into your character. You can even build your kart from scratch using different body types & heaps of accessories like engines, wheels, decals and much more.

In addition to character and kart customisation is the track editor, every foot of pavement, terrain, weapons, scatter obstacles, and other features are accessible – again, let your imagination take over.

There is also an "Auto Populate" feature that allows you to instantly decorate your track making it nice and easy.

The best part about all of this is you can share it with both your friends and strangers from around the globe, plus it's really easy to do.

The online world of ModNation Racers revolves around the ModSpot. You can see the most popular Mods and kart's on pedestals, enter lap competitions, and just drive up to other players to start challenges or checkout their creations. At the click of a button you see where your friends are, join them, and so on. And it all works seamlessly.

Now, my only gripe with the game is load times, it may sound like a minor flaw but it does begin to become a problem when all you want to do is race.

Any time you jump between a major section of the ModSpot or enter into a new race, you have to sit through a load screen that takes around a minute. It almost ruined my ModNation Racers experience. But taking into account how polished the tracks and kart's look, it's well worth the wait.

Once you're racing the game runs smoothly without any frame dropping or glitches. The same can be said for the creation suite - once you're in, you can switch between Mods, kart's, and tracks, without any noticeable lag.

Overall, ModNation Racers is one tidy package, the level of customisation is great without being overly complicated, the kart's, characters and tracks all look fantastic. The online feature which allows you to share your creations and post lap times also adds to what is already a great experience.

And I look forward to the next instalment in the  "Play, Create, Share" line-up.

Game: ModNation Racers
System: Playstation 3
Developer: United Front Games
Distributor: Sony Computer Entertainment

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)