Modnation Racers actually is a good game. A fun 'Mario Kart' like game. Unfortunately not a game that sold really great, it just stayed under a million copies sold but still a good addition to the PS3's library of games.
Then Sony decided that they wanted to paste the imago of one of their most important games/characters on the karting game. LittleBigPlanet Karting is the result. WHat I already expected, this brings an uninspiring 'sequel'. It gives me the bad feeling that Sony is out to cash in on their famous characters and IP's in another way than the original IP itself. Just by taping the well known name over a game without too much quality check, to release it and crossing fingers that dumb kids will buy a game for its name, those that don't check out reviews. Besides LBPK, they put all their characters and franchises in PS All Stars. Lets hope this is not a trend for the coming years...
IGN review is just in on LBPK, 5/10 saying:
"That should be awesome, but
LittleBigPlanet Kartingdoesn't have the polish of the LBP games that have come before it, nor the kart racing fun that defined ModNation Racers. Strangely, it's a product that fails to live up to the bar set by each of its predecessors, representing a step backwards for United Front Games as a kart racing developer and LittleBigPlanet as one of Sony’s marquee franchises"
"Again, all of that is solid, but LBP Karting strips out a few of the ModNation mechanics that made that game strategic and fun. You no longer have a boost/shield. You no longer have a boost/shield meter to worry about; now, you get the boost from drifting and have to decide if you want to use your item for its given purpose or use it to defend an attack when the time comes. This is a step backward. Building up the ModNation meter meant you could defend yourself from multiple attacks."
"This setup is one of LittleBigPlanet Karting's major flaws. Whereas ModNation Racers gave you an online ranking system to level-up in and an easy way to dive straight into races, LittleBigPlanet Karting doesn't. There's no online section from the main menu and no carrot on the end of the stick outside of individual race leaderboards. "
"A lack of confidence seems to define
LittleBigPlanet Karting. The game pulls from both the LBP and ModNation universes without ever finding its own voice. In the end, that leads to the game feeling like a forgettable kart racer. The racing mechanics are tight, but I'd rather play ModNation Racers with its strategy and create options for karts. The LBP vibe is nice, but I'd rather play one of the core LittleBigPlanet platformers for better creation tools and storytelling"
http://www.ign.com/articl...gplanet-karting-review
