Modnation Racers: Road Trip

[Neon Ignition]

I've done the first race up on this after approaching with caution after some poor reviews and some scathing opinions on forums.

As far as I can tell it's modelled pretty closely on the PS3 version with the same create and share functions. The hub has been replaced by a sliding menu for ease and load times still seem to be strangely long. First the pluses:

-Due to the nature of the game there's plenty content and the game is compatible with every creation made in the PS3 servers.
-The handling seems to have been tightened considerably meaning it's far easier to control than the other versions
-Though there are no new areas it seems to mix them up more and the default single player courses seem more forgiving and better designed than the originals

Negatives:

-The biggest issue is the framerate which runs around 20-25fps at best and chugs when all racers are on screen. So far I've never felt like the controls were affected during these moments however it's obviously painful to see it flicker instead of run smoothly
-There's not really anything 'new' about it, it's very much like having the PS3 version on a handheld
-The visuals don't come up to the already not stunning PS3 original however any claims that it's PSP level are laughable

I can see where the 4/10's came from and would warn anyone away from paying full for a copy, the Vita is already ripe with racers and so this isn't a necessity to consider. In time though it's likely to become very cheap and could be worth a gander then. It's not great and should have been much better but it's not as woeful as the naysayers would pigeon hole it at.

[ETC]

Awful took a ?10 hit getting shot of it today lucky escape I feel this will be the first sub ?10 vita game (not counting that amazon deal)

[Neon Ignition]

Quite a bit of the way through now. There seems to be five cups with five tracks per cup, I'm now on Cup 4 having downloaded some tracks, racers and cars. Cup 3 see's the tracks become much more dense with traps and routes which has had further hits on the framerate. It really is a shame as if it wasn't for the framerate issues you really do have the best controlling Modnation game with easily the best tracks in the series. I do shudder to think about what the framerate will be like in Cup 5 though.

Currently racing as Hatsune Miku in a DeLorean

[Jimmyboi]

Shame coz I really like Modnation on the PS3 but the loading times make it unplayable.

[Neon Ignition]

They're pretty long on this too, I'm quite grateful for the lack of hub as it minimises it a bit.

[Neon Ignition]

Pretty much done now. The game is very much a 7/10 job but I scored it down to 6/10 as the framerates issues are too heavy to balance it out. There's no new ideas which is the biggest issue, the game being too much of a quick clone of the PS3 game but despite that there's plenty content, it controls the best out of the series and the courses are very well designed. Some of the review scores its recieved are laughable and whilst I couldn't consciously recommend it above some of the other racers already available on the Vita I would say anyone picking it up on the cheap should do fine unless they get a bee in their bonnet about the frames.

[ETC]

CT did your copy not slow down to near photo frame frame rate mine did the second there was like 6 karts on screen it was going so slow it looked like slow motion

[Neon Ignition]

In the later cups there's some pretty severe frame drops when there's a lot of racers on screen but I've never encountered a situation where I felt the controls were affected by it so it hasn't bothered me too much. That said, anything above a budget price and it'd probably have wound me up no end.