Note: This article has been written about a game that has not been released yet and has only been played via a beta release.

When Sackboy first hit the scene it was love at first site for the video game industry. Enthusiasts gushed over the possibilities that LittleBigPlanet‘s User Generated Content concepts could deliver. It was the first real killer app-like demo for the system and a big draw for both gamers and developers alike. Play through a single player experience designed by the game’s creators, create your own levels using the same tools the developers themselves used and share your creation with the world. Gamers from all sides of the Earth could utilize a simple platforming engine to create their own wacky, cute and curious worlds to open up to the rest of the community. As a player you would have access to all of these levels, rating your favourites and bringing the top content to the surface.

While the game wasn’t the runaway success some had hoped, including a fair set of criticism about the initial online issues and the limitations of the controls, it did lead to a large base of fans who took off with a slew of levels thrown into the community set. Some were famous, others infamous, and still some controversial with levels removed due to copyright infringement and other problems. It was still a concept that had never been fully realized in the console landscape before, and as the support continued it seemed as if Media Molecule, the game’s creators, had really done something right.

Look! He's smiling! So cute!

Enter a trailer at last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo from Sony, showing the next entry in the Play. Create. Share. series. ModNation Racers – from Canadian developer United Front Games – was another hearkening back to a genre long-since-forgotten with a kart-racer that followed the same principles as LittleBigPlanet. You were entering a world that was to be built primarily by the people that inhabited it, but even entering that world you can see that things are done very different from how Media Molecule envisioned an online collaborative space. While I have only spent time with the private beta, which is still an early snapshot of what the game will eventually become, it is worth exploring just how different (and in a lot of ways better) ModNation handles the online space.

Create!

Level creation is one of the most difficult aspects of either of these games. As easy as it is to throw a lot of junk into a sandbox, creating something meaningful and fun for others is a time consuming task and has a difficultly barrier. This was an especially daunting task for LittleBigPlanet just due to the amount of customization you could add to the world. The landscape was wide open for dreary, fiery platformers or even hacked-together space shooters, but all that came at a price of a very tricky level creation system. While it would often result in a great variety of offerings, it meant that the entry level was a bit higher as there was no real “easy mode” for people to finish up or tidy up levels that just didn’t work.

This is something that ModNation Racers is able to solve on two fronts. One, the game is much more limited in scope. You are playing a kart racing game, meaning you drive on a track against other opponents on a track in laps, throwing objects at each other and trying to make it past the finish line first. There isn’t a lot of room for exploration or exploitation of that system (at least, not yet) and that means the demand on the creator are much lower. The second thing that it does is allow for an “easy finish” mode. If you have created a wild, twisting, turning track and just can’t be bothered to put it all together in the end, you simply hit the “finish this track for me” button and viola! Job’s done and your world is now complete. All ready for tweaking, tuning and eventually publishing.

Nothing really captured the same whimsy as the single player levels

Of course, this also brings limitations to the uniqueness of the worlds you will explore. The beta only had one background template, a valley, and it means that many of your levels may end up looking similar to the last. It skirts the issue a bit by allowing you to change the water levels of the world and exactly the weather that you are experiencing while playing, but the backgrounds and ancillary objects along the track can become very samey. It is understandable, given the genre and what they are setting out to accomplish, but it still gives LittleBigPlanet a much more open sense of creativity.

Another creation aspect of LBP revolves around creating your image. While everyone shares the same avatar, Sackboy/girl, there are alterations that can be made – and even purchased. Hats, garments, paints, stickers and all sorts of silly clothes can be added to your avatar to set them apart from the rest of the world’s Sackperson. This coupled with a plethora of silly expressions you can show off made Sackboy a very recognizable and lovable character and a pointed mascot for their entire product. ModNation seems to have missed the boat when it comes to the cute and recognizable factor, but the element of customization and the ability to create a unique looking among a world of similar characters is pretty robust, even for the beta. Along with creating a unique avatar, you are also able to customize your vehicle pretty heavily. From decals to the spoilers to the height and colour of your kart, there is a lot of ways to make your creation stand out from the crowd and it brings the idea of a user created world down to the basest level of the game.

Share!

The real distinction between the two games and the place that ModNation Racers truly shines is the way in which the content is shared with the world. In LBP you can create a level and publish it with ease. You can even collaborate on level creation, put it up for the world to see and simply wait for people to start finding their way around your playground. People fave the ones they like, tag them and rate them and that will in turn bring them up in the ranks. By default you enter the game looking at a planet that is covered in buttons that represent levels. While not in any particular order, it often seems like the latest and greatest are shown off right away with a small preview image and an idea of how many people have fave’d the world. It’s simple, if a little inelegant, as it never really gives you a great idea of what you’re getting in to and often yields mediocre results. The metrics for what is displayed there seems skewed, which is understandable given if they only showed popular levels some of the more creative, new stuff may get buried underneath it all.

That certainly doesn't look like a shell? LOOK OUT!

ModNation Racers takes a different approach to the sharing aspect of the game. When you enter the game world, you literally drive into an almost theatre-styled outdoor arena that prominently displays the hottest new costumes, the best rated cars and some of the higher rated tracks. It’s all done very much like a world to explore rather than a menu you simply scroll through. It feels much more cohesive that way and actually feels like the shared content is out there in a much more accessible way. It forces you in a way to see what the latest and greatest the game has to offer is, and you can easily bypass it and drive into the multi-player or single player races, but even that may suggest some of the more popular tracks of the day.

This has always felt like the biggest limitation of LBP, without detracting from the overall experience of the game. With Media Molecule having blazed the trail, it makes sense for someone to come in and do things a little differently, and United Front Games seems to have found something that works. Gameplay notwithstanding the methods for delivering and displaying the content that people have created feels like a big improvement just in the fact that it is all there by default and doesn’t feel like I have to go crawling through menus and playing a lot of guessing games as to what people are actually playing.

Of course, this is all said with the beta build and the real strength of the game’s create and share aspects are going to be in the community that comes along with it. Sony did a lot of work to prop up the marketing of LittleBigPlanet, and if they are willing to do the same to ModNation Racers to give it the exposure it needs, it could show well to a new community of gamers interested in reliving the kart racing genre, trying new things and ultimately showing off their goods to the world.