First of all, I'll start by explaining it. It's a kart racer with a twist; Not only to you race, but you're also able to create your own characters (They're called "mods" in the game), your own race cars, and your own tracks. Here's the breakdown:
Racing: This game focuses primarily on creating, but that would be no fun if the racing wasn't any good. Luckily, this isn't a problem. Like Mario Kart, there are weapons and you drift. Unlike mario kart, this game gives you a boost meter which can be used for boosting, sideswiping opponents, and shielding your car from weapons. You can build this meter up by drafting (tailgating) other opponents, drifting, and spinning in mid-air. The weapons are also unique in the sense that your weapon is upgraded every time you get an item pod. For example, you may get a level one rocket with one item pod. This launches one rocket straight in front of you. (Or you can plant a mine behind you, your choice.) The second level is two heat-seeking missiles which destroy the opponent in front of you. (Or a stronger mine) The third and final level is a massive barrage of heat-seeking missiles, and hits numerous opponents in front of you. Not only is this a lot of fun, but the tracks themselves also have numerous bridges, ramps, shortcuts, speed boosts, and even things that can squash you or set your car on fire. Needless to say racing is tons of fun.
Creating:
Creating is fun and easy, you can put as little or as much detail into your creations as you want. I've seen people create a fully playable track in minutes, for example, and I create massive and detailed tracks which take about eight hours. The same goes for mods and karts, although you'll only spend a couple hours on a really detailed one. Creating is really easy- I was able to figure the entire process out without a single tutorial... Whereas I couldn't even build a single level in LBP. Creation is fantastic, and almost flawless. There's definitely a couple of bugs you'll run into if you're making a REALLY detailed level... But for the most part, the average joe won't notice any flaws with it. You can really make anything you can think of with these tools.
Online/Multiplayer: Although other people complain about this, the multiplayer and online is a lot of fun. I haven't gotten the chance to test the game out with four people, as I've only got two controllers, but the two-player split screen is great. Oh, and did I mention that you're able to play with two player split-screen online with other people? Cause that's just ANOTHER feature in this game. Overall, I haven't encountered a single bug with any of this. The game hasn't glitched during it, and never lags. It's fantastic.
Career: For a game with so much else to take advantage of, there's very little need for a career mode. I didn't expect much with this, but I got a LOT with it. It's got the best Kart Racing story mode I've ever played, in fact. The story isn't much, but it's something... And I felt like it actually added to the Career Mode. Again, it's nothing special, but it's got some funny moments in it. Unlike Mario Kart, you only play each track once, and only come back to it if you want to go back and unlock more on it. (I'll come back to this aspect later.) The game ships with 28 tracks, and as a result, there are 28 races in the career mode. Each race has different objectives which unlock numerous parts in the creation mode. You can probably spend a good 10 hours on Career mode if you want to unlock everything- There's normally 2 extra challenges, 5 tokens for you to find (And spend at a store for MORE unlockable pieces), and "Grudge Matches" if you can complete the two extra challenges. These matches are either unlocking more points than your opponent, or simply beating him in an extra race. Normally, these are fairly hard and will keep you coming back to the track. By the end of all these objectives, you'll master this game's racing mode as well as the tracks it ships with. My biggest critique is in the career mode, though. The AI can be incredibly frustrating to race against; It's incredibly hard at times and can really anger some of the people that play this. Luckily, UFG is releasing a patch soon which will add a "Casual" mode to the Career.
Overall, this game is fantastic. You simply MUST buy it if you own a PS3. The only things that take away from it are the tough AI and the loading times (Which are long, but not unbearable... The reason I'm not mentioning this other than in the conclusion is because UFG is developing a patch that will fix this problem. So it's hardly worth mentioning.)
My advice? Go to the store and buy this game right now. There's some minor bugs as well as some minor online problems... But overall, it's a fantastic experience. It may be because I like creating so much, but that's just what makes it so great. I've owned it almost since the day it came out and it's still just as fun as it was a month and a half ago. My score on it would probably be a 9.5/10.
Racing: This game focuses primarily on creating, but that would be no fun if the racing wasn't any good. Luckily, this isn't a problem. Like Mario Kart, there are weapons and you drift. Unlike mario kart, this game gives you a boost meter which can be used for boosting, sideswiping opponents, and shielding your car from weapons. You can build this meter up by drafting (tailgating) other opponents, drifting, and spinning in mid-air. The weapons are also unique in the sense that your weapon is upgraded every time you get an item pod. For example, you may get a level one rocket with one item pod. This launches one rocket straight in front of you. (Or you can plant a mine behind you, your choice.) The second level is two heat-seeking missiles which destroy the opponent in front of you. (Or a stronger mine) The third and final level is a massive barrage of heat-seeking missiles, and hits numerous opponents in front of you. Not only is this a lot of fun, but the tracks themselves also have numerous bridges, ramps, shortcuts, speed boosts, and even things that can squash you or set your car on fire. Needless to say racing is tons of fun.
Creating:
Creating is fun and easy, you can put as little or as much detail into your creations as you want. I've seen people create a fully playable track in minutes, for example, and I create massive and detailed tracks which take about eight hours. The same goes for mods and karts, although you'll only spend a couple hours on a really detailed one. Creating is really easy- I was able to figure the entire process out without a single tutorial... Whereas I couldn't even build a single level in LBP. Creation is fantastic, and almost flawless. There's definitely a couple of bugs you'll run into if you're making a REALLY detailed level... But for the most part, the average joe won't notice any flaws with it. You can really make anything you can think of with these tools.
Online/Multiplayer: Although other people complain about this, the multiplayer and online is a lot of fun. I haven't gotten the chance to test the game out with four people, as I've only got two controllers, but the two-player split screen is great. Oh, and did I mention that you're able to play with two player split-screen online with other people? Cause that's just ANOTHER feature in this game. Overall, I haven't encountered a single bug with any of this. The game hasn't glitched during it, and never lags. It's fantastic.
Career: For a game with so much else to take advantage of, there's very little need for a career mode. I didn't expect much with this, but I got a LOT with it. It's got the best Kart Racing story mode I've ever played, in fact. The story isn't much, but it's something... And I felt like it actually added to the Career Mode. Again, it's nothing special, but it's got some funny moments in it. Unlike Mario Kart, you only play each track once, and only come back to it if you want to go back and unlock more on it. (I'll come back to this aspect later.) The game ships with 28 tracks, and as a result, there are 28 races in the career mode. Each race has different objectives which unlock numerous parts in the creation mode. You can probably spend a good 10 hours on Career mode if you want to unlock everything- There's normally 2 extra challenges, 5 tokens for you to find (And spend at a store for MORE unlockable pieces), and "Grudge Matches" if you can complete the two extra challenges. These matches are either unlocking more points than your opponent, or simply beating him in an extra race. Normally, these are fairly hard and will keep you coming back to the track. By the end of all these objectives, you'll master this game's racing mode as well as the tracks it ships with. My biggest critique is in the career mode, though. The AI can be incredibly frustrating to race against; It's incredibly hard at times and can really anger some of the people that play this. Luckily, UFG is releasing a patch soon which will add a "Casual" mode to the Career.
Overall, this game is fantastic. You simply MUST buy it if you own a PS3. The only things that take away from it are the tough AI and the loading times (Which are long, but not unbearable... The reason I'm not mentioning this other than in the conclusion is because UFG is developing a patch that will fix this problem. So it's hardly worth mentioning.)
My advice? Go to the store and buy this game right now. There's some minor bugs as well as some minor online problems... But overall, it's a fantastic experience. It may be because I like creating so much, but that's just what makes it so great. I've owned it almost since the day it came out and it's still just as fun as it was a month and a half ago. My score on it would probably be a 9.5/10.