Kart racing games often get thought of as offshoot projects from successful franchises with popular characters. Even the venerable Mario Kart owes a great deal of its success, or at least its acceptance, to a roster of drivers that includes its namesake, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi, et al.

ModNation Racers (PS3) doesn't enjoy the luxury of such starpower and built-in fans to draw people in. But it does have its stars, an endless number of them, created by everyone who plays the game and that's only the tip of the customization in the game. Developer United Front Games hopes that turning people loose with the ability to make their own content for pretty much every aspect of the game will make this such an expansive karting experience that it stands on its own.

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Giving players the ability to make their own content is one thing; making it fun--and most importantly not frustrating--is another. The two-tier approach... Read more

United Front's lighthearted PS3 racing title ModNation Racers appears to live up to its billing as the LittleBigPlanet of racing titles in this first trailer. Super-deformed characters and goofy skins, level creation and sharing, rockets and slapping--there's a lot to like in this first glimpse.

The only downside is the wait, as ModNation Racers won't make it to stores until 2010.

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Sony and developer United Front today unveiled a new customization-driven PlayStation 3 racer titled ModNation Racers, said to continue the "play create share" mentality that LittleBigPlanet introduced.

The physics-based kart racer enables players to create their own drive and their own tracks, with stage creation said to use simple racing-like controls that make level editing easy, quick and accessible. Of course, created levels can be shared online with others.