"Play. Create. Share." - Main tagline of the game.
ModNation Racers 2 (AKA MNR 2) is the official sequel to the original PlayStation 3 kart racer ‘ModNation Racers’.
Overview[]
ModNation Racers 2: is a kart racer exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It is developed solitarily by San Diego Studios instead of in collaboration with United Front Games, as the studio became defunct in 2016. The game is set 10 years after the original game and follows the story of MRC veteran and Elite Mod, Tag. Tag, who is in his 10th season racing in the MRC, is accompanied Chief, who is set to retire at the end of the season, and his Mother. Together they must defend the title of reigning MRC champions against former arch-rival and now-retired Espresso’s son, Cappuccino, and bring home one last victory for Chief.
PS4 Cover Art
Gameplay[]
Gameplay for ModNation Racers 2 has remained relatively the same compared to the original game, barring a few changes, touch-ups and polishes.
ModSpot[]
The ModSpot is the main hub in ModNation Racers 2, just like the original, and is where the player will spend the most time. It’s features haven’t undergone any change, but it does have a few design and colour scheme changes to keep it reasonably fresh. In the ModSpot, you can drive around with other players if you're online, or with other AI if you're offline. Each of the following are places in the ModSpot that you can drive up to and enter.
Creation Station[]
The Creation Station is where the magic happens. Imagination is unleashed here in the form of karts, Mods and tracks and shared with the masses.
Store[]
The Store section is where you can spend the tokens you’ve found hiding in the MRC tracks you’ve raced at on extra bits and bobs for your creations, whether it be parts for your kart, clothes for your Mod or props for your track. You can get it all here.
Karts[]
The Karts section is where you can materialise your imagination in the form of a kart. Choose from a wide range of bodies, wheels, engines and more that you’ve earned to create your own, or simply edit a pre-made one
Mods[]
The Mods section is where your wildest dreams culminate in the form of a Mod, your very own racer. Choose from a wide range of clothes, facial parts, accessories and more that you’ve earned to create your own, or simply edit a pre-made one.
Tracks[]
The Tracks section is where you can put your imagination to the test by creating the perfect track for your karts and Mods to race on. Lay your track as large as you want with a massive steamroller, then choose from a variety of settings, props, road surfaces and more to create the track of your dreams, or simply edit a pre-made one.
[]
The Share section is the most important part. What’s the point of creating amazing karts, Mods and tracks if you just keep them to yourself? Upload any one of your creations with a short description and some search tags to show your stuff to the world, or download someone else’s creation.
Top Mods[]
Top Mods is a section in the ModSpot that displays the top 3 most downloaded Mods from the past week. If you’re offline, it will display a randomly selected batch of 3 Mods you’ve already made.
Top Karts[]
Top Karts is a section in the ModSpot that displays the top 3 most downloaded Karts from the past week. If you’re offline, it will display a randomly selected batch of 3 Karts you’ve already made.
Racing Center[]
The Racing Center is where you can test your metal against other AI races in Single Player Mode, or race against real people in Multiplayer Mode.
Multiplayer[]
Participate in private or public lobbies of up to 12 players in a series of heated races. Tracks are voted by each player from their existing library, and once they have all decided a random one is picked. Rules such as number of laps and Power-ups allowed can be decided by the server admin in private lobbies, but in public lobbies the rules remain the same as in Career Mode. Random online lobbies are decided based on your Driver Level, so you'll always be racing against people of your skill level. You can upgrade your Driver Level by winning races online.
Split Screen[]
Compete in heated races against other AI with friends! Up to 4 players are allowed for each console.
Single Player[]
Play by yourself against other AI and test out how your tracks or other’s race in proper races, or practice a tricky track from the Career Mode.
Career Mode[]
This is where the story begins. Play through the 2020 MRC season and help Tag defeat Cappuccino to take home another MRC Championship. Complete bonus challenges on each event to earn extra parts to use in the Creation Station and even a winner-takes-all face-off against an Elite Mod to really test your skills!
Hot Lap[]
The Hot Lap is a weekly challenge where the player must set the fastest 1 lap time possible on a randomly selected track. The leaderboard is displayed here. If you place high, you can earn lots of XP that go towards your online Driver Level.
Career[]
The career is most important aspect of the single player game mode.
Plot[]
It’s been 10 years since Tag, an upstart rookie, rose from nowhere to take the MRC Championship title from Elite Mod Espresso with the help of Chief and his Mother, and he hasn’t looked back. He’s won almost every single Championship since, but this year is different. A new challenger has risen. Cappuccino, Espresso’s son. He’s a wizard behind the wheel, better than his father ever was, and possibly even better than Tag. But Tag’s about to prove that theory wrong. It’s Chief’s last season before his retirement, and he’s determined to bring home one last victory for him, and himself. This year’s MRC will be commentated by the famous duo Biff Tradwell, who is now greying but still arrogant as ever, and Gary Reasons, who has anything but hair on his head. Despite being veterans themselves, their rivalry is still bitter and their banter still iconic. This season will have more events than ever before, with dangerously exciting tracks never thought possible before with an intimidating line-up of racers, including a mysterious entry under the name of Conservative Motors. Who will emerge victorious? It’s up to you to bring defeat to Cappuccino and victory to Tag and his crew!
Tours[]
The Career Mode features 10 tours, each containing 5 tracks each, an Elite Mod and 10 other racers.
Home Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Alpine Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Desert Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Seaside Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Jungle Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Tundra Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
City Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Ocean Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Space Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
World Tour[]
(Coming Soon)
Racing[]
The racing gameplay itself is almost identical to that of the original. Each race, you are facing off against 11 other racers in a 3-lap blitz to be first across the finish line. Besides drafting, drifting and tricking to get boost points, the main decider between win and lose is the power-ups, found in item boxes (ModPods). As usual, if you're further down the order, you will get better power-ups, and if you're up the order you will get worse ones. These power-ups are of course stackable 3 times, and you can deflect them with the shield, which uses up your boost meter, just like the original. However, one big change in the racing is the absence of Rubber-banding, besides of course the ModPod chances. However, there is a big change to the racing gameplay: Dynamic weather. Mid-race, the weather can range from sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy and stormy (Stormy weather is a thunderstorm in most track biomes, but changes to a snowstorm in the Tundra and a sandstorm in the Desert. The effects of dynamic weather exist in the Ocean, but do not affect the driving because you're underwater. Dynamic weather is not present in Space.). Dynamic weather forces you to change your driving style as there will be less grip in storms and rainy weather. Wind is also an aspect of this.
Power-ups[]
ModNation Racers 2 features all power-ups from the original, with some new ones as well.
Sonic[]
(Coming Soon)
Missile[]
(Coming Soon)
Bolt[]
(Coming Soon)
Speed[]
(Coming Soon)
Wind[]
(Coming Soon)
Earth[]
(Coming Soon)
Inferno[]
(Coming Soon)
Quality[]
ModNation Racers 2 has a few major quality improvements that plagued the original game.
Graphics[]
ModNation Racers 2 can run up to 8K on PS5 and up to 4K on PS4. The PS5 version also supports Ray Tracing. Overall, these are massive graphical improvements compared to the previous game.
Smoothness[]
ModNation Racers 2 runs at 60FPS on both PS4 and PS5, and runs very well. Naturally, the PS5 version is less likely to have any frame rate drops and has faster load times than PS4.
Reception[]
Despite never having any sort of public outcry for this sequel to be made, barring the small cult following that the original game left behind, the game was very well-received by critics and the game was a much bigger success compared to the original.
Trivia[]
- Even though United Front Games, a crucial part of the making of the original, went defunct in 2016, the game still uses code created by them before they went defunct and even had a few former UFG employees working on the game as well.
- The game features 2 Easter Eggs referencing UFG. The first is a decal that can be placed on your Kart or Mod, and is simply the logo of the former developer, whilst the second can be seen as graffiti on one of the many buildings that can be placed in the 'City' setting in track creator. It's a graffiti of the UFG logo without words, and reads below "2007-2016", the year it was founded and the year it went defunct.
- This sequel was instigated by workers at Sony, who looked back at ModNation Racers, and realised that if they made a sequel and avoided all the mistakes the original made, they could create a real contender in the Kart Racing genre of games that had been dominated by Mariokart.