initially graced PlayStation 3 consoles worldwide on May 25, 2010. By allowing players to push the limits of their creativity with deep but accessible customization tools, ModNation Racers quickly became a favorite among many PlayStation fans.

While the series was relatively short-lived, some of the features that made ModNation Racers special live on in other racing games.

Players looking for a modern alternative have plenty of options for great vehicle customization. The game celebrates its 15th anniversary today, and the ability to create almost anything in the experience, from the driver to the track, is still unmatched, leaving a noticeable gap in the genre that has yet to be truly filled.

ModNation Racers was PlayStation’s answer to the Mario Kart series developed by United Front Games, who later went on to release the cult classic Sleeping Dogs. As a new IP, it didn’t have the recognizability of a property like Mario to carry it, but it didn’t need it. Instead, players could use the game's tools to play as any character they could design, Mario included. This unique selling point made the game extremely popular, with it being added to the PlayStation 3 Greatest Hits collection of games because of how well it sold.

ModNation Racers’ design ethos encouraged players to Race, Create, Share, a spin on the Play, Create, Share mantra used by LittleBigPlanet. Its design features were robust but simple to use, making customization easy for beginners without losing the creative complexity and depth that advanced players desired. This made the game stand out as one of 2010’s most innovative games, and one of the era’s most distinctive racers.

The popularity of ModNation Racers resulted in a follow-up exclusive to the PlayStation Vita, ModNation Racers: Road Trip. This sequel was handled by a separate developer, San Diego Studio, who was also responsible for the ModNation Racers PSP port. United Front Games and San Diego Studio both teamed up to develop LittleBigPlanet Karting, combining the Play, Create, Share titles into a creativity-focused successor to ModNation Racers. However, this is the last of United Front Games’ racing games, as the studio closed down in 2016, with the ModNation Racers servers following shortly after in 2018.

In spite of the short lifespan of the series, it became beloved by many fans. ModNation Racers was one of the PS3’s best racers because it offered a high-quality racing experience with an abundance of customization options. While many of its features can now be found in other games in the genre, ModNation Racers was one of the first of its era, making it special to the community that formed around it.

For the most part, ModNation Racers controls similarly to a standard kart racer, but adds new features to differentiate it from its competitors. One way it does this is with its boost meter, which is filled by drifting, drafting, air time, and performing tricks when in the air. This is common in some racing games, but how it is used is not. As well as letting players boost, sections of the boost meter can be traded for a temporary shield. This is in contrast to Mario Kart’s defensive items as the shield is always available to players, meaning they can focus on using weapons more offensively instead. Additionally, players can sideswipe nearby racers at the cost of some of their boost meter, discouraging others from getting too close. Successful sideswipes refund the boost used and give extra as a reward.

ModNation Racers took a similar approach to power-ups as the LEGO Racers series of games. Collecting a weapon from an Item Pod gives the player access to the Level 1 form of any given weapon. These can be upgraded to Level 2 and 3 by collecting more Item Pods, turning items like the Level 1 Straight Shot single rocket into the Level 3 Hydra, a weapon that 12 lock-on rockets to racers in front of the player. Any weapon can also be converted into a mine of the same level, fired behind the player so they can keep their position while staying offensive.

While Mario Kart’s many playable characters are recognizable with distinct personalities, ModNation Racer’s mods are just as expressive, despite not having a set personality. Every mid-race action, be it picking up an item, overtaking another racer, or bumping into an obstacle, prompts a response from the mod. Not only do these gestures go a long way in making the characters feel more fleshed out, but it also allows players to get a better look at their creations during races.

Despite being a racing game, ModNation Racers was about showcasing creativity first and racing second. Modern racing games like Forza Horizon 5 feature livery customization much like ModNation Racers, but this was one of the first to make it the core focus of the game. By collecting customization pieces from races, players can change the body, wheels, and engine of their kart’s base, adding stickers and accessories to make it truly unique. This could all be done without fear of affecting the player's stats; kart tuning is tied to the Driver Style instead of the kart, meaning that heavier-looking vans are as fast as sports cars. All this ties back to customization, allowing racers to look however they want without slowing them down.

As with karts, mods are an equally important aspect of ModNation Racers. Where titles like Forza Motorsport lack driver personalization, mods are visible at all times in gameplay, and as such, they require a similar level of care as karts. Using hairstyles and accessories unlocked from the game’s Career Mode, players can design any character their creativity would allow. The Share Station was host to many original characters, as well as detailed characters from other game series and movies. Online races frequently became crossover competitions between well-known characters.

Some characters from other series found their way to the game in an official capacity. PlayStation’s other prominent Play, Create, Share series, LittleBigPlanet, was represented by Sackboy with a cardboard kart, making them playable in a racing game before LittleBigPlanet Karting, another game United Front Games contributed to. However, some of the game’s DLC featured unexpected faces for a family-friendly kart racer, such as God of War’s Kratos and Twisted Metal’s Sweet Tooth, each with their own unique karts.

Beyond mod and kart customization, players were also given access to Track Studio. The tools available gave players the option to sculpt different themed terrains and freely drive around this on a steamroller to lay the track out. Though there are many recent racing games with track editors, ModNation Racers was one of the first to bring this experience to consoles in an approachable and intuitive way. To make this feature more accessible, players could choose to automate parts of the process if they desired, populating the track with an even distribution of items and hazards. Most top creators manually placed objects, though, finely tuning the best tracks possible to feature on ModNation Racers’ Hot Lap.

The Track Studio gives players similar resources to those used in the base game, resulting in the quality of the best user-generated tracks being near indistinguishable from United Front Games’ contributions. More resources were given over time via the PlayStation Store, such as the Haunted Props pack, which was used for ModNation Racers’ Halloween community event. Downloadable content was added to the game over time, which was used by players to further their imaginative designs or better recreate favorites from other series.

The ModSpot acted as the ModNation Racers’ main hub, a space where players could meet up, chat, and showcase their creations to other online players. Rather than using creations in a vast open world, the ModSpot was small, but densely populated. This allowed players to show off their creations to others, whether they were complete or works in progress, and encouraged players to download them and vote. Voting was more than just a basic indicator of how many players liked certain content, as it helped to determine which creations would be highlighted in the Top Mods, Karts, and Tracks sections, which were updated each day.

What made ModNation Racers’ sharing features stand out was the choice for designers to allow remixes of their creations to be made. Much like LittleBigPlanet’s Prize Bubbles, players were actively encouraged to take the work of others and add to it, making it their own. The original creator would still be credited on edited nods, karts, and tracks, and would still be given XP from anyone who downloads the derivatives. This helped to bring the community together more, using other creations to make something original from it.

ModNation Racers is one of the PlayStation 3’s hidden gems. Touted at the time as PlayStation’s Mario Kart competitor, the series unfortunately came to an end due to United Front Games’ closure and the shutdown of the game's servers. Nevertheless, a community was built around this game, brought together by sharing their imaginative designs, remixing them, and competing against each other. It’s a PlayStation IP that fans hope will return, and with the company’s recent statement that it will revive some of its older franchises, there is a chance for ModNation Racers to make the comeback that it deserves.