Racing/Customisation Madman at the wheel. Kart racing (as we know it today) has to be one of those genres that never would have existed had it not been for one seminal title. Wacky racers, impractical vehicles, weird and wonderful tracks and of course weapons about as powerful as the average...

Play, Create and Share seems to be the latest initiative Sony is trying to push to their audience with the release of LittleBigPlanet in 2008 and now ModNation Racers, a kart racing game brings customisation options and allows you to share your creations with the world.

ModNation Racers looked in danger of being rather generic when it was first unveiled – an average kart racer adorned in colourful, player-created clothing, perhaps. So, its exuberant personality comes as a very pleasant surprise.

Well, I managed to resist it. In all the hours I spent toying around with ModNation Racers' fantastic suite of creative tools I restrained myself from making a single character which even vaguely resembled a set of genitalia. Nor did I craft any of the Mario Kart characters.

No reason to complain about boring courses and ugly go-karts any more as Sony hands you all the necessary tools to do it yourself...

Awesome online functionality; great building tools; lots of content; silky smooth framerate

Wobbly and imprecise driving; unbalanced bonus items; dull course design

When a company publicly declares that it is creating a new genre it is natural for the sceptical mind to wonder if just marketing spin or if there really is a new hot ticket that we should all be jumping on, or if perhaps the PR spin has just gone into overdrive trying to prove its worth.

ModNation Racers definitely has a lot in common with LittleBigPlanet. It has plenty of quirky design and humor, emphasis on user created content, and a series of intuitive mechanics that keep the game accessible yet always challenging.

Racing is a blast for the most part; Endless amounts of creative potential; Quirky; hilarious writing/design; Seamlessly integrated online features

Rubberbanding AI issues = infuriating; Some frustrating design decisions regarding weapons; Easy to get stuck in the environments

Every kart racer from this point forth needs a track editor, enough said.

The intoxicating; chaotic kart racing formula; The incredibly deep track editing tools; Taking the race online

Pimping our avatar and kart for no other reason than to look good; Not having enough options to tweak the performance of our kart; Long loading times; particularly in career mode

Give me 100ccs of Mario Kart, Stat! It seems ludicrous that as realistic racing games get better and better, the benchmark for karting games was set 17 years ago and still hasn't really been equalled or bettered, even by newer iterations of the same game.

ModNation offers its own twist on the kart racing genre with track building facilities, extensive character customisation and a huge collection of...

The best kart racer on PS3; Light; fun and entertaining; Extensive customisation; Abundance of user-generated content

Some heavy steering; Wont help your ADHD; AI can be cheap in its attacks