How often have you been playing LittleBigPlanet and thinking "I want to have this game, but with Go-Karts instead of platforming"? Probably all the time, right? How cool would it be?
I hear a handful of the audience saying "They made that game years ago. It's called ModNation Racers." Quiet down for a moment, smarty pants, and listen to the lastest announcement out of Sony. In case you haven't guessed, it's LittleBigPlanet Karting. As you might expect, it's all about tossing Sackboys into some karts and letting them race around user-created tracks.
According to the press release, the game will have a ton of features. Standard kart racing, arena battles, objective-based missions, boss battles, and mini-games. Some of those things I don't even know how you'd fit into a kart racer, but I'm keen to find out when the game releases later in 2012.
Of course, the game wouldn't be complete without a nice suite of creative tools, and they plan to deliver in spades. In addition to being able to customize your Sackboy and your kart, you'll be able to build levels that are not beholden to traditional kart racer tropes. You'll be able to create kart-based levels that have their own rules, weapons, and crazy designs only limited by the imagination of the user. Based on some of the better LBP levels, I would expect some fantastic tracks to race on after the game has been out for a short time.
Guy Longworth, Senior VP of PlayStation Brand Marketing for SCEA (how's that for a title?) released this statement alongside the press release:
“Since the launch of LittleBigPlanet, our community has provided incredible support, which can be seen in the more than six million levels and games that have been created and shared online through PlayStation Network, a truly wonderful accomplishment. Now, we’re thrilled to bring PlayStation 3 owners the next Play, Create, Share experience, LittleBigPlanet Karting, a brand new competitive karting adventure that is sure to move this genre forward, providing endless entertainment for fans and newcomers, while resonating with every member of the family, young and old.”
LittleBigPlanet Karting is being made by United Front Games and Media Molecule, and should be out before the end of the year. No news yet what this announcement means for the ModNation Racers series, but in the land of Play, Create, Share, LittleBigPlanet is king. We'll have more details as they become available. In the meantime, who is excited?
