One last nugget of frustration when it comes to presentation is the load times that are unbearably long not only for a handheld, but for a cartridge/card game that isn’t even disc- based. Not that the game feels completely unplayable, but honestly if this were my first look at the Vita to showcase the system’s power, I would question if the Vita could be all they claim it to be with a game that is not technically all that. This of course happens a lot as the game does rely on that white knuckled, “every man for himself” and rubber band style game play, especially on tougher difficulties. Mind you, the game looks pretty close to the home console version with its bright colors, humorous animations, varied track designs, great sense of speed, and cool weapon upgrades, but things slow down to an odd crawl as far as frame rate and consistency goes when you have the full field of racers bunched up all together. I’d be lying if I said that the original game for the PS3 pushed that system’s capabilities, so I was surprised to see that ModNation Racers on the PS Vita has a hard time processing things when it becomes crowded. Visually ModNation is a mixed bag, as the game looks good most of the time, but due to some obvious lack of testing time, hits a speed bump on occasion. So read on to see if you pick this one up, or wait for it to go bargain basement. Again, I said most disappointing, not the worst, and to be honest there is only one real “game killer” here and that only really holds true to one particular audience. Alas there was a wrinkle or two, that in this reviewer’s opinion, winds up giving ModNation Racers the unfortunate honor of being the most disappointing title in the systems expansive launch. ModNation Racers: Road Trip should have been one of those titles, as it was not only developed by the original team, but had all the makings of a game that could really take advantage of the touch screen, cameras, and gyro motion functions, while all the time looking just as good as the PS3 version.

The PS Vita has some pretty impressive launch titles that not only showcase the system’s capability, but have blurred the lines of what a handheld should look like comparatively to the home consoles.

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