While there are some ad-hoc multiplayer modes and a clutch if asynchronous modes that allow you to download ghost data, the lack of an online head-to-head mode is a clear oversight (or, over-budget, more like). An auto-populate option will even furnish a track you've just designed with weapon-drops, scenery and speed ramps if you can't quite be bothered. It's a little cramped – occasionally you'll swipe past the option you wanted and need to make a series of jerking thumb moves to get back on track – but offers a breezy kind of customisation both for those with inspiration and plans they want to execute and those without, who just want to browse and tinker. Components are selected with a radial dial in the bottom left of the screen, allowing you to swipe and poke at options. Off track and the game is far less fussy than LittleBigPlanet, allowing you to throw together tracks, characters and vehicles of all shapes, size and texture in next to no time. Mario Kart's purity may be muddied a little with a boost gauge (that fills when you drift around corners or absorb your weapon) and a host of optional challenges (eg, collect three weapons before you reach the finish line) but the strong core remains untouched, a game that brings just enough of is own style and tone to shift from dead-eyed clone to fiery homage.

Certainly on the track, the muscle memory learned in Miyamoto's classic serves players well, with taut, frantic races that have characters switching places in a blaze of nitrous boosts and weapon strikes. Modnation Racers is Mario Kart road battling meets LittleBigPlanet customisation. It's a lazy, oft-repeated comparison but a mostly accurate one.

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