Okay folks, this is it! The final lap in our series on the history of racing games! Are you ready?
That question was rhetorical, of course. I’m flooring it either way.
We’ve already gone over the basic history of the genre, but now it’s time to shine a light on a very specific kind of racing game. The Endless Mission is a game all about User Generated Content, and it’ll be no different when we introduce the Racer update. Thus, what better way to end this series than to spend some time looking at racing games that have made use of UGC in the past?
A quick disclaimer before we begin, however: There are a lot of racing games that let you customize your vehicle, usually by picking out car body, tires, paint job, etc. In some games, these customization options are purely cosmetic, but in others - racing sims in particular - these changes can have a huge impact on your vehicle’s performance. All that said, you’re still ultimately just choosing parts from a specific list to put on a predefined frame; it’s rarely as granular or in-depth as what most people picture when they think of games with a huge UGC element to them. As such, we won’t be highlighting games that “only” have vehicle customization of this kind in our list unless they do something particularly unique with it.
Besides, we need at least ONE article where we don’t bring up Mario Kart… Uh… Not counting this pic and caption, anyway.
Excitebike (1984)
Fun Fact: This game was actually a launch title for the NES. It just got overshadowed a bit by Super Mario Bros.
We’ve talked about this game a little bit in our previous series, but it’s worth looping back around to one more time. Coming out just one year after the release of Pinball Construction Set (the first game with UGC period, if you recall), Excitebike was the first racing game to contain UGC, in addition to being the first game to bring UGC to consoles. In addition to two side-scrolling racing modes (Time Trial and Vs. AI), players could create their own dirt bike tracks by placing down different track pieces in whatever order they saw fit. The track they created could then be used in either of the other two modes.
… Anyone else getting a hankering for some chocolate now? No? Just me? Okay, then…
Sadly, the NES had no way to save the tracks you created, so they were lost as soon as you powered it down. Still, this game was a huge first step in introducing UGC to the world of racing games. Excitebike’s legacy would not be forgotten either: Nintendo would bring back the franchise and it’s track editing features (this time with a save function) several times, most recently in cardboard form with Nintendo Labo’s Toy-Con Motorbike. It may not be an “official” Excitebike entry, but with customization both within the game and out, the influence is clearly there.
Wait, what’s our stance on UGC where the content is stuff you’re physically creating in the real world? This is getting meta, even for us.
Stunts/4D Sports Driving (1990)
“Shoot, I was a bit slow on the draw, can you back up and we’ll try again?” - The Cameraman
Released by Brøderbund in 1990, Stunts aka 4D Sports Driving (it was released under two different names) was one of the first 3D racing games to feature a track editor. You had the ability to not only create your own courses, but edit any of the ones already in the game as well. Even the terrain was editable, not just the track itself. It was also somewhat infamous for allowing you to add some truly wild track elements, such as loops and corkscrews.
Gotta love the yellow lines there - apparently, this is a two-way loop.
The game would be quite well-received, even showing up on a handful of “Best PC Games of All Time” lists, but sadly never got a true sequel. That said, it still paved away for many future racing games, including one particular series that we’ll be covering in just a bit.
Lego Racers (1999)
And just like that, the theme song is stuck in your head again.
As was mentioned before, a lot of racing games let you customize your vehicle, but it’s usually just swapping out different car parts that alter their performance and handling. It wasn’t until Lego Racers that car building got considerably more granular.
Befitting a Lego game, Lego Racers had you build both your driver and your car, brick by brick. You unlocked more pieces you could use in your creations as you defeated other racers in Circuit Mode, and the car editor was surprisingly thorough in what you could build.
If you have full control over how your car is built and you DON’T put giant lances on either side, what are you even doing with your life?
The way you built your car wasn’t entirely cosmetic, either - the number of bricks that your build contained determined how heavy your car was, which impacted its handling and off-road capabilities. Meanwhile, the sequel would go on to introduce the ability to damage vehicles as well, blowing bricks off with each hit. The more bricks your car had, the more hits you could take before you were reduced to running on foot to the next pit stop for repairs. Amusingly enough, while Lego Racers had lots of UGC content in the form of racers and cars, it did not have any sort of track editor; that was saved for a different Lego game, Lego Stunt Rally.
Lego Racers only got one sequel, but many people still have fond memories of the games to this day. Legos have returned to the world of racing recently thanks to some DLC content in Forza Horizon 4 - maybe a Lego Racers 3 isn’t too far away? We can only hope.
Well, I’M hoping for it, at least… Look, that game was my childhood, okay?
TrackMania (2003)
Well, look at that… A flying pig! Guess he heard about there being a new Half-Life game.
First released in 2003, the TrackMania series is the spiritual successor to Stunts/4D Sports Driving we mentioned earlier. Gameplay in TrackMania is quite different from most other racing games: Rather than racing to see who can cross the finish line first, you compete to see how many laps you can complete in a set amount of time. In fact, even when racing against other players online, there’s no way to interact with them - you’ll simply drive right through them if you attempt to ram them. It’s purely you vs. the track, and whoever is the fastest wins.
Time trials aside, the biggest draw of TrackMania has always been the track editor. There are very few restrictions imposed on you when building your tracks: So long as there’s a starting grid, a finish line, and some way to get from one to the other, you can build whatever else you want along the way using its very thorough toolset. Once you’re done, you can share your creations online from their community website, TMX. You can even import your own vehicles into the game and share them online as well.
Don’t look down. Or up. In fact, maybe just don’t look, period.
TrackMania has seen massive success ever since its original release, with each game in the series still receiving tons of new player-created tracks to this day. It’s even managed to gather multiple Guinness World Records, including “Biggest Online Race”, “Most Popular Online Racing Sim”, and “Largest Content Base of Any Racing Game.” Suffice to say, TrackMania is probably one of the most successful examples of UGC in a racing game.
https://youtu.be/v6fxsvQxV8g
Of course, why make a normal race track when you could just go full-on Fantasia with it? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Trials HD (2009)
Excitebike’s younger, edgier brother
Trials is a 2.5D motorcycle trials game that originally started out as a series of online flash games. However, it would not see mainstream popularity until Trials HD debuted on the Xbox 360. Much like TrackMania, the challenge in this game isn’t from other racers (there wasn’t even multiplayer until later entries), but from the track itself - you have to reach the goal in one piece, surviving any number of devious obstacles along the way. There are even points where the game feels more like a platformer than a racer, with all the precise bunny-hops you have to do on your bike just to survive.
Seems safe!
In addition to being the first game in the franchise to really hit it big, Trials HD also introduced a track editor so players could create their own devious challenges with which to torment that poor motorbike rider. In fact, the devs themselves used this very same editor to create the campaign levels. The next entry in the series, Trials Evolution, expanded on the editor exponentially, allowing players to use the game’s visual programming language to really expand on what they could do. As a result, Trials Evolution’s editor has been used to recreate everything from Angry Birds to Minecraft! Suffice to say, Trials is an excellent example of just how in-depth UGC creation can be in a racing game.
It’s also an excellent example of just how bonkers an ARG can be, but that’s beside the point.
ModNation Racers (2010)
And you thought your vinyl figure collection was impressive…
Throughout the other entries in this article, we’ve seen UGC features for drivers, cars, and race tracks. However, none of them managed to feature all three of those into a single game… Until now. ModNation Races was Sony’s attempt to take the same “create anything” mentality used for platformers in LittleBigPlanet (which we covered in detail in the last series of articles) and apply it to racing games.
In addition to a robust single-player campaign and online multiplayer, ModNation Racers boasted in-depth editors for creating racers, vehicles, and courses. You could then use the PS3’s online features to share your creations with other users, and the devs would regularly host design contests and highlight content they found particularly impressive.
And you weren’t just limited to creating the track, either - the entire environment was fair game. Time to shamelessly port over every course from every other racing game ever!
Sadly, as a PS3 game in a world where the PS4 is a household name, it was only a matter of time before its online days were numbered. In October of 2018, the servers for ModNation Racers were shut down, making it no longer possible to share your creations or download the creations of others. Still, if you’re looking for a racing game where UGC can be applied anywhere and don’t mind having to keep it all to yourself, ModNation Racers is a good game to check out.
Conclusion
It’s been a wild ride, but it’s time to wave the checkered flag. From Space Race to Mario Kart to Forza, racing games have had a very storied history. Meanwhile, games like TrackMania and ModNation Racers have proven that UGC and racing games go together exceptionally well, and we are proud to be part of the next chapter in this combination of ideas.
In The Endless Mission, the sky isn’t the limit. It’s the starting point.
You won’t have to wait long to experience this next chapter for yourself - the Racer update is live in The Endless Mission right now! We can’t wait to see what you can come up with using these new assets, and what kind of mind-blowing creations you’ll share with the world. Thank you for joining us for our second history lesson, and we’ll see you out there on the racetrack!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/827880/The_Endless_Mission/
Image Sources: Reddit, IGN, Nintendo, Twitter, Wikipedia, Anandtech, Microsoft, Instant-Gaming, Gamereactor, Ubisoft, Giantbomb