Although Sony has been handing out beta codes via Twitter, I got in the old fashioned way: I signed up on the website.

The beta is about 2 gig and holds an impressive amount of content. The game introduces itself with some lengthy cutscenes, then sets you loose in a largely-complete hub zone known as the ModSpot. The ModSpot is pretty much a giant menu, and you drive to your choice sort of like Crash Team Racing. For those of you irritated by such things, you can invoke a quick menu instead. In the beta, we have access to online racing, object creation/sharing, and a number of community-based zones that showcase the most popular uploads. If you go online right away, your ModSpot will fill with other MNR players, zipping around in their karts. You can chat with them, browse their creations, and invite them to race.

Comparisons to Mario Kart and LittleBigPlanet are going to dog ModNation Racers like stink at a gaming con, so we might as well embrace it. Yes, what LBP did for platformers, MNR aims to do for kart racers. In what I think is an interesting twist, while LBP ended up being 80% Play 20% Create for most people, ModNation may end up being the reverse… because the track creation mode is so surprisingly simple and fun.

You can make your own drivers and cars. You’d be tempted to say “big deal,” but for ModNation giving you hundreds of customization options. The beta has the vast majority of the eyes, hair, clothes, etc locked, but you can still see roughly how many frigging mouths we’ll have to choose from in the final release. It’s nuts. Building cars involves choosing the body type, suspension, rear-mounted engines (one has a hamster wheel!) as well as the painting and decorating. Like LittleBigPlanet, you have both stickers and objects that can be used in your designs.

Track creation is wild. The beta has one “flavor” available – an alpine setting – and again only a portion of the entire tool/item list is available. Still, you have complete control over how the track turns, the altitude, and whether it banks or auto-levels. So you get the idea of how easy it is to “paint” a racetrack. The terrain deformation tools are great, allowing you to raise mountains or carve valleys with ease. Many of the objects come in a spraycan, so you can quickly plant tens of trees or houses with an arc of the analog stick.

You can add alternate paths, change the terrain type, raise or lower the water level, and control the position of the sun. Weapon pickups, zip strips, ramps, and generic course obstacles like bumps and hay bales are also available, to be placed wherever you like. Eventually, you run up against the mode’s object limit, but I have created some impressively detailed tracks without feeling like I was getting cut off.

While the tools are easy to use (yes, easier than LittleBigPlanet’s choose, carve and paint system), ModNation is willing to go even easier. As you paint your track, you can hit an auto-complete button that will close the loop and finish your track… and after that there’s an auto-populate button that will drop in all the trees and decor and items the game thinks your track will need.

This is a shot of one corner of a track I produced in well under twenty minutes.

ModNation Racers has an in-game screenshot utility that automatically saves to the XMB whenever you use it, without constantly begging permission like most games. Although simple frozen screenshots really do not do your custom track justice, so my fingers are crossed for a YouTube video push.

All of your creations may be uploaded to central servers for others to view, rate and download. If you flip a toggle, other users can “remix” your creation and re-upload it. The game promises to retain full original design credit on all remixed creations.

You can test your created track at any time, both as a simple drivethrough or as a race against AI drivers. To date, I have yet to actually win against the AI karts.

The driving controls feel much less forgiving than in Mario Kart. When you slide into a drift, the turn radius is very, very sharp. If you do not have your timing right, you will drift right into the inside wall. In the beta, all the kart types (muscle, exotic, etc) seem to handle the same. I don’t know if the full version will introduce heavy and light karts, like we’ve enjoyed with Mario Kart. The game is so intricate with creation settings and stats-keeping, I’d have to imagine that different kart balances will be available.

The weapons do what the weapons do. Rockets, bombs, etc. Pretty normal stuff. There’s a cool tweak on your turbo boost, though. You gain turbo by doing other things doing the race, like getting airtime off a jump, smacking around opponents, or completing a drift. That fills up your turbo meter, which can be unleashed at any time. However, you lose turbo by failing… hit a wall, or get nailed by a weapon, and your turbo meter depletes.

The beta does not include any of the single-player campaign mode.

I’m impressed with the overall look. ModNation Racers is trying to be hip and cute at the same time, and the beta shows nice attention all around. The loading screens, the interior environments, and the available customizations all match up well. Whereas LittleBigPlanet went for a handmade, found object look, ModNation Racers is going for a slick, smooth, shiny look.

Here’s the dirty secret question: How many times can you lay out the same twisty, over-under racetrack before you get bored with it? Remember having that Hot Wheels track playset and coming to the realization that there’s only so many ways you can combine four curves and two straights? It looks to me like ModNation Racers’ longevity will be entirely decided by the variety of themed toolkits available to players. I’m already bored with my four or five alpine creations, but I can’t wait to explore the other themes (the beta includes three playable-but-not-editable sample tracks, including one with an Egyptian desert theme and one that looks like a Moroccan marketplace.)

ModNation Racers is a PS3 exclusive set for a Spring 2010 release. The beta is supposed to last until mid-January.