Tag is the main protagonist of the ModNation Racers series.
Description[]
Tag is the main character of the game, and competes in the ModNation Racing Championship. He has a Mother, presumed Father and an Uncle.
Appearance[]
Tag wears red and black goggles on his head (both sides says UFG). He has purple eyes, and wears a grey shirt and pants with paint splatters on them, probably obtained from creating graffiti. He wears two rings on his fingers (one on the thumb of his left hand, and one on the index of his right hand). Tag also wears lightning shoes. He has light yellow skin, a graffiti tattoo (on his right arm), and his teeth contains one sharp fang.
In the PSP Version, Tag (along with every other Mod)'s eyes are located slightly higher than in the other versions of the game.
In Career Mode[]
Tag, as his name implies, is basically a graffiti artist, hence the name, Tag. Tag's favorite hobby is spray-painting objects to make all sorts of designs, like his Kart. This allows the Career Mode to have a convenient explanation for why Tag's Kart can look however he wants due to the Creation Station. He also likes racing, as (of course) shown in the Career.
Tag is known to be a very creative person, and he motivates himself to race for fun rather than for prizes or fame, in contrast with some of the other Elite Mods.
He has some form of prior experience with racing (or at least driving around tracks) before the Career's MRC season started, as shown in a section of the first video in the first cutscene, where he is shown racing on the track Alpine Drop.
He can be customized in Mod Studio right from the beginning of the game, and all cutscenes shown after the kick to Mod Studio that include Tag are rendered in real time. The currently selected Mod will take Tag's place in these cutscenes (except in the PSP version, in which the post-customization cutscenes no longer show Tag). This is done to sell the illusion that your character really is in the game, rather than something simple like a costume only available during races.
His mother owns a paint shop, and an old friend of hers, the Chief, directs him in races. The only exception to this is for the time when The Chief gets injured from an explosion, and Uncle Richard talks to him whilst racing instead as a sort of substitute (PS3 version only; in ModNation Racers for the PlayStation Portable, no one speaks to Tag for four races).
His uncle, Richard Short, works at Conservative Motors, a company featuring notably bland cars, hence their tag-line, "We put the ordinary in extraordinary". Later in the Career, it would be revealed that he was the one who caused the Chief's accident, so Tag would sponsor him without any of The Chief's objections.
Jez, one of two female Elite Mods, seems to have a mischief chemistry with Tag (maybe a love/hate relationship), as throughout the Career they tend to back-and-forth before the races. Examples of this are Jez knocking Tag out of his starting spot in the Mt. Pain pre-race cutscene, and Tag bumping Jez at the rear (by accident, and he quickly apologizes) in Breakwater as he waves to the crowd.
Trivia[]
- He is sometimes called Tagger in Career Mode by The Chief early on, and later by Espresso as well. Biff Tradwell also says in one of the first cut-scenes that he is an unknown racer competing under the name Tagger, possibly meaning that's his full name/nickname, and Tag is a shortened version.
- Tag is portrayed as a mute protagonist in the career mode, a common trait with many main characters, but mostly due to the fact that he can be changed later on to represent anybody the player wants.
- In the Career, the varying appearances of Tag and his Kart during gameplay is explained as him having a wild aesthetic, always wanting to catch the eye of the crowd. However, in the PSP game, if the player does not select to play as Tag, he will sometimes appear as an opponent racer (even if you select a custom Mod), which may conflict with the justification.
- During the Grim Tour, Tag is forced into a different outfit with Conservative Motors sponsoring all over it when under his uncle's contract with CM. He also uses a fixed kart that is given by his uncle as well.
- In the beta version of ModNation Racers (including part of the intro to the released game), Tag is light blue (the default color for the skin he is using), rather than a light yellow. He also went by the name Chase, which was later changed, and used a blue kart with the number 01 instead of his trademark yellow kart.
- Before the private beta, Tag's mouth was different, portraying a slight smirk rather than his signature fang. It was also included in various arts, including a variation of the main box art. It is speculated that this "smirk version" was used exclusively in Canadian stores, though nothing has been found as of yet to confirm this.
- Tag is featured in a PlayStation Vita Taco Bell Commercial along with Dolor.[1]