I know nothing i do here matters in the grand scheme of things, but i am a little upset about Nintendo’s recently released youtube policies. While i myself am not a youtuber, I am way to shy and an recent injury over the summer has left me with a studder, i do watch quite of few really spectacular youtubers, JWitz, Tamashii, Natewantstobattle (love his music) and dooksheid who just brighten my days with there comments and music and i feel Nintendo’s policies might stifle there creativity. So in solidarity with the youtubers i watch and enjoy, i am doing this review on a non Nintendo product and taking a break from my pokemon series. i might return to it but in the mean time. lets talk about a game series that changed the course of gaming for me Twisted Metal.
As i have mentioned in my source post journey into the Digital World and my top 15 non pokemon games twisted metal is defently in my top 10 games, it was the first game i really played independently. The playstation meant a bit of a revolution for me and my brother, up until then we often played video games with my dad. i was about 13 years old when the ps1 first came into my home. i really don’t remember some of the the first games we had for this system, meaning they really did not make much of an impact on me, It was when my brother borrowed a copy of twisted metal 2 from a friend did things really change. Me an my brother divided up the cars taking turns playing though the game. We bother fell in love the game and have now played every single version out there, with me owning most older games. I guess the best way to review this series the best i can from memories. I am going to start this off by saying, i did not get to play the playstation 3 game because i was unable to afford a ps3, and i only briefly own a psp. Also since my ps2 never had any really online capabilities so i really cant judge that.
So before i get into the review lets talk about what kind of game this is, It is not typical for me i can tell you that. Twisted metal is a at best a combat game, with cars. At the beginning of ever game you get a choice between 5 to 7 types of cars with different capabilities and weapons and a few secret cars you can unlock. Each car has a special weapon unique to that car, could be a short range or long range weapon, and of course no car is the same could have better speed but sucks on defense. Each game usually has a few cars that appear in every game, others rotate, other are only there for one game. The goal of the game is to kill each other, lets be frank, to the victor comes one wish and that wish depending on the game itself can be twisted around to screw over the player at the end. Others depending on the game get what they wish for, some stories are actually heartbreaking twists. The game does very much live up to the twisted ending.
So why do i like this game so much, well as i will go into below almost every game is a little different, every car is a little different with a different story each time, which gives this game a very high replay value, because lets be honest once you caught them all in pokemon you are pretty much done. Not here, i have played in particular 2, 4 and black multiple times over the years and every time i play though the combat is a little different, yes the story remains the same, but the game play changes. With each ones of those cars you have different specials and a different way to fight. And at the end of a long day this game is a fun way to blow off steam, i mean come on i am running around destroying cars and property in a game, i would never ever do this in real life, but that is why we have video games.
So let me quickly go over my favorite cars and stories.
Outlaw/ Outlaw2: this car is almost always some sort of police cruiser, with the exception to black and its sequel are swat style vehicles. Its weapon is mostly a lighting life sucking energy, it has a mixture of speed and deference but its special weapon is lackluster. There story, in the end there almost always one of the good guys, doing wrong to eventually do right. Even if at the end, they usually don’t accomplish what they wanted.
Twister: This car is why the god code was made. The god code in the game essentially gave the player unlimited health, weapons and turbos (speed boost). Twister is the fastest car in the game it is a race car after all, and its ability to sweep other cars up in its path like a twister but can also be damaged itself. Twisters defense sucks but i swear i don’t know how they did it but speeding around around the game it always felt like i was going super fast, i always always loved that. Her story was one of the funnier ones and she got in the ending she deserved.
Grasshopper: This Car is one of the most difficult ones to control in the game, it has a seeking homing front that jumps up and attack the nearest car, with sometime deadly consequences. Grasshopper is modeled after a dune buggy God codes do not save you from falling to death and if your little car has decided to target the car then fell off the edge of something, your going over too. However as hard as it is to control this car, she has one of my favorite endings in Twisted metal 2. Which honestly makes the pain of dealing with this car totally worth it.
Roadkill: Roadkill like outlaw has been featured in all the twisted metal games except for four. Most always some sort of junkyard muscle car. It is a lot like Outlaw, its is sort of medium range in most its stats but honestly what gets Roadkill on my list is he almost always has one of the most intriguing stories. Its a little different in each game, but in the end his story is always worth it.
.jpg)
Axel: Probably one of my favorite cars in the game, added in 2 he has been a staple of the series since then. a man trapped between two large tires with often his feet underneath. His power he slams on the ground causing cars near by to go flying off, particularly fun on those levels with those ledges, but he is arguably one of the hardest ones to navigate around a level and is really sluggish. His story is defiantly one of the most heart wrenching of the series, in almost every incarnation he has some sort of tragedy in his past and he is punishing himself, or something or someone has trapped him in this vehicle. I almost always enjoy his story line
So with a series with at least 7 main games and a few spin off and re-released what do i think of each entry, well as a stated easlier i cannot rant twisted metal 2012 because i have never played it. So other then that here is what i think.
Twisted Metal Small brawl (ps1): Easily the worst entry in the series, i not sure what the people at Incognito were smoking when they game up with this one, but this one. Alright so what went wrong here? the concept take all the carts from twisted metal 1 and 2 shrink them down into RC cars and let them run around and shoot each other. cute, concept…wrong, this is game looks and feels poorly executed and rushed. Levels and stories feel incomplete, and most importantly there is no codes that let me run though the game killing things. Without my god code, i found i really couldn’t loose myself in this game which at the end of day what these games are for, to loose yourself, and relieve stress.
Twisted Metal 3 (ps1): So what went wrong here, well some back ground, Twisted metal has had multiple publishers over the years, and Twisted metal 3 marks the first time that Sony’s in house studio 989 took over the franchise. So what went wrong, the story lines were garbled. The game play was terribly inconsistent, with bosses appearing in random levels. With a boss appearing at level 2? Plus the levels where not well put together having some of the glitchest game play in the series. i can’t tell you the amount of times i ended up in random spots. It did have some instances of brilliance though, that being when the level itself had a random damaging item, like aliens….ok then moving on.
Twisted Metal 1 (ps1): Yes i understand this is the first entry in the series and without it, the rest would not exist, still i cannot ignore its faults. Twisted metal 3 yes if glitchy, but this was king glitch, but you have to forgive it because it was the first What i hate most about this one the most about this is really the end game. After this one the final scenes had actual cut scenes, some better animated then others still it engrossed the player more into the story. This one, you have to read though the text of what happens before you car speeds away. However i have to give it points because this is the start of one of the most unique franchises in the gaming world, yes today there are a lot of combat games on the market, but none do what twisted metal introduced to us.
-1.jpg)
Twisted Metal 4(ps1): This one is the second and last one done by 989 studio, and honestly its not that bad. It was different.This one sort of flips the story on its head putting the evil clown sweet tooth in charge (by the ways he is a hard ass villain to face here,) Calypso is now one of the contestants driving a nuke truck. Almost non of the regular cars are in this entry except a few who are end stage bosses. Like most games you can unlock them and they later become playable characters, however they do not get their own story, just a generic ending. The music was done by rob zombie who gets his own car, This is not a bad entry, to the series, it just isn’t perfect and not the twisted metal game, I had come to love.
Twisted Metal Heads-on (psp, ps2): Now i played this entry when it finally came to the ps2, so i will speak based on this. This one is the “official” sequel to twisted metal 2. I honestly don’t have any many play hours on this one as i do the others, but its graphics are of course stepped up from the past and it runs really smooth, but what i really love it taking the characters i got to know so very well in 2 and continuing their story. They even added some new characters, Heads on is a great tribute to 2, Plus this was the game that allowed me to download all the twisted metal music (except from 3 and 4) on to my ipod. I love free music :). It Doesn’t have the graphics Black did, but it stayed pretty close to the art style and level designs of Twisted Metal 2. This one gave to fans what they had been asking for years an actual sequel to TM2, Continuing where it had left off 9 years prior. For that this one humbly takes the number 3 spot on my list.
Twisted Metal Black (ps2): Black marks a great revolution with in the series. Twisted metal returns to its home studio after a stint at 989 studios. Twisted metals original creators left single trac to create there own studio. You honestly can tell this series is back with the people who honestly love it. Its better in almost every aspect, graphics, music, story and game play. This game, brings back old favorites while adding a few new ones, it brings in what i have always loved about the series, random destruction of everything around you as well as enemy cars. The opening song Paint it Black just sets the tone for this amazing entry into the twisted metal series. This one Story wise is probably one of the darkest entries in the game, but its wasn’t so dark that it turned me off as a fan. It also had both bosses and levels step up in design, even letting players pick on occasion which battle field they want to fight it. There is also a ton of unlockables here, Including big car names from the past. The final battle field is very clever taking you to a Rooftops, making it very challenging to even players like me who love the god code, because the god code does not give your car wings, and if this final boss pushes you off the edge of the building, you will fall, you will die you can loose. Black was for this franchise the revolution this series needed to bring it back into players hearts and minds.
Twisted Metal 2 (ps1): How do i describe my utter love for this entry. I am not sure how much i can tell you this one influenced me. The amount of hours i played this game both on my own and with my brother are countless. We traded back and forth taking different cars and trading victories. When we eventually had to return the copy he borrowed we went out and bought our own copy. When the two of us separated for college and he took the ps2 i kept the game cube. I went out the local gamestop to buy my own ps2 and copy of the game. So what do i love the most about this game, oh that’s hard to pick really, the stories are great, i love the music, (its on my ipod) which matches each levels environment to a T. The levels are so much fun, with Paris being and Holland being two of my favorite levels. Paris i can find a good hiding spot and attack unsuspecting cars. Holland because its just flat out run around shoot and kill. The final boss is huge, and difficult like he should be. I always liked that even with a god code on in places like NYC sky line and Antarctica we were still very much at risk for dying. For me Antarctica is probably the hardest level in the game because during the course of playing the level, pieces of land melt away and fall into the ocean taking what ever is on it with it. Not to mention that almost every level you can destroy something on it as well as the cars around you. I know by today’s standards its graphics aren’t great and yes even this one has its glitches, but some of those glitches you can take advantage of, like seeing though walls…that was always super handy, especially if you were in a car with close range stalking weapons. This is the one i talk about with so much love, and i have logged the most hours with, because it is the best one, best music, best story, best game play.
Will there be another entry in this series in the future, that’s a big unknown, still if the series is over now i am glad for what it has given me and the legacy it has left in my heart. Hours of fun both alone, and with my brother. A chance to blow of steam after a hard day and the chance to be a little bad for once. And my one wish Calypso is that everyone can appreciate how innovated and unique this game.
Gamerwoman 