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.
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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.
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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.
Mario party and 
Smash brothers: To me these games are all equal, i enjoy the community aspect of these games, gathering at my friends house and playing a couple of hours of these games with them. I have to admit right now, i am generally not a Mario (or peach) fan. So you will never see me pick him but that being said i do enjoy these games and the hours of entertainment they will give me.
Torin’s Passage: This came to in my life as a free game with our new Aptevia years ago. i played all the free games that came with it, but i had a particular love for this one. i found the story engaging with a twist ending. Playing though it was challenging but rewarding. I did go back a couple of times to play this game and enjoyed it every time, making it honored part of my past.
Kings Quest IV: This would be the only title in the king’s quest series my family would play. I started off watching my dad play this and in later years i would give it a go myself. It would be the first game and possibly only game on my list that had a female as the main character. I loved the story, (and hated that stupid whale) this would be one of two original games. it would be this one and number 11 that would start my gaming Journey.
Betrayal in Antara: I Loved, loved, loved this game. This one i think would solidify my love or RPG’s. I must have played this game though 3 to four times, but sadly as with most computer games when you upgrade the computer, the older games just cannot run on newer windows. I remember sitting at my computers tower as the cd rom started to fail on it, opening and closing it begging it to run the game, i was that addicted to it. I can also admit here that to this day i still check the rumor mill for one of two things, one sierra is teaming out with one of the big three consoles so we can play there old games there, and two, to see is a continuation of this game, It did sort of end of a cliff hanger.
Hero’s Quest 1 and 2: These two games hold a very special place in my heart. These two were my first intro into the gaming world. At the tender age of 7 my father brought home our very first home computer, a Tandy and Hero’s Quest was the very first game we all played together. My dad would be at the controls as my brother and I would sit next to him on either side as the three of us played this game together. To this very day it is a cherished memory, my father (who is still very much alive.) is the very reason i am a gamer today. While i would go on to play the first game on my own and beat it on my own years later (the second on i could not due to a virus on the game disc) it is those Precious first memories of this new fantastic gaming world, were good would win over evil, and that family is always at your side.
Tetris: My first exposure to this game actually game with that tandy, it however was not called tetris it was called weltris and there was a password needed to play the game. Over the years however this game has found itself on my various devises, my ds, my cell phone. I have seen the dark side of level 20 and have gone past it, i think my highest level is 30. There really is no really beating of this game you just continue until you die, which is why its not high on my list. However it is continue replay value makes it an easy mark for my top ten.
Worms: I was going to put Golden Sun on this list but after realizing i have all three and only really beaten One of the games i had no choice but to eliminate it from the list. Worms is a game i have a lot of fond memories of. My brother and I continually rented it from the local blockbuster/Hollywood video. We spent many an afternoon with that game naming characters drilling holes in the side then blowing the crap out of each others worms. I am generally not fond of today’s modern shooters but give me a banana bomb and i know i am in for some fun. I haven’t enjoyed many of the modern titles maybe because for me the enjoyment came out the time i spent play with my brother in this game.
Twisted Metal (series): This is another game i spent a lot of time with my brother with. He borrowed Twisted metal 2, and together we would spend hours playing this game. Admittedly i would cheat, i would love (and Still do) to throw on the god code in the game. (unlimited weapons and invulnerability to almost everything but falling) We would go on to play and own all but the most recent title. It would be because of this game i would buy a ps2 for my dorm room in college when me and my brother went to separate sides of the state. Its a little sad too I would enjoy probably the new game for the ps3 i just cannot justify the cost of spending 3-400 dollars on a system for two games. not after the 3ds debacle. I am waiting patiently for the ps4 to come out and the ps3’s price to drop to $99 before i buy it. For me at least my favorite titles in this series are, TM2, TM black, TM Heads on, TM4, TM 1, TM3 and the worst title of the whole group is small brawl…yeah um lets pretend that one doesn’t exist, i am sure they want to.
Final Fantasy (Series): When I first came across Final fantasy at the game store, it was already up to 9 possibly 10. I was reluctant to play it at first because i believed at the time that it was a continuation of each game, so given the series was already at 9 i thought i would be quite lost. My friend at the time (soon to be boyfriend…then ex ass hole) corrected the assumption and encouraged me to play Final Fantasy VII. This game floored me from the first half hour. The story was amazing, the graphics or average for that time, and the music was just ear catching. I did however know about Aerith before her death. i had gotten in a fight with my boyfriend at the time, i had told him who died in the latest Harry Potter book, so he told me Aerith dies. I remember being annoyed because i had spent a lot of time with her leveling her. (second play though with game i focused on Tifa.) I also grew to hate the character after getting stuck in the scene were Sephiroth kills her over and over again. After complementing 7, I quickly went on to 8 then 10. I did make an attempt at 9 i really did, however the copy game stop had was a broken copy and it would not let me play it. The final fantasy i have played is 7, 8, 10, 10-2, 12, 12-2, and 4 (remastered version for ds.) I own most of the sound tracks for these games as well. If i was to rank them, my favorite one out of the series i have played, 4 is hands down my favorite. then to me 12, 7, 10, 10-2, 8, then 12-2. So why is this game series not higher on the list. two reasons, One i have not played all in the series, 5 6 and 9 most notably. I do have 3 but have never gotten though it the lack of phoenix downs is a big deterrent. two Like Twisted Metal its latest releases have been newer systems i simply cannot afford. I would love to play 13 but i cannot buy a new system each time they want to release a new game, not when i can use that money for other things. I guess that is one of the sad things of being an adult is making adult choices like that one. Sorry Final Fantasy i love ya…i just cannot afford ya.
Puzzle Quest (series): I love puzzle games, and i love RPG’s this game was the first one to combine the two in a format i really enjoyed. It is a game i can go back to repeatability and when the game is over it leaves me wanting more. For the DS and now i am seeing it available on other handhelds its just a simple game with a simple story that leaves me wanting more. I have enjoyed all entries so far to this game and hope to see more.
Glory Of Heracles: This game caught my ear before it caught my attention. I was in the store looking for a new game to play when its 
Lord Of the Rings online: i cannot have a top ten without including a game that has had a major impact of my life for almost 3 years now. I talked briefly about it in my previous post, but let me go into more details. I Started seeking out an MMoRPG shortly after my departure from the 3ds. I was feeling isolated and a little alone, so i was seeking a place i could meet new people and interact with in the confounds of a game. After a few trial and errors i found a server and a kin to join. I guess its in my very nature to interact people, and i very quickly rose though the ranks of that kin, eventually taking on the task of guiding the kin all together. Then with some trouble with in that kin, just could not be stopped. So I along with several others split off and formed our own kin Phoenix Rising, which has been together for 2 years now. I have gotten the online family i was seeking and the adventure i wanted to go on. I am on this game every night, and with multiple festivals, faires and combat event there is always something to do. However due to its lack of portability and being a slave to the games servers (if they go down i have nothing to do until it comes back) it makes this game just miss out on the top three.
Digimon World (Series): I have been playing different Versions of Digimon world since it first came out on the PS1. I watched this game change how it was played each series, but they really seemed to hit is stride when it came to the ds. I should preference the next statements with this. While I like pokèmon the game, the series on TV I didn’t like quite as much as I liked Digimon. i found Digimon’s story on tv to be written out smarter and more engaging then that of Pokèmon’s. So to find Pokèmon was in fact the better games was a little sad, but Digimon for the ds i think taking some cues from Pokèmon became a smarter and more engaging game. In fact in recent months i have been trying to track my games back down to play again. (i stupidly sold it off for the 3ds (Kicks old 3ds again)) Digimon is a series i love and would buy and play again in a heart beat.
Professor Layton (Series): This game took what i loved about Puzzle Quest and quadrupled it. with challenging Puzzles and often very engaging story this series has everything i could ask for. As you can probably tell by the picture Unwound future is my favorite entry into this series (i have not gotten the newest 3ds version due to me only recently picking the 3ds back up) The story of a lost love, and the eventual departure of Luke it just tugged at my heart string, and yes it made me cry. I did get a little annoyed with them taking a step back instead of going forward with the games time line. Its that annoyance with them going backwards instead of forward that keeps this game from my number 1 Slot.
Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright (series): I squealed..that’s right i actually physically squealed out loud when i found out there would be a new entry to this series recently. This was one of the first real series i played on my ds i picked it up on a whim. I knew no one who played it before, there was not really a lot of hype that i could see at least surrounding it. Picking it up has been one of the best game decisions of my life, this games story is engaging. there characters for the most part lovable. (although there are a couple of witnesses i wanna slap.) When I was browsing recently though the Nintendo eShop and there was a preview for a US Release of Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton, i just about shit myself i was so excited. I have loved every title in this series has released and look forward the future titles as well. Ace Attorney to me is the perfect blend of Puzzles, story and likable characters. This is why the Ace Attorney will always be my number one pick.
Gamerwoman 