Retro Review: “Twisted Metal” PSX
- Scott
- May 28, 2019
- 4 min read
An evil clown is on the loose. He is trying to run down other cars on the road in his ice-cream truck, his head is on fire and he is shooting out ice-cream cone missiles. No, it isn’t the plot to some failed attempt by the Insane Clown Posse to break into NASCAR… its just part of the fun of Twisted Metal.
The term “Vehicular Combat” is a term that wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the Twisted Metal series. Twisted Metal was a series that has always about the fantasy of being able to roll down the street and obliterate anything in your path. What other game lets you drive, an Ice-Cream truck or a guy tethered between two giant wheels named Axel, through the Eiffel Tower, AFTER you just knocked it over? None games, that what.
The first game, looking back on it now, is very ugly, seriously ugly. However, at the time it was an amazing achievement in video games. Driving around, and in some cases, through towns, blasting away at your foes with all sorts of shock and awe-inducing weapons. It was a teenagers dream. I literally think that I played that game so much I wore out my first PSOne. I would take it to all my friend’s houses just so we could play it non-stop. We would set up a sort of “pass the controller” tournament and play for the better part of a weekend. When Twisted Metal 2 came out I think we played the second game even more than the first. To this day the second stands out as the best in the series. Thinking about it now, I may have to go home and buy it off the PSN so that I can own it again.
If you really want to put a story behind the series, it is pretty simple to lay out. The contestants in the “Twisted Metal Tournament” are all out to win because, if they do manage to stay alive long enough they have one wish granted to them. Some are lunatics that just want revenge (as in Sweet Tooth’s case) some are out to clean up the streets, and some just want their life back. Simply put they are all out to destroy whatever they have to in order to get their wish. Who is granting these wishes? Well, that would be the mysterious “Calypso.” If I remember correctly his wishes were all granted in that “Twilight Zone/Money’s Paw” kinda way where you get what you want but not the way you want it.
The series had a great run at first. The first, probably, three games were relatively we received by gamers and critics alike. The series after part three took a sharp nosedive, however. There were a couple more sequels on the PSOne, then a God-awful version called “Twisted Metal: Small Brawl” that seemed to be aimed at kids. The series did experience a “re-birth” of sorts on the PS2 with Twisted Metal black and then on the PSP with a port called Twisted Metal: Head On. After those two games through the Twisted Metal franchise has pretty much gone into hiding.
Interesting to note that David Jaffe was one of the Lead Designers on the original Twisted Metal. You may know him from his other popular body of work, Calling All Cars… wait, I mean, God Of War. He himself has not come out right and said “There will be another game” however the tech nerds of the world deciphered a jumble of numbers at the end of Head On and discovered that it said, “Twisted Metal is coming to PS3”. So you can take that however you like. I for one would be very happy to have a new game, so long as it is in the vein of the first three or Black and not the others.
*edit- That is until the PS3 reboot of the series once again just called “Twisted Metal”. This iteration was not what the fans wanted. There was a weird legit racing aspect added to several levels, and the overall feel of the game was just… hollow. Even with Jaffe back behind the wheel, it felt as though all the ice cream in Sweet Tooth’s truck had already melted years ago. After this, the series once again went into hiding and it seems like this time it’s for good.
This game is just mind-numbing fun. Get a bunch of friends together and slap in this game and see if you aren’t enjoying yourselves 5 mins into it. After writing this article, I am now positive that I will be going home tonight and downloading TM2 for my PS3. If you have never played the series you should at the very least check it out somehow. Just be sure to stay away from the Ice-Cream truck, Sweet Tooth is the kind of clown that people have nightmares about.
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