Twisted Metal 1 was unique with its live action cutscenes and poor acting rivaling that of Resident Evil’s.  Twisted Metal 2, also on the first Playstation, was one of the most popular of the series and is considered a “Greatest Hit”; this one remains my favorite after all these years with its comic book style cutscenes and incredible maps to play on.  Twisted Metal 3 and 4 were games I mostly skipped out on, unimpressed with the gameplay, while Twisted Metal Black for the Playstation  2 did quite well for itself, but story-wise had changed so much from Twisted Metal 2 that I could not help but to feel disappointed that we were not seeing the original memorable characters.  Noting that the fans were missing the Twisted Metal 2 feel, Twisted Metal: Head On (apply directly to the head!) on the PSP as a direct sequel.

Twisted Metal’s story has always been simple, but cool: A man named Calypso runs a world wide tournament in which drivers compete in.  It reaps havoc on the world and turns it into an apocalyptic setting in many places.  Calypso, imbued with demon like powers, offers one wish to the winner of the tournament.  Through out the games, you play as a variety of interesting characters and get to see why their wish is so important for them to win the tournament…  some more reasonable than others!

Mr. Grimm rides his motorcycle on a mission.

Now we have the newest edition, Twisted Metal 2012.  This game is a nice combination of everything good from the Twisted Metal.  Utilizing stylized live action cutscenes, the story moves with a dark sense of flare without taking itself too seriously.  While they are a bit cheesy, I can appreciate that from a game that acknowledges its about murderous, weapon wielding, car driving rampages and sticks to its guns.

Twisted Metal’s themes may not be for everyone, but without spoiling Sweet Tooth’s ending, I can guarantee you that he gets what’s coming to him.  That’s another thing about Twisted Metal games — the character you play may be a bad, bad guy, and there’s a good chance they will “get theirs” by the end of the game thanks to Calypso’s warped way of granting their wishes!

Unlike the older games, you do not choose a character based on their car.  Instead, you play through a story mode of pre-selected characters, but you have the freedom to use any car you want.  The only real downside to this is that you can only beat three different characters’ stories, whereas in the older games you could beat the tournament as a multitude of characters.  However, it does work out since in the past a big issue with beating the game at all had been the imbalance of vehicles, especially those with lesser armor.  This made it extraordinarily tough to beat the game as characters like Grasshopper or Twister, both in weak vehicles and Grasshopper with an even weaker special.

The gameplay is smooth, fluid, and extremely addictive.  Its interface is clean–perhaps a bit too clean since you may not even realize you’re changing weapons until you learn to look at the bottom of your screen.  Like most games, once you learn to use it you’re just fine.

As you can see, the gameplay is nonstop action.  The online multiplayer is fabulous for this, though Twisted Metal also makes a great “party” game for your friends to participate or watch even while offline.  Its heavy soundtrack really sets the mood, but you can also import your own music to listen to while playing.  This was a feature I took advantage of with great joy.

I zoned out on this game for about four hours straight before realizing it was 4 AM, which in itself takes me back to my 12 year old self sitting in front of the TV, playing Twisted Metal 2 with my brother well past bedtime.  I recall insisting on being one of the girl characters just for the sake of being a girl regardless of how imbalanced the cars were.  Mine always died way too easily!

I waited on getting this Twisted Metal game despite being excited about it, and I regret not picking it up sooner.  The only complaint I have with this game is that there’s not enough single player content even if the game is so much more exciting in multiplayer mode.  I hope the next installments give us more to play with.

For old time’s sake, here’s a clip of my favorite Twisted Metal 2 Ending.

Still don’t get the “farm animals” part, but maybe I shouldn’t think too hard on it…

After what felt like a century, we finally have a new Twisted Metal game out and it is GLORIOUS. I of course played the multiplayer demo a week or two ago and got a chance to test it out. I didn’t find any flaws whatsoever, of course the controls were a bit different and the whole matchmaking thing didn’t really go through at times. Other than that playing it was a whole cluster of good emotions, excitement was pretty much the only thing I could feel.

I used to play Twisted Metal games as a kid and once I heard they were making one for PS2, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Once having it though I didn’t really find it as memorable as most Twisted Metal games. Now that this reboot of the sorts has been released I can finally say that the same experience I got all those years ago, it’s finally here. After beating story mode and enjoying hours on end of multiplayer, I had nothing but good things to say about the game. The story mode is fun, kind of has that Twisted Metal: Black feel, the story is dark but actually satirical at times. You go through campaigns of the main characters and sadly there’s only four of them, you don’t get a lot of the old Twisted Metal characters you were so used to seeing back in the day.
But you do get their vehicles,still. It’s a little weird seeing Sweet Tooth riding around on Axel’s wheel. Multiplayer on the other hand is hectic, but in a good way. You have sixteen player battles with a TON of different modes to choose from, my favorite being Last Man Standing and Nuke, where you basically have to fight the other team for their statue. I would say that I actually enjoy this multiplayer more than any Call of Duty game.
Now the music was something, I doubted this game for awhile until I found myself ripping through houses, missles flying everywhere around me, Rob Zombie and Judas Priest blasting in the background, it gets you so pumped and it’s such a relief that they went back to licensed music again, instead of that grim sounding soundtrack they had for Black.
There are a few originally composed songs on this soundtrack but still, they sound just as amazing.
Now to cap this off, yes, it’s a short review, but it’s also a review about a reboot of a classic. I don’t have much to say about it other than it’s a good nostalgic experience that shouldn’t be missed if you’re a Twisted Metal fan. This is actually a good show of the multiplayer we can accomplish with a vehicle combat game, it wasn’t done as good as it was when they added online to Black, but it was years ago and PS2 online wasn’t as, well, good.
Now we have this powerful system and this tight multiplayer that you are sure to enjoy, after all, Twisted Metal was really made for you to play with your friends back when it first came out. You even get a trophy for playing splitscreen multiplayer on this game, made me feel old when it said ‘Classic’. It’s a fun multiplayer and you will love the story mode, the cinematics are gorgeous and finally some of the best I’ve seen in a Twisted Metal game.

The Good:
It’s the same old Twisted Metal, but that’s a good thing. You aren’t getting someones weird twisted indie game about how their lives were as a child. You’re getting Twisted Metal, a game where you blow up other cars and shoot gas canisters out from the trunk of your car to blow up your opponents, all while listening to Judas Priest.

The Bad:
Controls are weird and sometimes a little clunky. Four factions of characters, replaced with a bunch of vehicles. Would have been better to see everyone back again, maybe for future DLC?

Should I buy this?
Yes.

Now then, my weekend should be pretty good hopefully. I will have finished my room mates title pages for her thingy at school, my cousin is coming over and possibly staying the night on Friday, so hopefully I can take Twisted Metal for a three player test drive on that night, along with some eating of the pizza or whatever fast food we can get our hands on.

Other than that I don’t really work till Tuesday, mainly because our hours were cut at work and now we kind of have to suffer for it.
So yeah, hopefully I can beat this game today or tomorrow and have a review up by Saturday. Hopefully I can bring in more followers by doing so and gain a few regulars on my blog. I know it’s still a baby, but the few followers I have really excites me. Maybe later on I can have a large network of gamers?
Who knows, right now I’m also trying to attract some food enthusiasts, so we can swap recipes and what not. Really looking forward to getting this thing up and running with a full post count.
Other than that, life in Brandon, Manitoba is A okay. Weather is slightly nice, still feeling a bit of the winter blues, the cold isn’t as bad as it was a week or two ago. It’s freakishly nice for February weather…
So yeah, that’s all I got for the morning. Enjoy the awesome music.

I was informed by a rather lazy family member that if we don’t post the animations to this blog they don’t know how to find them, so I might as well just post them before that person goes and breaks a nail -_^

First up is zee Impatient Chef!  Not that it is required, but if you want to go full screen with either of these two, 720 HD is available.  (Thought any higher would be over-kill XD)

Second one has a cool ending, actually.  Remember waaaay back nearly a year ago now with Developer Appreciation Week?  I did David Jaffe and the rest of the Eat Sleep Play crew as my first post?  Well, after this animation someone linked it to him on twitter and he mentioned that he wanted to post it on the official Twisted Metal blog.  How cool is that?

Working on a a sequel to it right now.  It’s pretty much set, but the wording might be a smidgin’ off so I’m chipping away at it.  Also had two more Walking Dead ani’s planned, but we might just scrap those even though the next one was gonna have Daryl in it.  Doubt we’ll have time before the season ‘starts up’ again, but we’ll see.

Anyhoo, enjoy the animations and have a good day, everyone!