Halloween is a perfect day to remember Twisted Metal. The truth is that it would be worth any day, especially knowing that PlayStation Productions is working on a series of this sadistic driving saga and before which the signing of Anthony Mackie, who we saw a few months ago in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, among other Marvel projects.
Twisted Metal was always niche, same as his own genre of combat cars, where only a few games have the privilege to excel, such as Carmageddon O Vigilante 8. But the problem is that this saga PlayStation exclusive was too irregular on PSX and suffered several lapses in time until its last installment in 2012 through the namesake Twisted Metal de PS3.
A psycho clown and other insane on wheels
On paper, the simple idea of mixing the typical mechanics of shooters speed was extremely attractive, although far from it Twisted Metal was a pioneer of this formula. However, it managed to be the catalyst for its resurgence in 1995 as one of the first strongholds of Sony’s new PlayStation.
His control was crude and limited from the start, but he was powerfully conspicuous by the your cover ice cream truck with a clown on fire. He was not the only character to choose nor the only striking one, although it is true that the others were quite familiar: a military vehicle, a motorcycle, a police car … Each one enjoyed different offensive, defensive or even parameters of special weapon. Yes, a unique attack for each of the characters.
SingleTrac, the studio that brought Twisted Metal to life
In Twisted Metal you didn’t have to run, but destroy the rival. We could go through each of its scenarios with total freedom and use its secrets to take advantage of the best areas to massacre the rival or restore our health.
Its 1996 sequel, known in Europe as Twisted Metal: World Tour, significantly improved control and enhanced everything else, achieving greater success than its predecessor (and for which it subscribes, one of its favorites in the genre). The hours that I will have spent, especially on the map of Paris sweeping the special Shadow, one of the new faces of Twisted Metal 2. Because the classics Roadkill, Mr. Grimm, Specter or Warthog, among others, were joined by more undesirables, Axel being quite iconic with his two gigantic wheels.
Interestingly, here Sweet Tooth was no longer part of the initial cast, but was reserved as an unlockable boss / character. Although curiously, beyond Minion repeating as another of the bosses, there was that larger and darker version of Sweet Tooth under the name of Dark Tooth. A tough boss …
The decline of Twisted Metal on PlayStation
That the aforementioned sequel did not completely solve that crude control that could scare the uninitiated in the field was still the least of it knowing how fun the game was playing against another person on a split screen. In addition there were many piques with the increased secret movements, where the freezing of the first one was joined by others like a shield, the possibility of making a jump or becoming invisible for a few moments, among many more.
They were very Mortal Kombat moves, like left ~ right ~ up to do a Sub-zero attack. In this sense, his greatest rival (Vigilante 8) did something similar, but to offer variants for the basic weapons. The biggest problem is that Twisted Metal stalled in the wake of its sequel and with the two subsequent installments by another team (989 Studios) its quality plummeted, in part due to not using the same SingleTrac engine. Twisted Metal III was a mediocre product and Twisted Metal 4 He managed to fly a bit back, but both remained as exclusive games from the United States.
Nor did it play in favor of the third chapter, published in 1998, that that same year the first Vigilante 8 along with the less popular, but highly vindicable Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012. And who developed the latter? Yes, SingleTrac. The studio that created Twisted Metal in 1995. From there the decline of Sweet Tooth and company began, although luckily that ordeal did not last long and the saga had a most explosive resurgence in 2001 for PS2.
With Twisted Metal Black he rose from the ashes
With SingleTrac closing in 2000, several of its components ended up creating the Incognito Entertainment studio, which was precisely the one that was responsible for the relaunch of Twisted Metal and under the successor of the first PlayStation. So in 2001 the market came out Twisted Metal: Black for PS2 and its reception was brutal, better than any of the previous four chapters.
Apart from the obvious graphic jump, but without being among the best on the console, far from it, the story was enhanced for each character, where there were no shortage of familiar faces (yes, my Shadow returned and Axel or Mr. Grimm were also there), again to participate in the macabre Calypso contest.
A curious detail was carried out by its final boss, who was a combat helicopter called Warhawk. The reason? That name was precisely the game with which SingleTrac debuted shortly before Twisted Metal en 1995. For the rest, it was a chapter with a clear replayable component, not only to know the history of each character, but to unlock the five cars that were hidden.
That Twisted Metal: Black is technically the highest rated of the saga is something that is not surprising to know that it was rescued for the occasion on PS3 within the PS2 classics and also with the addition of trophies in its subsequent conversion to PS4, which of course is backward compatible with PS5 and costs 9,99 dollars. Got damn. I already had it on PS3 but I couldn’t resist the temptation to replay it on PS5 … And I was never hooked in the same way as the sequel seen here in 1997.
This critical and sales success did not cause the brand to be exploited as in the past, since it had to wait four years for its next delivery. That Twisted Metal: Head-On PSP that came out as a temporary exclusive in 2005. And we say “temporary” because in 2008 it would end up reaching PS2 as well.
It should be remembered, yes, that Twisted Metal: Black was going to have a sequel that ended up being canceled, finally. And unfortunately it was not the only one that was canceled. In the stage of PlayStation 3 there were two that were left in the inkwell without seeing the light.
Be that as it may, the game for PlayStation Portable, as a direct sequel to Twisted Metal: World Tour, It was not so good, no matter how attractive it was to play this series for the first time with a portable console. And that had some other striking detail, such as a series of minigames that were not only used to get more weapons, but to unlock certain characters.
Incognito Entertainment had a third video game with the entry of the new millennium, but we would have liked not to have to mention it … It was the same 2001 where the revival for the Sweet Tooth saga came out … And it was called Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. A game for PlayStation (yes, the first) focused on children in which we drove radio-controlled vehicles. Ironically, oddly enough (or not), it scored better than the Twisted Metal III 1998.
The 2012 PS3 reboot caused another hiatus
With Incognito Entertainment closing down in 2009 (his last job was the remake of WarHawk for PS3 in 2007), several of those responsible would end up forming the Eat Sleep Play studio, headed by David Jaffe, who had already participated in the first two Twisted Metal de PlayStation and the franchise’s debut on PS2. And everything to develop Twisted Metal reboot on PS3.
It was necessary to wait until 2012 for such an event, being again before another important technological leap that once again gave a special weight to the story. In fact, this installment enjoyed several story arcs, with a special weight for Sweet Tooth, but also for other faces: Mr. Grimm, Dollface and The Preacher.
Another detail caught our attention, and that is that these characters were no longer tied to their characteristic vehicles, being able to see Sweet Tooth with Axel’s very wheels, for example, as you can see in the screenshot above. And there were more surprises, like other gigantic “vehicles”.
It was also Twisted Metal where the online component was really taken advantage of, as it enjoys greater consistency and popularity than the revision of the Twisted Metal: Black 2001 with the subsequent addition of an online version in 2002.
It is reboot He had everything to face to be the best, however he did not enjoy the same impact, partly because of having a lower cast of characters, that not everyone welcomed his story mode with the same joy or how rough he was still control despite the many improvements implemented in its almost two decades of history. Or also because the genre was already in decline.
I just hope that we will attend his return again, like that of Vigilante 8 or any of the (few) representatives that have since dated, as the certainly forgotten Hardware: Rivals from PlayStation Plus in 2016.
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