With the introduction of the 32 bit era, new genres and more refined genres began to appear. 3D platformers, 3D fighters, vehicular combat, all were either created, or refined during the 32 bit era. Twisted Metal was released on the Sony PlayStation very early in its life cycle, and helped establish a genre on home consoles that has had its ups and downs. Was the first Twisted Metal one of the ups?
Being an early title in the PlayStation library, there’s going to be a few shortcomings. While for it’s time, TM look good enough, there were a few problems that hindered the gameplay. The biggest is the inability to clearly distinguish your opponents from random items up ahead, and even worse, sometimes you could barely distinguish opponents from the backgrounds themselves. The overall look is a bit too ambitious, as the small details all around mix too easily with your opponents. When you’re not having to worry about ten opponents at once, some of the later stages do look great without the worry that you’ll miss someone blending into the background.
The sound at least comes off as a cohesive blend of pulse pounding music and explosions that will put you on the edge of your seat. Probably the strongest aspect of the first Twisted Metal comes out of your speakers. The music adds a layer of excitement to the gameplay, as it gets you in the mood to blow stuff up. Hearing the explosions add fuel to your aggressive fire. While the explosions and other sound effects are nothing special, they do sound clear and powerful.
BEWARE of the pink Cadillac!
Vehicular controls are a mixed bag. If you rely on up and down for acceleration and reversing, you’re going to have a miserable time. Use Square and O and you’ll have an easier time. For the most part, you won’t have much trouble getting around, and with many different vehicles, they’ll have different speeds and handling abilities, all of which are adequate for what you’ll be using the for – blowing enemies to kingdom come. The only time you’re really going to struggle is having an enemy behind you and not having any rear missiles or mines. They’ll pound away on you as you flee, and pound away on you as you try to 180 and engage them.
Which leads into the more annoying aspect of Twisted Metal – enemies gang on you. If you get close to a melee between two or more enemies, they’ll peel off their focus on each other and come after you full force. With how easily your health can drop, you run the strong chance of dying incredibly quick, that’s even with bigger vehicles like Hammer Head and Sweet Tooth. If you get pinned in between a few enemies while using Mr. Grimm, the motorcycle guy, you’re going to get destroyed in mere seconds. This is on any difficulty level you set it on. When you’re one on one and not being tailed, it’s pretty damn fun. But heaven forbid if you’re going in a battle with two others. It won’t be one on one on one, but two on one.
There’s a decent number of vehicles you can choose from, each bearing their own personality. We all know Sweet Tooth, the psycho clown in an ice cream truck, Mr. Grimm, the biker who, while can drive the fastest, has next to no armor, Hammer Head, the 4×4 monster truck, and so on. Each vehicle and their driver have their own distinct personality and reasons for entering the Twisted Metal competition. By winning the competition, the winner gets anything they desire. It’s quite a thing to see how far the endings go in providing those awards. You’ll want to play as many times as there are characters just to see the endings.
You see that small mesh of discolored polygons up ahead? That's a vehicle....or is it?
While the foundation was established, Twisted Metal was not the total package. Singletrac did a commendable job putting the game together, and while many points were a bit over ambitious, the game is playable, and is a worthy addition to your PS1 game library. Just don’t get surrounded, or you’ll get easily frustrated.
Rating: 7.4
