365//365: Day 042 – Twisted Metal: Small Brawl (PSX) [Quickie]

There’s one constants when it comes to the Twisted Metal franchise, and that is the dark, sadistic story and characters. While the first two games developed by Singletrac were great, and the following two that were developed by 989 Studios were pretty bad, neither company were allowed to apply the theory of a ‘”third time is the charm”, as a new developer stepped in. Incognito, comprised of many developers from the first two Twisted Metal titles, handled the task of creating the last Twisted Metal game on the PS1 in the form of Twisted Metal Small Brawl. Will they do the series justice, or remain incognito?

As soon as you hit the first CG story board, you’ll notice that the franchise has no constants anymore. Gone is the evil, dark story. You still have many of the series staples, such as Calypso, but now they are all children. This is basically Twisted Metal for the kids. No demonic overtones, no sick and twisted endings. All replaced with a more light-hearted look and feel.

The world has a lot of imagination to it, making the stages much more enjoyable than the last two titles.

One major change is how the game looks. Everything is skewered towards youth. No longer are you driving vehicles of death and destruction. Now you’re driving a remote control car, through different environments such as a playground, a kitchen, and an odd ‘”fun house”. The stages feel more lively than the last two titles, though the look isn’t as detailed. Vehicles have a decent enough look, where you can easily distinguish the fact that they are not armored tanks of destruction, but remote control toys.

Handling these new found toys is another story. On several occasions, I experienced sudden accelerations and reverse driving while idle, or turning. As a whole, the game feels closer to the first Twisted Metal than anything, but instead of stiff controls, you have some very loose controls here. As with the handling, the music is a whole other story. Gone are the annoying Rob Zombie songs, replaced by some bland tunes. Even the porn riffs in the title screens song have little life to it.

For some reason, this makes me want to play Katamari Damacy.

While the game its self is infinitely more playable and enjoyable than the two games 989 barfed out, it’s nothing special. It’s not a bad game at all, but lacking the adult themed storyline in favor of a family friendly story and setting, gives the series a feeling that it tried too hard to reinvent its self. If it were anything but a Twisted Metal title, I’d say it’s an above average game, but being within the Twisted Metal universe, Small Brawl is just barely past “above average”.

Rating: 6.2