Twisted Metal: Head-On - Extra Twisted Edition
Our Rating
7.8
|
Your Rating
N/A
|
Screenshot Galleries
Developer Eat Sleep Play – evolved from a group of key players at now-disbanded SingleTrac and Incog – have made their mark with several core franchises over the lifespan of the Playstation, but there's no doubt that Twisted Metal is their most celebrated. In fact, most fans – and Eat Sleep Play themselves – would concede that out of the nearly half-dozen entries in the series, Twisted Metal 2: World Tour remains the pick of the litter. Twisted Metal: Head-On – Extra Twisted Edition seems to have been crafted with this in mind, as it is ostensibly an homage to the PS1 classic.
Eagle-eyed PSP owners will notice that this is actually a port of the PSP launch title, part of the recent trend of milking the colossal PS2 install base. All is well, though, as this budget-priced version of Head-On includes a ludicrous amount of additional content, including five entire levels from the cancelled sequel to Twisted Metal: Black – not to mention a somber note on why the game was canned to begin with. Some of this bonus material – much like the first God of War's deleted monsters feature – is explored by guiding the iconic character Sweet Tooth through an asylum rather than using a simple menu. There's also a complete collection of the hilariously bad live-action cutscenes that were scrapped from the original Twisted Metal, and they're an absolute must-watch for fans. Simple bonuses like these may seem a little tacked-on or frivolous, but they really add a lot to the experience, especially for series devotees.
On top of all that, there's an actual game here, too. This Twisted Metal picks up where World Tour left off, and though it runs on a modified version of TM: Black's engine, the aesthetics and storytelling have much more in common with its PS1 ancestors. Many of the levels are re-imaginings of arenas from World Tour – including the quintessential Paris stage – and the ending cutscenes resemble the still-frame animatics of TM2 rather than the gritty FMV of Black. Still, regardless of appearances, the vehicular manslaughter that makes Twisted Metal series so great remains relatively unchanged.
Unchanged, that is, save for the addition of a new weapon upgrade system. Destroying enemy vehicles now results in them dropping significant upgrades to your health, armor, and weapons – upgrades that disappear upon player death. Requiring players to play the game well before rewarding them with items that used to be readily available in the maps is a bold design decision, especially in a game where there's so much disparity between the characters already. This is likely going to be a love-it-or-hate-it mechanic for most people, as one moment you can find yourself starkly overpowered, and one mistake later you're cannon fodder for the AI.
Also new to the series are some strangely out-of-place minigames that are hidden throughout the levels. Driving into these minigames' teleporters during a brawl will bring all the action to a screeching halt, allowing you to perform extraneous tasks like Wipeout-style races and shooting down helicopters with napalm. Success at these sidequests is rewarded with power-ups and weapons, but most will find them too absurdly random to fit into the rest of the mayhem – this is Twisted Metal, not WarioWare.
As a PSP title three years ago, Head-On was gorgeous – not so much on the PS2 today. That's not to say it's an eyesore; rather, it's a decent-looking game with a few rough spots here and there. For instance, the opening level is a massive stadium with a cringe-worthy, barely human-looking rock band performing on the center stage. The arena looks fine enough, but the character models for the rockers are a complete joke when you put them on a big screen. The game also lacks some of the nicer particle effects seen in Black – a game that was released in way back in 2001. It's hard to knock a game that debuted on the PSP for graphics, but it's also hard to deny that some of the visuals fail to hold up on a television.
Overall, though, Twisted Metal: Head-On – Extra Twisted Edition hits all the right notes for anyone looking for a nostalgic romp through one of gaming's most treasured series. It doesn't bring a lot of new ideas to the table, and it's not quite as awesome or gritty as Black was, but it's teeming with bonus features that will make any car combat fanatic wax sentimental about the golden age of PS1. Besides, we all could use some cheap thrills while we wait for the real Twisted Metal sequel to rear its head on PS3.
|
|
|
7.7