The '90s were a golden age for vehicular combat
games like Twisted Metal and Carmageddon. But when the century turned, the over-the-top
silliness of cowcatchers and hood-mounted missiles ceased to play. Blame the
only slightly more realistic mayhem of Grand Theft Auto. Twisted Metal: Head
On—Extra Twisted Edition is the last gasp of the bloody, frequently
gratifying genre. The Twisted Metal series saw seven incarnations; this value-priced
entry brings the last PSP game to the PlayStation 2, ditches online play, and
pads the disc with behind-the-scenes extras and a handful of lost levels from a
sequel that never saw the light of day.
The game looks raggedy next to stellar fin de
siècle
PlayStation 2 games like God Of War 2 and Final Fantasy XII. The killer vehicles fare
better when players are behind the wheel: They move deftly and dispense death
by way of missiles, exploding gas cans, and machine-gun fire. A tasty second
layer of special moves is buried beneath pick-up-and-slay controls. The series'
destructible levels were mind-blowing in '95 (I just knocked over the Eiffel
Tower!), and they
still manage to deliver diminished thrills, though dull, frustrating boss
battles slow down the main game's flow significantly. More fun are the handful
of Twisted Metal: Lost levels, which eschew story for straight-up action. The disc's
weirdest inclusion, more fascinating than fun, lets players explore a
never-before-seen area on foot as the evil clown Sweet Tooth. There's no game
to play in the unfinished asylum and junkyard, so the developers scattered
production notes and concept sketches throughout. More video games should have
supplemental materials this engaging.
Beyond the game: Play Calling All Cars! on the PS3 to see a
next-gen take on vehicular mayhem by Twisted Metal designer David Jaffe.
Worth playing for: Twisted Metal's developers shot
live-action endings for each character in the 1995 original, but scrapped the
potentially embarrassing scenes. The super-cheesy clips preserved on this disc
are the video-game equivalent of Troll 2.
Frustration sets in
when: Trimmed-back
multiplayer is a kick in the gut. But the PlayStation 2 never was all that
great for deathmatches in the first place. The add-on modem and the PlayStation
2 multi-tap peripheral required to play four-player games were, and still are,
a hassle.
Final judgment: A nostalgic road trip,
stuffed with game-design inside baseball.