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Twisted Metal
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 The logo of the Twisted Metal series |
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| Genre(s) | Vehicular combat |
| Developer(s) | SingleTrac (1995-1997) 989 Studios (1998-2000) Incognito Entertainment (2001-2007) Eat Sleep Play (2008-Present) |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Creator(s) | David Jaffe, Scott Campbell |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation, PlayStation 2,PlayStation 3 ,PlayStation Portable , PC |
| First release | Twisted Metal November 5, 1995 |
| Latest release | Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition February 5, 2008 |
| Official website | Official Site |
Twisted Metal is a series of vehicular combat video games published by Sony Computer Entertainment, and developed by various companies during its tenure. The series began on the PlayStation in 1995 and currently features seven games, with an eighth installment currently in production. It is the 147th best-selling video game franchise, selling over five million copies in North America alone.[1]
It is the longest-running PlayStation-exclusive franchise with a total of fifteen years running from 1995 to present with the closest being the Gran Turismo series which has spanned thirteen years. Seven games of the series (including Twisted Metal: Black Online) were re-released as part of the Sony Greatest Hits program.
In concept, Twisted Metal is a demolition derby that permits the usage of ballistic projectiles, machine guns, mines, and other types of weapons (up to and including satellite-based weapons and nuclear weapons). Players choose a vehicle and an arena—or a series of arenas in the story mode—to engage in battle with opposing drivers. A variety of weapons and upgrades are obtainable by pick-ups scattered throughout the stage. The last driver alive is the winner.
Although each individual game features its own storyline, they all revolve around the same basic theme: a vehicular combat tournament called Twisted Metal is presented with the promise of granting the contest's winner any single wish they so desire. In almost all of the games, the host is a man called "Calypso"; however, in the series' fourth installment, perennial contestant Sweet Tooth briefly takes over.
The hosts of these games are the persons who are, through arcane means, capable of warping reality itself to grant the wish of the contest winner; however, there is a general "be careful what you wish for" theme in the game series, as nearly all of the winning contestants end up with "not-so-happy" endings, due to the skill and proclivity of the hosts for twisting the words of their wish around—often to deadly effect. The games in the series usually contain a healthy dose of black humor.
By winning the game, players are treated to an ending pertaining to whichever character they chose to play as throughout the main game. Each ending shows the character wishing for "their heart's desire" and getting what they wished for (though Calypso will sometimes change the wish due to taking a more literal tone or for deriving amusement by jumbling the winner's words).
Format: PlayStation, PC
The first two Twisted Metal games were developed by SingleTrac.
An IBM PC version of Twisted Metal 2 exists. It features slightly cut-down graphics compared to the Playstation version (minor details of some levels disappeared) but it doesn't require a 3D accelerator video card and played well on computers with lower processing capabilities. It also features multiplayer over a modem line or Internet.
Format: PlayStation
After a contractual dispute with SingleTrac, Twisted Metal development duties were handed over to Sony's in-house development team, 989 Studios. The Twisted Metal titles developed by 989 Studios were fundamentally different, as the code base was completely rewritten. Sony introduced advanced physics simulation and AI techniques to the series.
David Jaffe, co-creator of the series, once expressed his displeasure at these two iterations of the game series, and was reported to have said, "....[in and of themselves] they're good games, they're just not good Twisted Metal games."
Format: PlayStation 2
After developing several non-Twisted Metal vehicular combat games for GT Interactive, a large number of SingleTrac employees left the company to form the gaming studio Incognito Entertainment and signed with Sony. Naturally, Sony offered them the opportunity to develop a new Twisted Metal title and their first game was Twisted Metal: Black for PS2.
The game is darker in atmosphere and departed from the style of previous games. The more mature content that some of the endings contained led to the removal of the FMV sequences from the European version.
Format: PlayStation
Instead of delivering a PS2 follow-up to Twisted Metal: Black, Incognito took an unexpected turn and developed Twisted Metal: Small Brawl for the original PlayStation, a Twisted Metal aimed at a younger audience that featured radio-controlled toy cars instead of full-size vehicles.
Format: PlayStation 2
Simply an online version of Twisted Metal: Black, a free copy could be obtained by mailing in a card that came packaged with the PS2 online Network Adapter. After Sony stopped offering the disc, it was later included in subsequent reissues of Twisted Metal: Black on Greatest Hits, in a 2-disc set. The servers to the game have since been shut down.
Format: PlayStation Portable
Despite the return of SingleTrac/Incognito with 2001's Twisted Metal: Black, they still had yet to deliver a true sequel to Twisted Metal 2. With the PSP, Incognito created a game that picks up where Twisted Metal 2 left off.
Format: PlayStation 2
In February 2008 Eat Sleep Play (the original developers of the Twisted Metal franchise) released Twisted Metal: Head-On to the PlayStation 2. However this port features much more than the PSP version. Most notable include "Twisted Metal Lost" from the unreleased/incomplete Twisted Metal: Black 2 aka Twisted Metal: Harbor City. Bonus features include: code to download the soundtrack, a half hour documentary with the original developers called "Dark Past". A walk around tour (not a game) by controlling Sweet Tooth and the never released live-action ending videos of all the characters from the original Twisted Metal.
Format: PlayStation 3
It has been unofficially announced that Jaffe and his new company, Eat Sleep Play, will be developing a new title in the Twisted Metal franchise[2], for the PlayStation 3. The announcement, not officially confirmed by Sony, came from a hidden message that was decoded in the Twisted Metal: Head-On "Dark Past" documentary where groups of numbers appeared on screen at points during the video which corresponded to letters of the alphabet. When deciphered, the message reads "Twisted Metal is coming on PS3". The title of the game is believed to have been displayed various times throughout the documentary which is the original Twisted Metal logo but in colors of rustic browns and yellows. However, Sony has not officially confirmed the existence of the game, and upon further questioning on multiple occasions Jaffe has insistently declined to comment further, and has in general refused to officially announce the title of Eat Sleep Play's first major game until Sony is ready for him to do so.
Eat Sleep Play may have provided more information about what is to be implemented into the new installment of the franchise during the Sweet Tooth Tour in Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition, when unlocking certain information about the history and developments of previous TM games. On feature 18/29 the developers state that the touring mode was to have been incorporated in Twisted Metal: Harbor City, a.k.a. Twisted Metal: Black II, which was to have both Sweet Tooth and Preacher playable and have a full interactive game mode. Of course, this was scrapped as TM:HC was never finished. But in an interesting note, in feature 18/29 they explain how the mode was to work and going on into the traps and end the paragraph with "Enjoy! We won't go so easy on you next time!". Thus, giving a possible hint that this mode could very well be implemented in the next Twisted Metal game for the PlayStation 3.
Format: PlayStation 2
A sequel to the PlayStation 2 game Twisted Metal: Black, titled Twisted Metal: Harbor City,[3] was in development but was cancelled before it was announced when the series co-creators left the development team.[4] At time of cancellation two levels had been completed, these levels were included in Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition as a special mode.
Twisted Metal features 50 different cars (although some different combinations of car and driver) in its eight incarnations (Twisted Metal, 2, III, 4, Black, Small Brawl, Head-On, and the upcoming eighth title). Many characters appear in more than one game of the series, although the same vehicles are not always driven by the same people.
Minor examples of such recurring characters include:
Calypso, playing the leading role in the storyline of the series, is a playable character in TM4, while in other games, he appears only in the opening and ending cutscenes.
Before creating the Twisted Metal contest, Calypso was just a regular man. He was a family man with a daughter and a wife, and he also had a different name. He led a normal life not unlike any other citizen, until one night he was involved in a freak accident which resulted in him crashing his car directly into a brick wall. This car crash left him in devastation, killing his wife and daughter (later revealed to be Krista Sparks, the driver of the car Grasshopper; extrapolating from this, his original last name might be Sparks) as well as burning and disfiguring his own face. During this time it has been hinted at that Calypso did a few things: first, made a deal (references could be made to support Mr. Grimm or Minion) to come back to life in exchange for souls. Secondly, obtained by trickery or from the deal itself the use of powers (be it through a demon or not) to offer a wish in exchange for killing and winning his contest. Two years after his disappearance while he was assumed to be dead, he re-emerged, his name changed to Calypso, and possessing a power that allows him to grant wishes. The power is said to be stolen from a demon, most likely the driver Minion, who later competes in the contest in order to regain it. Calypso then established Twisted Metal and, for ten years, has continued to run the competition. This is where the first Twisted Metal game comes in.
When someone wins his contest, the winner gets to have one wish granted. These comprise the game's ending sequences. It should be noted that while Calypso seems to stick to the phrasing of a wish, he will gladly violate its spirit, which usually causes the wisher harm in the end (such as wishing for the ability to fly has him get the wisher's plane tickets, only telling after they jumped off a building), though in the original game, Black and Head-On he generally granted the character's wish without pulling any harmful tricks on them. The scope of his powers seem to have extraordinary bounds. Even with this though, there are limits as to just what he can grant.
Similarly, the meaning of the ending for Roadkill in Twisted Metal 2 is ambiguous - Marcus Kane's (the driver) wish is to wake up from the nightmare he is trapped in. After winning the contest, Kane awakes up in a hospital bed, surrounded by his family, relatively unscathed. They are surrounded by some of the other contestants, all of whom are severely injured. It is unclear if the contest was a hallucination in Kane’s mind, or if Calypso truly granted his wish.
Calypso is, to some extent, seemingly a prisoner of the Twisted Metal contest himself: he can't, for example, restore his daughter to 'life' unless she wishes for it. Additionally, endings in Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal 2, and Head On show that his power seems to extend only to granting wishes; he can't, for example, stop Agent Sheppard from arresting him via his powers, as Sheppard refused to accept a wish. Similarly, in Twisted Metal 2, he could not prevent Shadow from taking his soul as revenge for all the people who died due to the Twisted Metal competition. Also, in Twisted Metal: Head-On, Sweet Tooth wishes to change places with Calypso and, despite Calypso's final judgment not to, it was granted.
Calypso's character design is inconsistent. It is different in many Twisted Metal games throughout the series. In terms of appearance, the most notable change is his hair which varies from thick and long to completely bald, or long hair on the sides.
Sweet Tooth, real name Needles Kane, is designed around the premise of a killer clown that drives an ice cream truck, and his face has been featured on the cover of every Twisted Metal game to date, making him the series mascot.[5][6] He is the only character, besides Marcus Kane, to drive more than one vehicle in any of the games, being the driver of Head-On's Dark Tooth, Tower Tooth, and as of Twisted Metal Lost, Gold Tooth. He is voiced by J.S. Gilbert in Twisted Metal: Black.
The character has gone through several redesigns differing from game to game, similar to fellow character Calypso, and his personality has grown progressively darker along the way. Sweet Tooth's original look featured him as a green haired, slim simple circus clown who had escaped from a mental institution.[7] The design was expanded upon in the second game in response to changes to the truck's design, notably due to the clown head adorning the truck now featuring a personality of its own.[8] The result gave Sweet Tooth the flaming head design seen on the character since. 989 Studios which handled the next two games put more emphasis on the clown design, redesigning his attire to that of a ringmaster in Twisted Metal 4; neither design was held in high regard by the developers, with David Jaffe stating his dislike of 3's look.[9] As of Black and beyond, the design was modified heavily, giving him increased bulk and other features that would be called his "classic look" by Incog Inc.'s design team.[5] His design became a large, somewhat overweight bare chested clown with a flaming mask locked into a permanent maniacal smile. Head On expanded on this idea, changing the mask to face paint and the smile to his own.[10]
The ice cream truck was actually designed well before the driver himself, and Black's incarnation took six months and many concept sketches to finalize. Labeled early on "DEMONIC ICE CREAM TRUCK", attention to details such as the head adorning the vehicle and the contents of the back of the truck were focused on during development.[11] Boss variants of the truck have also appeared regularly in the game's series, starting with Dark Tooth in the second game. While the designs for the vehicles have progressed steadily, care has been emphasized to keep them rooted to the simple ice cream truck structure yet unique, something that has become harder and harder for the team as the games go on.[12]
Sweet Tooth has the most ties to any group of characters in the whole series: his father Charlie Kane (driver of Yellow Jacket in the first game)[13] and Marcus Kane (split personality,[14] Roadkill's driver). Spectre's ending in the first game strongly hints that Sweet Tooth was the serial killer who killed the driver of Spectre five years before the competition.[15] In Black, he has an unnamed brother that only appeared in Twisted Metal Black, who himself drove that game's Yellow Jacket vehicle.[16] He is also directly responsible for the creation of that game's Axel, whose wife he killed,[17] and Cage, who wishes to be a greater killer than Sweet Tooth.[18] His mask is also seen in Dollface's middle video, being created by her boss.
Sweet Tooth appears as a car in the child-themed spin-off game Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, based on RC cars instead of real ones. In this game, Sweet Tooth is the youngest and most mischievous kid in the contest, and enters looking for some ice cream.[19] His ending shows that Calypso offers him an ice cream from his familiar Ice Cream truck, but Sweet Tooth instead steals the truck to terrorize Calypso. Sweet Tooth is also an unlockable character in War of the Monsters, a game in which Incognito used the TMB engine to make a movie monster fighting game. One of the characters, Agamo, has Sweet Tooth as the fourth skin. Sweet Tooth is represented by a tall mech with the signature flaming clown head, and often breaks out in his usual laughter throughout the game. Sweet Tooth is also an unlockable character in the North American and European versions of Hot Shots Golf 2. His appearance in this game is closer to his character design in Twisted Metal 3.
Beginning with Twisted Metal III, various music artists and bands have been brought in for each game's soundtrack. One such person was singer Rob Zombie, who contributed songs to both Twisted Metal III and Twisted Metal 4, and is even a playable character in the latter. Music from the game disk can also be played on a CD player or in a computer.
Track listing of Twisted Metal III by use:
Track listing of Twisted Metal 4 by use:
Track listing of Twisted Metal: Black by use:
Track listing of Twisted Metal: Head On by use:
Twisted Metal is often compared to other vehicular combat games, such as:
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Twisted Metal | Table of Contents |
Walkthrough
| Twisted Metal | |
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| Developer(s) | SingleTrac |
| Publisher(s) | Sony |
| Release date(s) |
January, 1996
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| Genre(s) | Action, Racing |
| System(s) | PlayStation |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) |
ESRB:
 Teen |
| Followed by | Twisted Metal 2 |
| Series | Twisted Metal |
Twisted Metal is the first game in the Twisted Metal vehicular combat series. It was developed by the game studio SingleTrac published by Sony, and released in 1995 for the PlayStation.
Twisted Metal was re-released as a Sony Greatest Hits game.
In concept, Twisted Metal is a demolition derby which permits the usage of ballistic projectiles. Players choose a vehicle and an arena—or a series of arenas in the story mode—to engage in battle with opposing drivers. A variety of weapons, ranging from missiles to traps, are obtainable by pick-ups scattered throughout the stage; as well as certain "repair stations" that regenerate player's health. The objective of the game is to be the last one standing.
The game's plot centers around a man named Calypso, the host of a vehicular combat tournament called Twisted Metal. He promises to grant the winner of the tournament anything he or she desires, without any limit of availability or even reality. The game's story takes place on Christmas Eve, 2005, during the 10th annual running of Twisted Metal taking place in Los Angeles.
| Twisted Metal | |
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| Developer(s) | Sony Interactive Studios America, SingleTrac |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Designer(s) | David Jaffe, Scott Campbell |
| Release date | 1995 |
| Genre | Vehicular combat |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Age rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation,PC |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough | |
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   | Twisted Metal - Twisted Metal for PlayStation - MobyGames |
| | Twisted Metal - Twisted Metal for PS - Twisted Metal PlayStation - Twisted Metal PS Game |
| | Twisted Metal - Twisted Metal for PlayStation - GameRankings |
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