Video Game Saga *

The Twisted Metal series has been a signature franchise in the vehicle combat genre ever since the 1995 release of Twisted Metal on the PlayStation One. Now series creator and designer David Jaffe along with his studio Eat Sleep Play are bringing us a retelling if you will of the original Twisted Metal game. Twisted Metal for PS3 will be in the spirit of the original game while incorporating so much of what we loved from Twisted Metal Black on PS2 such as being able transform Sweet Tooth’s Ice Cream truck into a giant robot!

The story goes like this. Mad man Calypso who resides in his sky high penthouse called Calypso Industries is preparing for his annual Twisted Metal tournament. Contestants must battle to the death and be the lone survivor for their wish to be granted by Calypso! This time around, Calypso has a special mystery prize in store for the winner. However, a mysterious religious figure aware of Calypso’s prizes is hot on his trail, destined to take him and his tower out.

Anybody who has ever played a Twisted Metal game knows the vehicle combat carnage to expect and if you haven’t, well this newest entry will balls out introduce you! You will only be able to play as four characters from the Twisted Metal Universe: Sweet Tooth, Dollface, Mr. Grimm and the Preacher. Each character will have three different endings depending on how you play the game. Now while there are only four characters to play, you can interchange these characters with several different vehicles to do combat with, for example you can play as Sweet Tooth in Crimson Fury’s ride. Over 8 huge levels await you to do battle in with missiles, remote bombs, super gun bullets and more to destroy your enemies. And every vehicle has its own unique special attack.

There are several new features in Twisted Metal including two new guns; a Sniper Rifle and Shotgun. There are several new characters as well including: the Reaper motorcycle, Roadboat a Cadillac esque car, Death Warrant a Ford Mustang, Vermin a company work van that kills rodents, Meat Wagon which looks a lot like the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and the Talon helicopter. Speaking of Talon, players for the first time in the series get to battle while in air. You can hunt down your enemies shooting and firing missiles at them from the sky. When you use the Talon’s special, you go into first person mode firing your gun turret at the enemies below.

When you take control of the Reaper motorcycle, you’ll be able to wield a chainsaw but not only that, you can pop a wheelie while your chainsaw grinds against the pavement causing it to spark and set fire at which point you can throw the flaming chainsaw at your enemies. This is very very gratifying! Even with all the new features and vehicles there are plenty of elements and vehicles from past Twisted Metal games including: Crimson Fury, Warthog, Spectre, Outlaw and more. If you pre-order the game at GameStop or Best Buy, they will give you a code to unlock the Axel vehicle 30 days early.

The game will heavily focus on the multi-player experience with several modes including Nuke Mode, Death Match, Last Man Standing, Hunted and more for 4-players offline and up to 16-players online with the emphasis of factions.  

From what we have played of Twisted Metal we can tell you that come February 14, you’re loved one is going to be competing very hard for your attention because believe me you’ll either be playing this game or in the back of your mind wishing you where. Who knows maybe you can even ask your Sweet Tooth, I mean Sweet heart if she would buy you Twisted Metal for PlayStation 3. And if she wants to make it extra special, tell her to buy you the limited edition which features a full blown PS2 port of Twisted Metal Black. Just don’t call her Doll Face or things may get nasty!