While I did follow video game news back in the early and mid 90s I was blissfully unaware that the 32-bit generation had even started for the longest time. My first exposure to it was a PlayStation kiosk set up at an electronic store, but it wasn’t particularly significant for me. I envisioned this new system being something along the lines of the Jaguar and 3DO to be honest because advertising was limited. The game that was set up on this console was a car combat game called Twisted Metal, and although I could barely tell that this was an entire generational leap forward. A few years later I finally picked up the system with Twisted Metal 2 alongside it. I always wondered how the original holds up, and this weekend I gave it a shot. Unfortunately the original Twisted Metal has aged terribly, and despite popular opinion this one is far from being a classic in my opinion.
The story here focuses on a vehicular battle tournament called Twisted Metal. This is held in Los Angeles, and is organized by a mysterious underground figure named Calypso who will grant any wish to the last driver standing. You’re given a choice from twelve different drivers to play as and each has their own personal background story and ending. Unfortunately most of these are extremely cheesy; I’m talking really bad. To make matters worse the developers opted to use photos of real people for the character bios screens. The storyline and scenarios seem like something that could have been written by a troubled twelve year old and the ending sequences are just static screens with text. It’s pretty obvious that this game was rushed to the market because not a lot of thought went into these aspects of it. Twisted Metal almost singlehandedly popularized the car combat genre. After selecting your character (each has varying stats and an exclusive special weapon) you drive around 3D arenas battling against opponents using a vast array of weaponry. You have different types of missiles as well as land mines, oil slicks, etc. Each character has an exclusive special weapon, and all cars come equipped with dual machine guns which are weak in power but have infinite ammunition. The only drawback is that these overheat.
The character roster is pretty well balanced. Each vehicle is rated in four different fields; armor, handling, special weapon power, and speed. You’ll find that no one in the line up is completely useless nor are there any which are clearly better than the rest; they all trade off stats for other areas. The special weapons are generally a little boring in this original title; Crimson Fury’s looks like a standard shot except it’s red, Hammerhead rams opponents in lieu of a projectile, Pit Viper shoots a generic cloud of acid, etc. There’s nothing particularly interesting about these exclusive weapons, and the only ones I thought were even slightly inventive include Sweet Tooth’s napalm ice cream cones and Outlaw’s close range taser. Weapons (including your special) are scattered around on the ground in each stage, and usually the winner is the person who can get at them the fastest. Combat is generally fun, and I really like the fact that the game slowly throws more opponents your way as you progress through the six different levels. One thing that this game could have benefited from is more boss encounters; one just isn’t enough. Gameplay quickly becomes repetitive when you’re facing similar opponents across very generic level designs.
Unfortunately the original Twisted Metal just isn’t as fun as it once was. As I’ve already mentioned the level design is entirely too generic with very few areas that even feature multiple tiers. You’re given a handy radar to track your opponents, and it’s a god send because I never had any interest in exploring the stages more than was necessary. The controls are very clunky, and I found the vehicles with better handling capabilities are actually more difficult to control. The steering is in dire need of being loosened; I was finding myself spinning out while simply trying to turn around, and there’s a bad delay in switching from moving forward to back. Lining up your shots is awkward to say the least; there was rarely a moment when I didn’t have to waste time inching to the left or right to try and line up a perfect shot. It’s even more difficult when you’re in motion, and it’s just far too clunky to be enjoyable in this day and age. The game is awkward and boring.
Like most early PlayStation titles Twisted Metal is quite ugly in this day and age. The textures are incredibly pixelated and small details are difficult to make out. In addition the environments warp due to the lack of a z-buffer in the system’s hardware, and the polygon flicker can make it difficult to tell what’s happening. The biggest issue is the terrible framerate. The game sometimes chugs along at the speed of a photo slideshow, and this becomes a serious issue when you’re driving one of the faster cars. There’s a reason why, the first time I played it, I didn’t think it was a generational leap beyond what the 16-bit consoles could do. The audio is okay at best. Each character has their own sound effect at the select screen and when they use their special item which is a nice touch. The music is average, but the composers were trying too hard to be ‘cool.’
Twisted Metal feels like a product of the mid 90s; back when developers were trying too hard to be cool. The game itself introduces some good ideas, and the trashy metal theme is nostalgic, but the gameplay and tech just weren’t there. Thankfully the developer fixed most of these issues with the sequel, but as it stands the original is far from a classic. Gamers should feel no shame in skipping this iteration in favor of virtually any other entry in the Twisted Metal series.
