Twisted Metal: Head On - Extra Twisted Edition

"Twisted Metal Gives Us a New Twist on Hardcore TM Fans"

Twisted Metal, a game made by SingleTrac in 1995. It was an unexpected hit on the PS1 and 13 years later, it is still regarded as one of PlayStations best titles. Twisted Metal 2 came out in 96 and people fell in love with the gameplay, the characters, the physics, weapons, levels. It was great. But in 1998, Sony and SingleTrac had a dispute, which led the next game, Twisted Metal 3 and 4, to be done by Sony's 989 Studios. ......yeah, both games were pretty bad. Ruined physics, boring levels, stupid storylines and butchered characters. TM3 and 4 are unofficial not part of the series. That's how bad they are. Then in 2001, Sony and the original developers made Black on the PS2 and the game was an instant hit, one of PS2's best games. Then in 05, fans got another taste of Metal when it hit the PSP. However, it was the PSP! This new game, Head-On, was a true sequel to TM2, but we needed the game on a real home console. And now, our prayers have been answered.

Gameplay-10/10-It's simple. You have a car, you shoot other cars, and have a blast doing it. This is like Twisted Metal 2 all over again, except improved! Arcadey physics makes for a very fun game to play, along with a slewful cast of characters. It seems that this is a mixture of TM2 and TMBlack. And it couldn't be any better, this is where the game shines!

Content/Storyline-10/10 This disc is packed for 20 bucks! Not only do you have the cool storylines of the characters in the game, but we also have extra content, such as a documentary on the series from the first Twisted game in 1995 all the way to now. Also, we have something called Twisted Metal Lost, which is what would have been Twisted Metal Black 2. However, 6 of the main people working on the game got killed in a plane crash in 2005. So, they decided to release what was finish. Including 3 or 4 new levels and also a new character. This game would have been awesome, but RIP to the producers who died. On top of that, you have the ending movies to the original Twisted Metal that were going to be in the game, but frankly, the acting was terrible and laughable, so it (thankfully) didn't make the game. There's also a mode where you can walk around as Sweet Tooth in a prison to get facts from the developers.

Sound-8/10 The sound is great, no problems here. The explosions sound pretty cool, and the vehicles have their classic trademark noises. You can hear the victory music on Warthog, Sweet Tooth's evil laugh, and Spectres weird noises when they fire their special. The background music consists of techno/rock for Head-On, and the more darker music for Lost.

Graphics-6/10- This is a given, it's from a PSP game! Some of the textures look like a very early PS2 game, Black had better visuals. But the game was written for the PSP, so this is probably as good as it'll get. The framerate stays strong though! Great looking explosions and the levels are very well done (Like Paris, the Eiffel Tower explodes again just like in TM2)

Overall-The graphics do hurt it a bit, and the fact that they left out 4 player split screen was questionable (one of my favorite points from Black). But Twisted-Head On ETE is one of the best Twisted Metal games to hit a Sony Home Console. It has been confirmed from Jaffe that Twisted Metal for PS3 will be coming out. (Thanks to us at Gamefaqs) But in any case, if you're a Twisted Metal or car combat fan, this is definately worth the 20 dollars for this game. Pick it up!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/08

Game Release: Twisted Metal: Head On - Extra Twisted Edition (US, 02/05/08)