Twisted Metal: Next Generation Revealed

Twisted Metal: Next Generation Revealed


I don’t consider myself a fan boy, I usually have problems with most series of games, books, and films that I never truly believe one genre or series deserves all of my attention. There are maybe two games that I do love more than any, because of fun, and also because of their originality (at the time of their conception) and those two game series are Mortal Kombat, and Twisted Metal.
Twisted Metal is a series that I have personally followed since my youth. Though I did grow up in the generation when Mortal Kombat was the worst thing ever, and would bring about the end of days, and Tipper Gore was demanding regulation on video games, Twisted Metal was sort of the next step in that wayward sense of violent video games. Clearly not as drastic as say, Mortal Kombat in its grotesque violence, the fact that this was a game where you blew up cars, and ran people over, it did raise many eyebrows and suspicions. Despite the first game only having a Teen rating by the ESRB, the game clearly was meant as a rebuttal to all the terrible racing games.
In its conception, Twisted Metal was suppose to represent big, open worlds, where car chase and explosions resembled those closely linked to Action and Thriller films of the seventies and eighties. Now, with the original cast behind the game with Eat.Sleep.Play, former partners with Incognito and the original developing company called Single Trac are now re-creating a game that is well over ten years old.
Twisted Metal, no subtitles, was shown at E3’s Press Conference, and it was perhaps the biggest news the gaming world received in a long while, since Sweet Tooth is like the unofficial spokesperson for Sony Playstation. The game was demoed with the new inception of a multiplayer online game called Twisted Metal: Nuke. This was demoed to draw-dropping fans and developers alike, showcasing the PS3’s potential. The game plays out like a class-based style combat game, although not Team Fortress, but something similar.
This new Twisted Metal was demoed this year, although we only saw a revamp in online play. The question is though, is the game going to be like MAG (Massive Action Game) where it is primarily and online title with no Story Mode? If so, does this truly make it an official Twisted Metal title? Also, if there is a Single Player Mode, then will there be brand-new cars, or will there be a feel for the original games, as Dave Jaffe intended? Jaffe, being one of the original co-creators of the series, has promised that the game will have a definite feel of the original titles released on the PS1. Although I am excited personally for this title, I would hope it is more than Online play, as Internet access is very limited in this area.
The Multiplayer game Twisted Metal: Nike, showcased the engine rather well, as factions for the Sweet Tooth gang went up against those in the Dollface gang. Sweet Tooth is of course the Ice-Cream truck driving killer clown, and Dollface was the emo-like China doll faced driver of the infamous Semi truck named Darkside as it appeared in Twisted Metal: Black.
The game shows a bunch of guys in clown outfits and masks, attacking the Dollface fighters in an effort to capture the leader of the opposing team, and dragging them back to your base via a grappling hook. Once there, they are held there, until a certain amount of time, until they are sacrificed to a nuke launcher (a bit similar to the one Calypso used to drive in the fourth game) and this nuke missile can then be guided, and hit into the opposing teams’ giant metal float. After three hits, the metal float explodes.
It sounds like a real pain, but the game looks incredible, and the giant open environment looks amazing, even if it is always at a glimpse, since the frame rate, and overall speed of the game will feel incredibly fast. Twisted Metal is shaping up fast, but it looks like it has to be just in its baby-stages, or they are just holding out, I’ve only seen the Playstation Keynotes, so I‘ve yet to get anymore updates.
I’m sure when we actually get our hands on this game, it feels like it’ll be around fall of 2011, but I could be very, very wrong on that date. No matter when the date is set, this game will be a guaranteed seller for the Playstation 3.
Questions still remained if this is going to be a full-game, of course multiplayer is probably the most impressive, but I do hope that there are original characters as well, along with a bunch of the old cars, because if it’s just motorcycles, and tow trucks, and maybe some regular cars, I don’t think it will be that great. Then again, I may eat my own words once I get a hand on the game, because being so much into the old series, and a change-back to the comedic, old-school form, I may very well enjoy this game to the highest extent.
For a brief history on Twisted Metal, I refer to an earlier post, doing the entire Twisted Metal History; I’ve also done one for Mortal Kombat, including Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. To get the whole experience, check out Amazon.com for the first four games and Small Brawl, and the PS2 version of Twisted Metal: Black. There’s also an online version, sold separately, that can also be found on Amazon.com.
Back to the new game, as the future is always more powerful than the past in the video game world, I find that this new game will be the second best in the series, (World Tour is still considered by the diehards as the best game yet) as mentioned earlier, it’s funny how the twos in fighting games are always some of the best, and everything after is just child’s play of the first sequel.
Think about it: Twisted Metal 2: World Tour, best of series, Mortal Kombat II, best of its series since conception, Street Fighter II, so good it had like what, two remakes? (Super Street Fighter II, and Street Fighter Turbo.) And Teken 2, the game that built the franchise up, and made it popular, and still the most impressive game in the series. Marvel vs. Capcom 2, a game that was so popular ten years ago, it demanded a sequel? Even games that haven’t seen the shores of the states still have a sequel that true fighting genre gamers will know, like Tobul 2. Hell, even Resident Evil 2, and Silent Hill 2, although not technical fighting games, are both sequels that pressed their franchises further, into gaming history.
In the case of video games, sequels are not always a bad thing, in-fact, they sometimes, if not always show-up their predecessors. Look at it this way, games that were popular originally, will always spawn a greater sequel, because when a big brand-new game gets released, it is not always the most funded, or the most cared after game during production. So when the game is released, even if it looks like shit, and it’s a big hit, the game will then get the funding needed for a bigger, greater release in the sequel.
For things like movies, this would spell disaster, like seen in Transformers, which was not even that great as a first film, but with games, the difference maker is that the innovation and time is, I believe put for to make the titles as big as they are, because big Hollywood budgets are not what they are given, but a limited amount, even if it is quadruple what the developers were making originally, and it is funded deeply into the game, so it can run its course over ten years. Here’s and example, Mortal Kombat will be 18 come Jan 3rd of 2011, and the title has shown so much maturity with its new title, that I think the game series if very well watched will be played one day by my kids.
Same goes for t he longest-running game character, Mario. Technically he may not be the oldest, but it is a pretty close race to see who is perhaps the most influential character out there, and Mario sure as hell is perhaps the most iconic game character to ever have been created. Pac-Man, and others from the early days of Namco and the Atari have their spots in the history of gaming, but no game character in the history of the art form of video game creation has ever come close to beating Mario. Now, what does this all have to do with Twisted Metal? Here’s the point I’d like to make: If Dave Jaffe, and the developers, writers, and programmers at Eat.Sleep.Play games keeps developing at this caliber, I’m sure that Twisted Metal will not just be revitalized, I’m very well sure it will be taken off the Iron Lung and running track in the next few years.
It may very well be that the characters I grew up with, like Sweet Tooth, Roadkill, Spectre, and Yellowjacket to name a few of the more popular cars, will be played by my children, and even if pressed further on through high-end innovation, my grandchildren. I already know that Mario will survive to see the 2040s and 2050s, but will he be alone from this generation of game innovation? Mario’s already well over thirty years old (If you consider Donkey Kong) and is like the Mickey Mouse of gaming, but who will become the Clint Eastwood of gaming?
Is it not interesting that in many ways we have been entertaining people with the same ideas for more than a century? Every movie has had thirty remakes, every song has been released a million times over with different variations and styles (Thanks to Youtube, any band from the local high school chorus, to some garage band punks rocking out with a flip-camcorder set on a vibrating desk from the noise coming from their instruments, can be doing a rendition of Come Together by the Beatles in two different entire styles of music, and millions across the world would see it!
Yes, remakes are both exciting and boring at the same time, because of their nostalgia to better times, when really the older was always seen as the best, but when it comes to games, fan boys jump for joy, then truly never admit that they were a bit let-down by the new product, never saying the golden words “It’s been done before”. Stating the obvious, gamers will always turn to the familiar, than to the unknown, they are very conservative about their games, and if any originality ever spews forth, it has to be wholly accepted, or never accepted at all. Katamari Damacy was a prime example of something a bit familiar and a bit unknown that showcased a great original game, that is now almost become a genre, and boring.
In video games, genres are key, almost astounding to a generation that hates definition, but they love a new FPS, or a sports title, or even something from the Action/Adventure genre; yet when it comes to Hollywood, they are the same that will boo at another Terminator, or another Die Hard, yet it’s practically the same thing! Then there’s always the Metal Gear theory.
The Metal Gear theory is a somewhat coined terminology I’ve come up with, but has been probably mentioned by many bloggers and inside workers before: it states that no matter what system, no matter how many releases, people will always be excited over this series, because of the original from the NES. Many younger gamers may not realize this, but Solid Snake (now mostly voiced by the talent of David Hayter) is a character that is well over twenty years old. Metal Gear has had about ten to fifteen titles in the series, if you count the remakes and the horrible Snake’s Revenge. The series has been around almost as long as I have been alive, if not longer, and has spawned a worldwide sensation. It’s truly sensational in a rather ironic way just how long games that entertain us now, have been entertaining people for almost three generations of gamers. I guaranteed when the next generation of systems are released in about five years or so, there will be an uproar of fandom when next there will be an announcement for a brand-new Metal Gear Solid game.
Hideo Kojima, pretty much the father of Konami in a slight sense, has made games that people play over-and-over again, always finding something new to discover in his games. It’s amazing that a man has had so much success on this one game franchise, but never really seen any other success in any other games, or game styles. He is the forerunner for the creator of tactical espionage games to surface over the years from developers like Ubisoft, and has had some of the most memorable games ever created, his last big title being Metal Gear Solid: 4 Guns of Liberty, and with the release of Metal Gear: Peacewalker, he’s practically has the handheld PSP back in sales.
With the series Twisted Metal, we see that innovation, determination, and a fan base in core gamers from three different genres: the open-world genre, or sandbox genre, the fighting genre, and the racing/driving genre, all clawing at their knees. You could even throw in the FPS gamers for this game if you’d like, but it was the innovation of Twisted Metal that birthed the genre of car combat games.
Popular games to follow suit with Twisted Metal are: Vigilante 8, actually a quite refreshing look at the new genre, and at this point of popularity and iconic history; Vigilante 8 is a game that deserves to be considered another franchise in the developing, and creating of the car combat genre. Carmageddon was a game made for the original Playstation console and PC that also took the car combat genre to a whole new level, although the grotesque amount of violence and sadistic king was nowhere near the very more action-focused games like Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8, and Rogue Trip. When I first saw this game advertised back in magazines like Tips and Tricks, and Playstation Magazine, it was looked more similar to Thrill Kill, and Killer Instincts, both over-the-top fighting genre games, than it ever did to Twisted Metal.
Twisted Metal is the true original, the most outsold, and even puts next generation games like Full Auto to shame in fan-fare, so when I saw the Ice Cream truck pull up in the teaser trailer at the Sony Keynote, I knew that there was something amazing coming up when the actors were discussing car-combat games. Sure, I knew right then it had to be Twisted Metal, but it could have easily been a chat about Full-Auto, at this point in Sony’s history, it is the game that is most known in the genre. When I heard the Ice Cream music, I knew right then, that Sweet Tooth was back.
If anyone from Sony reads this, I would like him or her to know, I want to buy that Ice Cream truck they rolled out on the stage. I don’t care if I have to take out three mortgages, and spend the rest of my life in debt from loans, but I want that Twisted Metal Ice Cream truck.
I am a huge geek at heart, even if I don’t always appear to be one, but I would literally giggle and dance around like a little boy at Christmas morning to have that ice cream truck in my front yard. Even if it’s just a prop, I don’t care; I want that truck!
I’m not sure if this game will be like the old ones: based on real-world areas, or based on generic imagined areas that could be anywhere, it will be the most astronomical game in the series. Even if it is so horrible, it puts the series to shame and the car concept game out of business, (doubtful) Twisted Metal will still be biggest, most-original title in the series.
What else can we expect from that showing of multiplayer action? I’m sure that this little tidbit taste, although more than I ever expected to see, will be all we get until well into next year. I highly doubt that Dave Jaffe will allow for much information or footage to leak, as this is truly a comeback title, if we all over prepare for it too fast, the lackluster will surely be gone at release.
I really did not believe there was much more you could do with this series, but as Twisted Metal reaches adulthood, it surely is maturing in its graphics, game play, and online capabilities. When they innovate the game by making cool additions to multiplayer with teams going against teams, and there are snipers in one car, and a driver in the other, camping up on a hillside, and sniping off riders on motorcycles. Or better yet, riding a motor bike from hell, wielding a chainsaw in one hand, and then lowering it to the ground to heat it up on fire to make a flaming chainsaw, then tossing it or cutting it through your opponents car.
This is just a taste of the new game, as you know, so I can imagine what other nifty little acts they will put into the game to get us interested. If they are as fun as what I saw in this game, I can very-well assure you all that this may very well be the second best game in the series, I still do not believe it will surpass the second game in both fun, and in the shock of the boss character when you first meet him, going through the Hong Kong streets and subways. It truly brings up great memories, and if this game is as good as it looks, and plays just as amazing on my console, I do believe there will be many more memories made with the next installment; also the first next-generation installment of the Twisted Metal franchise.
I also hope that although they may not also be the original creators, that maybe in a few years, we could see a remake of the Jet Moto series in the future. A great, very popular game, but it never saw another day on a system past the original Sony Playstation. The game was great, and it had original characters that all had a back-story, and were quite interesting to play as, maybe something can be don through Eat.Sleep.Play to remake this series as well?
Jet Moto was a racing game that had tehse futuristic jet skis that could go on land, snow, and water. The game had you racing the clock to get across the finish line first, and it turned out to be a very difficult thing to do. One cool cheat allowed you to play the swamp level that you raced in Jet Moto in Twisted Metal 2, showing there was a bit of similarity between the two games, although they were not even in the same genre. It would e interesting indeed to see this game played on the Sony Play station 3, who knows just what will happen when the PS3s power is used for this classic title. Either way, I’m sure a brand-new Jet Moto would more than likely turn some heads.

Thank you, as always for reading the Malacast Editorial. I cannot help but thank every reader that struggles with me, and has read me since day one, I will do my best to always bring you the newest information in the entertaining side of the technologically advancing Mass Media market of the digital age, as well as the latest book reviews.
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