Twisted Metal: Head-On - Extra Twisted Edition

The Good
LET'S TALK GAME-PLAY

• Balanced enemies
• Speed felt right
• Weapon variety was familiar
• Camera wasn't the worst I've seen

LET'S TALK GRAPHICS

• Nice compromise in art between cartoon-ish TM and TM Black's realm
• Lighting shows improvement of TM : Black in places.

LET'S TALK SOUND

• Not below par, thankfully they avoided tracks with lyrics this time around

LET'S TALK STORY

• The current storylines for the game are the same 'ironic' twists as always, but it was the live-action ending footage from TM:1 that I was after the whole time. And those... well, look below

The Bad
LET'S TALK GAME-PLAY

• Twisted Metal 3 was terrible. Twisted Metal 4, despite having a 'custom car' section, had lost the magic. When Twisted Metal : Black came out it restored a lot of shine to the franchise. Head-On does nothing to polish or tarnish this sheen - it's Twisted Metal game-play. Some of the button mapping for powers (using the special energy meter) could have stayed legacy TM2 and I'd have been happier
• Although the art compromise working more towards the previous cartoon-ish (great in TM:2, baad in TM:3) incarnations was good - it does take some of the nitty-gritty away from game-play. I felt TM : Black was more visceral because of the grit, you could more easily 'feel' hits to the car, flinch after a long fall when your chassis slams into pavement.
• The much touted 'play as Sweet Tooth in the asylum' section should be explained - you just run around and get icons. No enemies, no objectives - this section was left unfinished. Don't buy the game thinking it's MGS: Sweet Tooth
• As corny and 90's terrible as a title like "World Tour" is, at least I remember the levels from the second Twisted Metal game. I can't remember anything except the last boss battle from this one.

LET'S TALK GRAPHICS

• It's difficult to complain about mediocre graphics.

LET'S TALK SOUND

• Average for the series, they avoided the pitfalls of lyrical music but also didn't opt for the thematic scores used in TM : Black. Sometimes the money just isn't there.

LET'S TALK STORY

• Average current storylines. I was a little shocked at just how bad the original endings for TM:1 were. No wonder they got cut!

The Bottom Line
'Twisted Metal' (1) was really a special game. In an age where vehicular combat usually had a racing element applied to it, and where the main competition was BC Racers on a doomed Sega console, the dystopian setting and 90's metal style of the first game was a welcome change. A lot of the aspects from the original were forgotten for the sequel - the world became a little tamer, the storylines became a little more humanized, the colour palette went 90's animation. No longer did Judge Dredd looking cops shoot at your car, there were no rocket-pack guys taking pot-shots at you, and 1st person (which was corny with the different dashes, especially with lose objects staying stationary while you barrel rolled your car - must have spilled some pop under those!) was no longer available.

This game is a suiting memoir to the original TM team. The behind the scenes stuff, the endings, if you are a TM fan you should buy this. It won't be your favourite, but it is the fourth best game in the series (TM:2, TM:Black, and TM orig taking the first three spots in my heart).