PlayStation 2

Twisted Metal: Black ONLINE

TMB:Online reflects this innate quality of the original title, holding onto the darkness and frenetic action while augmenting the initial concept for the game. It’s very easy to get the sense that this is Twisted Metal 1.5. Upon launching and joining either an Internet or LAN game, you’ll have access to all of the characters from TMB, including the boss characters, so you can take Manslaughter or Warthog onto the battlefield quickly. You’ll find that every level from the single player game are there as well, so you can choose your favorite level for an arena if you choose to host a match.

In the spring of 2001, Sony and Incog, Inc. released the best vehicular combat game ever made -- Twisted Metal: Black. With more arenas, more power-ups, new special moves and a high addiction level, Black was the Twisted Metal game that everyone had been waiting for.

For at least a limited time, Twisted Metal: Black Online is free for those that purchase Sony’s Network Adaptor and send in the coupon. As far as coupons go, this one is a pretty good deal. There are a number of new arenas for online play and various games and mods that you can use to alter the game to your tastes. Overall, there is nothing new here, but for the price you really can’t beat the fun.

Twisted Metal: Black was easily the best Twisted Metal game in the series and perhaps the greatest car combat game ever made. Twisted Metal: Black Online doesn't include any of the storyline or single-player progression from the original game, but it does include the same terrific gameplay and a few new game modes built for online multiplayer action.

Twisted Metal features free-for-all car combat set in the not-too-distant future, and for the Online incarnation, up to eight road warriors can go head-to-head via broadband but only two can compete in the analog arena. As the actions fast and furious, cars occasionally warp around, which is annoying when you’re speeding in for the kill on a weaker opponent only to have them vanish away. Online play may not be perfect, but it’s preferable to the frame-rate blender of four-player split-screen competition.

When SCEA announced its online PS2 game lineup for 2002, I felt it looked a bit thin. But once I learned that an online version of Twisted Metal: Black was being developed, I suddenly became interested. Twisted Metal: Black's vehicular combat is the perfect type of gameplay to launch an online gaming venture; the game is fast, fun, and addictive. To top it off, it's free with the purchase of the Network Adaptor -- just drop in the included post card, and four to six weeks later you'll have a copy. This special offer is the only way to receive this game and is a fine value-added bonus to the Network Adaptor.

A couple of years ago, we were quite taken with Twisted Metal: Black. It might look a bit crap these days, but back then each car's dainty, projectile-launching protrusions throbbed into life eye-catchingly enough, illuminating the post-apocalyptic wastelands of wherever with some fervency, and the fast-paced, Carmageddon-esque gameplay held our attention for quite some time, with a little help from countless gratifyingly destructible levels.