Twisted Metal: Head-On - Extra Twisted Edition

Moby ID: 32816
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This is a conversion of the PSP version of Twisted Metal: Head-On, but with some differences. One of the changes is the inclusion of four lost levels of a new Twisted Metal game that was never finished (it was cancelled after six members of the production team died in a plane crash). It features the characters from Twisted Metal: Black, but with new stories (unfortunately, no endings were done for them) and two extra characters, 12-Pak and Gold Tooth. The levels are a massive suburban area, a giant stadium, a local carnival and a ship yard.

Another feature is the ability to walk around in an asylum as Sweet Tooth, a feature that was being worked on for the new Twisted Metal that was going to be used for character based foot missions. In it you can roam the asylum and collect Sweet Tooth shaped heads that include facts about the history of the Twisted Metal series.

Includes documentaries of the history of Twisted Metal and live action videos of endings for the original Twisted Metal on the PlayStation that looks like old, worn out videotape, some of which have completely different endings from the final versions, even making Sweet Tooth sound almost like Mick "Mankind" Foley of WWE/WWF fame.

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

188 People (173 developers, 15 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Game Design
Director
Technical Director
Producer
Software Engineers
Shell Art Director
3D Graphic Artists & Animation
QA Lead
Production Artists
System Engine Support
Studio Operations Director
Quality Analysts
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 74% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 12 ratings with 1 reviews)

Interesting from a sentimental point of view.

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).

PlayStation 2 · by Kyle Levesque (904) · 2011

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Game added by Big John WV.

Game added March 13, 2008. Last modified March 6, 2024.