Except for the cut-scenes, the graphics weren’t too exciting and the sound is just blah. The sloppy control and light gravity also don’t help too much. Despite all this, I still found this to be a fun game once I got the hang of it and I also found myself becoming strangely addicted to it.
Some will immediately be turned away by the graphics and others by the more childish design, but if your PlayStation is still kicking, you might want to check it out.
Most underrated Twisted Metal. 10 for Concept. 10 for Music. Sure, it's not the most attractive game, but neither was the original Twisted Metal. Gameplay is a 10 as well, feeling like a much slower version of TM: Black's style, rather than the gameplay of the earlier PS1 titles. Some of the sound effects could have been better I suppose but the concept of RC cars shooting fireworks didn't translate well from a sound perspective due to PS1's limitations. And RC cars in real life are faster than they appear to be in the game, so it's not realistic; however, a realistic RC speed approach would likely not have been possible on PS1, nor practical given the arena sizes. What makes up for that is the challenge of the game, as cheating is not really allowed if you seek to unlock the boss characters and hidden maps of the game (without a cheating device). It's nice to see cheating discouraged in Twisted Metal when many offline players would cheat or take password shortcuts in classic Twisted Metal games, at least back before the days of watching cutscenes on YouTube for any game. TMSB understands the importance of fun with a good variety of maps to battle in, especially the hidden maps which were gimmick heavy like the bowling alley. Likewise the story maps have some gimmicks such the trampoline on the Tree House map that bounces the player back to the map's surface when RC cars fell off the edge. Some maps have the traditional secret area too, like in the kitchen map that has a hidden room full of good pickups. Outside of being unlucky enough to be released around the same time as its big brother TM: Black, and being released in the last generation of PS1 games when most gamers jumped to PS2, this game really has no major flaws outside of not looking or running like a PS2 game. Also, the intro scene is great, I feel like this spinoff Twisted Metal universe had potential to be a funny all-ages cartoon show. It has a loose tie-ins to the first couple of Twisted Metal games, with Specter/Ken Masters appearing in Specter's ending, and Jimmy Ash possibly being Mr. Ash (Darkside) in a different form, and Billy Calypso perhaps getting the idea of his contest from Twisted Metal, but it otherwise is it's own kind of universe that is Twisted Metal in spirit, but without the vehicular homicides and running over pedestrians. The endings remain faithfully twisted though despite looking like cartoon shorts.
This game doesn't even live up to the first four PSX titles in the series. It's that bad. I just feel dirty playing it, and Sony should feel worse for publishing it. [Jan 2002, p.88]
A very underrated entry in the franchise.
Appart from graphics it's a great game with an awesome game design and good ol' cynical endings.
Yes, some people can be quite confused by unexpected change of the setting, but again, it's a spinogg entrt and I don't think that it's a bad thing.
The best part about this game is the level design.
I actually enjoyed this one a little bit. Compared to a lot of the others, it ****. But compared to TM3 and TM4, it's pretty good. It feels like if Twisted Metal had a kid's TV show, and this was the game based on it, but it's a fun one.
SummaryIt seems almost as if this game is SCEA's form of an apology to the fans, while at the same time an attempt to win over some of the younger crowd.