I needed a palate cleanser and wanted to try to get to grips with it, since Americans seem to love this franchise and you should start a series with the first game wherever possible.

If I'd got this on PS1 back in the day I think I'd have been quite put out - there's not a lot to it. Definitely needed more levels. This is forgiveable in the context of its release, wrestling with early 3D development probably plays a large part.

It plays fine once you grasp the controls, and I think it still works visually when actually in a level.

Twisted Metal is a cool idea, but its execution hasn't aged too well. In a way, this would work very well, if it were a demolition arcade game cabinet from the 90s, especially with the controls here feeling either too stiff or too slippery, depending on the character you pick.

It's a really tough game, but worth checking out for its weird and wacky premise. Going through each character and seeing their endings with Calypso (who has a really eerie design) is a pretty unique take on adding multiple endings to a game of this nature. Nothing too special, but there's potential here for improvement.

Thanks Sony for NOT adverting updates on your PS+ classic library!

A staple in many people's memories of owning a Playstation, however, Twisted Metal did not aged as well as it's first-year peers and of course it's sequels...

Graphics are really rough around the edges even for an early title game (I have a soft spot for actual low poly graphic games). There are moments in game where it's hard to spot weapon and turbo tokens, thanks to how they camouflage themselves in the LA environment and it's difficult to know what weapon you'll get. It would be very helpful that, at least, SingleTrac could had placed weapon/turbo indicators in the displayed mini-map, they at least had the courtesy to show where health recharge stations are in the map.

Gameplay is no better. The premise is simple: be the last one standing in a free-for-all style deathmatch, by defeating your opponents' vehicle with guns, missiles, specials, collisions (ram damage) and even environmental hazards (ramming them off cliffs). The gameplay can be aggravating due to how the CPU's AI generally work, they always dog-pile on you, the player, with spamming they're infinite arsenal of specials, never bothering to attack other CPUs. They are programmed to pretend to go after other CPUs when they are out of a designated range of a player. It becomes very difficult very fast, especially if you choose the ultra fast/light armoured cars, like Mr. Grimm, Spectre or Crimson Fury, in later levels where you might not have enough lives left. I guess it evens out with how relatively short the game actually is. Only 6 levels with 12 characters to choose, you can easily complete the game in one sitting, thanks to level passwords being universal to all characters.

Music and presentation is where I can give props to SingleTrac. Music is an excellent heavy metal/grunge mix, with a dash of cinematic orchestra, that really immerses the player into a cathartic road rampage against other drivers in the desolated streets of LA set in, a now retro-futuristic world of, 2005. Sucks that audio option is just full on music but with no sound effects, or no music but with full on sound effects. Just got to play it with headphones on or turn up your TV's volumes, just remember to turn in down once you're done playing.
I love the game's presentation, Calypso's Twisted Metal Tournament, the man himself, and the description of how he is presented, is very much a nod to quite a few B-movie cult classics, like Mad Max, and Escape from New York to name a few. It's been widely know that SingleTrac developers intend to have FMVs on the game as Twisted Metal was developed along with another Sony classic, Warhawk), which have a lot of cheesy FMVs we all love so much. Those FMVs were thankfully release to the public with the PS2 port of Twisted Metal: Head-On. I wished they had more time to add back the original FMV endings of each character as it adds more of that schlocky, camp charm I love with the Twisted Metal series in general.

Being the first game of a franchise doesn't automatically make it an instant classic and it shows.
Thanks to how well the game was sold, it being the only Christmas 1995 option does help, lmao. It had all the bells and whistles to make a major improvement and can easily see that with Twisted Metal 2: World Tour a year later.

I guess I was too hyped about this or maybe I was not in a good mood, but wow did this game really annoy me with it's sluggish controls and trying to blister my thumb with it's use of the D-pad for driving. That said, this was most likely because of how early in the life-span it was released on the PS1, before Dual Shock was a thing.

I have no interest in revisiting this unless people make some good argument for doing so, but the interesting story bits I came across online must be present in the later games.

That or the ROM was broken at the time.

Gameplay + Stream

Most of my experience with the Twisted Metal franchise comes from playing Twisted Metal 2 a lot as a kid and looking back on it fondly. Until now, I had never actually revisited any of the PS1 titles, partially out of fear that none of them would remote hold up in the present day. I started the original Twisted Metal after it was added to PS Plus Premium and originally, I was put off. Oh boy, this did not age well I thought.

My mistake was starting out as Sweet Tooth, whose movement is a bit slower than your average vehicle. I tried out Warthog and then everything kind of clicked. I understood the mechanics of driving and shooting and started actually having fun. I'm not gonna say the gameplay is anywhere close to perfect because it is still outdated, but I had a lot of fun getting the platinum for this. There's a reason this spawned a bunch of sequels and has somehow stayed relevant. It's just a good time.

Platinum trophy #134
Platinum #10 of 2023