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Twisted Metal arrives on PSP with style, and online play. The Twisted Metal series has always earned a spot among the top games on the various PlayStation consoles. The first two games were amid the finest PSone games, although it’s better to forget the next two games in the series. Thankfully, Sony brought back the original developers for Twisted Metal Black, resulting in one of the best car-combat games ever. Twisted Metal: Head On is from the same team, Incognito, and unsurprisingly is a good car combat game.
Twisted Metal: Head On has three single-player modes. In Story Mode, you’ll be able to pick a character and go through his life and find out why they entered the Twisted Metal tournament. It is encouraged to play with the different players to uncover more of their stories. Challenge is a simpler, quick-game match up. Lastly, Endurance gives you one life and you’ll need to wipe out as many opponents as you possibly can. The actual gameplay is nearly identical in all three modes, though.
The gameplay is reminiscent of earlier titles in the series. The game is all about destroying other cars in many of the game’s arenas. You’re given a number of weapons including machine guns, missiles, and bombs. Each of the 15 vehicles also has a unique weapon. There is a large variety in these vehicles. You’ll find everything from light, agile sport cars to huge bulldozers. All of the vehicles have diverse skills (armor, top speed, handling, etc) so it is easy to find one that suits your gameplay style. Aside from collecting weapons, each arena is also littered with power-ups like health boosters. This all leads to incredibly frantic and fun gameplay. You’ll be circling around the health location, as you try to avoid others who come to get it as well. You’ll have to run towards a homing missile power-up, do a 180 turn, and turn around to shoot an opponent.
The game’s many arenas certainly add to the atmosphere. They are based on real-world locations, but this translates to them having the landmarks and the general ambience of the location. Nonetheless, they are full of secret locations, many power-up areas, and transportation portals.
Although the game’s many difficulty modes provide a challenge for gamers of all skill sets, multiplayer is where Twisted Metal gains its fame. Head On does incredibly well in this department. Six players are supported in both local (direct PSP-to-PSP) and online multiplayer. There are a number of multiplayer modes included (like deathmath and team deathmatch) and the game generally performs well. As with NBA, we encountered some problems connecting to Sony’s servers. Once connected though, lag was minimal if present. Nonetheless, being able to play online on a portable is amazing.
The game’s visuals are impressive. They have certainly come a long away from Sony’s first unveiling of the game. The different environments, as I mentioned above, are perfect for the game complete with many secret locations. They are remarkably detailed, as well, providing a clear homage to its target location. The vehicles are well-modeled, although most impressive the damage system. The visuals are rounded up by top-notch particle effects that bring the weapons to life. Convincing weather effects don’t hurt, either. Unfortunately, at times, this is too much for the PSP to handle and you’ll experience some frame-rate issues. Thankfully, this is kept to a minimum.
The game’s audio isn’t as impressive but fitting nonetheless. The rock-heavy soundtrack is appropriate, and fits the game’s style well. The sound effects are all well-implemented.
Twisted Metal: Head-On doesn’t deviate far from the typical formula. It doesn’t really need to. With tight controls, impressive graphics, a multitude of arenas and vehicles, and online play, this game is easily recommendable.
-- Jose Liz & -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Apr 27, 2005
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