Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 2, PSP

Genre: Car Combat

Number of Players: 1 or 2

It was a time of rejoice when the Twisted Metal series made an appearance on the PSP. While it wasn’t the true sequel that fans were looking forward to, and it didn’t have near the dark quality that Twisted Metal: Black did, Twisted Metal: Head On still delivered the same action in a much more portable form. After nearly three years many have been expecting the series to rev its motor on the PlayStation 3, but for now, we’ll have to simply be satisfied with Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition. But, the game does have its secrets, and the revelation that a next-generation Twisted Metal may, or may not, be in our futures.

Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition is just what you might expect it to be; a port. In some ways it cheapens the experience, unless you never played Head-On before on the PSP. The overall story is a rather simple one at best, and once again the destructive Twisted Metal tournament is underway, a destruction derby that has some of the most vile and notorious drivers ever assembled all aiming to walk away in one piece. Calypso has called the combatants together with but one prize; a single wish.

The game plays identical to those found on the other PlayStation consoles with the main objective not only managing to avoid complete and total annihilation, but to dish out this same punishment on other drivers. This can be done by ramming them, though it does very little in the way of damage, using your machine guns, or unleashing more powerful weapons. Weapon icons are found throughout each stage and familiar devastating pick-up’s such as the fire missiles, homing missiles, environmental attacks, and napalm are to be found in Head-On and each driver also has their own unique special attack which can batter an opponent down to minimal health.

There are other familiar features as well such as those electrified strips that will recharge your car or break-away sections that will reveal new areas filled with power-up’s. The branching method of play is also featured. At the end of some stages, you will be given a choice of which level you’d like to move on to, though it really is more of a visual treat, but some may find that a particular stage is easier than another. There are also boss battles which will help you to unlock other drivers in the game. Head-On also features a different power-up option where, after pounding an opponent into a heap of scrape metal, you will see a green icon appear above their car. These will give you benefits such as stronger machine guns, better armor, more life, or even something as simple as a few more special weapons in your arsenal.

The Head-On portion of the game not only features the story mode as did the PSP version, but like the portable, you also can undergo a rigorous endurance battle, a challenge mode, or play another player head-to-head or work together in a co-op version of the story mode, but the game doesn’t support any online capabilities. You’ll have your choice of some familiar names as well such as Mr. Grimm, Thumper, Roadkill, and of course the devious Sweet Tooth, not to mention there are also unlockable drivers including some that the series has never seen before.

This Extra Twisted Edition has a few more tricks under the hood besides a port of the popular PSP game though. There is also Twisted Metal: Lost, a game that was under development until something unthinkable happened, but you’ll learn all about that when you play it. Could the story found here be true, is it merely a cleaver marketing ploy, or is it just some elaborate hoax? The stages in Lost have a feeling that is more in tune with Black as far as the scale and grandness and enormity go. The objective was to create a seamless TM title, so I would assume that the vision was along the lines of the newer Tony Hawk games, something that really could lead to a much bigger version of the game and could even have the potential of being an online game beyond compare for the vehicular assault genre.

Outside of the game, there are a few more tidbits that are offered with the Extra Twisted Edition of Head-On. If you’ve never played one of the titles before and you’re curious about how the series began, where it went, and what it has become, The Dark Past reveals many of these details. Just like movies, even video games have things that don’t make it into the final edition of the game. The Lost Ending Movies showcases the endings that didn’t make the final cut of the original Twisted Metal game. There is also the Sweet Tour which will let you learn even more about the franchise than you ever could have dreamed possible.

There have been a number of games that have gone from home console to portable, and usually the port is decent enough, though lacking a few things at times, but this is the first time I can think of where the port has gone the other way. Head-On looks just as good as the PSP version, perhaps even better in a number of instances. It’s a bit easier to follow the action in my opinion and it’s much easier to enjoy the environments than what it is on a smaller screen. The graphics have been enhanced a little as well to take advantage of not just the bigger format but the hardware of the PlayStation 2. The only thing that’s missing, though not crucial to the game, is a link feature, but then again, the original Head-On would have needed to support that originally.

Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition may be “just another port,” but it’s a darn good one and for those who never played the PSP version, this is the best chance to do so. This will also keep the rest of us somewhat occupied and keep our sweet tooth for destruction satisfied until the next installment of Twisted Metal is released, and I’m sure that the next generation version will take vehicular assassination to new heights that we never could have thought possible.

-mike-