The storyline is classic, deal-with-the-devil fare-Calypso is holding a car destruction derby tournament to the death, and the last man or woman standing will have a single wish granted. It was the restoration of a floundering franchise, and 13 years have done nothing to dim its star. I still remember the hype on the message boards and in magazines at the time: “The original creators are back!” “David Jaffe is directing again!” “This is going to be darker and more disturbed than every other Twisted Metal !” What a joy-and horror-when Twisted Metal Black was everything we hoped it would be. Thankfully, Incognito Entertainment took over, and in 2001, they released Twisted Metal Black for the PS2. They released Twisted Metal 3 and Twisted Metal 4 to mixed reviews-the car physics were state-of-the-art TruPhysics ( they sucked), and the games had zero input from David Jaffe, the original creator of the franchise. Developer SingleTrac handed the franchise off to 989 Studios, who developed a new game engine from scratch. Then, for a few years, the series lost its way. Although Twisted Metal 2 nerfed Hammerhead, the huge monster truck from Twisted Metal 1, the sequel also introduced fan favorite Axel, the human fused with an, um, axel with two truck wheels for arms. Twisted Metal 2 was the most popular entry in the series, and it took Calypso’s car competition global-not only to L.A., but to NY, Paris, Moscow, and Antarctica.

Those contestants were not healthy people, particularly that green-haired clown in his polka-dotted ice cream truck. Whatever it was, Twisted Metal worked, and I felt unclean whenever I played it. Maybe it was that depraved voiceover screaming, “Yeeeah !” in the background whenever I died. Maybe it was the photorealistic renderings, combined with the aggressive, weapons-based combat.

The first Twisted Metal game, released for the PS One in 1995, was extra bizarre. It’s not as though we didn’t see it coming. Dark as hell deeply morbid sick and twisted.

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