In just a week from today, Sony, along with David Jaffe and the team from Eat Sleep Play, will be bringing Twisted Metal, a long time PlayStation exclusive franchise, back to life and onto retail shelves. The first Twisted Metal launched on the PlayStation in 1995, and, since then, we’ve gone through multiple iterations of the vehicular combat franchise. The beloved franchise has had ups and downs in the past with notable strong titles from David Jaffe like Twisted Metal 1 and 2 while the third and fourth titles were handed over to 989 Studios (now a defunct game studio). While many fans complained about the direction of those titles, David Jaffe, who was not involved with them, would come to their defense (and we do agree) with:

 “….[in and of themselves] they’re good games, they’re just not good Twisted Metal games.” 

In 2001, fans would once again see David return to the helm of Twisted Metal: Black, which would take the series in a new, darker direction. Unlike the cartoony feel of previous titles, TM: Black would be set in a dark, edgy world, filled with the worst criminals possible which would mark the first M-rated Twisted Metal game. A personal favorite, Twisted Metal: Black also had a cinematic quality to it that delved deeper then previous titles into the characters and the motives behind them. Also as a 15-year-old at the time who was allowed to play any games he pleased, Twisted Metal: Black creeped the frak out of me.

Fast forward to today when, although there have been smaller iterations of Twisted Metal, most notably on the PSP with Twisted Metal: Head-On, we’ve yet to have a big-screen return of the franchise with an original take. Come February 14th, all of that will change with the reveal of Twisted Metal on the PlayStation 3. Like previous titles, the game will once again be a PlayStation exclusive and sees the return of David Jaffe and his team at Eat Sleep Play, like Scott Campbell and relative newcomer, Justin Treaste, to name a few, who’ve set out to revitalize the game’s fans and creating a new Twisted Metal world, while remaining true to the themes and characters of the past.

So what is Twisted Metal? On the surface, Twisted Metal is a game about cars, guns, and explosions. As David would put it, the shallow end of the game is:

 the explosions, destructions and interactivity with car combat fantasy 

Where the best metaphor would be a visual effects-driven title with lots of things happening on-screen to keep even the most A.D.D centric person entertained. After all, not too many games out there allow you into a 16-player online multiplayer with cars chasing and shooting each other, helicopters planning your demise, and buildings crumbling around you. In fact, if that’s your kind of game, Jaffe and the team are happy to deliver and we are happy to say the game is every bit of that and more. However, the important part is more and that’s the reason David decided to return to the franchise.

 It really is about weapons with pros and cons. If I want to use the weapon this way, if I want to use the ricocheted bomb as a charge up weapon and it has a great area affect and I can do that, but the time it takes to charge it up and the damage it does is far less then if I were to use it as a straight up projectile that has no charge and is a lot harder to hit, but does a lot more damage. 

Another example lies in the New York City map where, at first glance, there appears to be a giant arena for you to shoot and blow up everything in sight, which — it is. However, as you play more and more, you might soon begin to realize that

 as you start to master, you go “oh my god,” all this circuitry that I can connect. The museum, to the bookstore, to the stock exchange, to the subway track and you actually start to learn the shortcuts and circuits and how those feed into the pickups and how those feed into a mode like ‘Nuke’ where if you want to get the missile launcher faster, do you know what kind of car you’re driving? 

Much like Battlefield 3, for instance, where you can pick up the controller, go online, and starting shooting away, Twisted Metal is designed to give you the same ease where newcomers and old-time fans can jump in (with dual PSN account login on the same PS3!) and begin shooting and blowing things up. However, as many BF3 fans will tell you, there is a whole other world that exists within the game, where the weapons you choose, the knowledge of the maps, and enemy weapons will introduce you to another game. It’s one that is more exciting, rewarding, and long-lasting — and that’s exactly the depth Twisted Metal offers. Of course, single player fans will have plenty to chew through as well, seeing how the game will have a full story mode which will shed light on old favorite characters while taking them in a new direction. Twisted Metal is set to launch on February 14th in the United States with March 7th as the date for EU fans.

Discuss:

Are you interested in Twisted Metal? Why or why not?

[David Jaffe quotes, via our ComicCon 2011 interview]