| Game | Twisted Metal Black |
| Release | June 8th, 2001 |
| Genre | Vehicular Combat |
| Publisher | SCEA |
| Devloper | Incognito Inc. |
| Time Played | 12:34:59 |
| Buy It On | Ebay | Amazon |
Here we go, game number #0003 on the PS2POCALYPSE, Twisted Metal Black. Much like how the song says it’s time to “Paint it Black!”
Twisted Metal: Black Review – Dark Vehicular Combat Unleashed | PS2 Classic – The Negative Press -This is the link to what the AI thinks about this game, now we can jump into what I think about this game.
This may be the first time I have ever actually beat this game without cheating. When I was a youngster, I would just put on God Mode, you can find that cheat code here – Unlock the Secrets: A Guide to Codes, Secrets, and Unlockables in Twisted Metal: Black – The Negative Press
Man, now that I think about it, I cheated in almost every video game. It’s nice to be playing them straight up this time around. Even in the older PS1 Twisted Metal games I would just use a Gameshark to watch the ending cutscenes. I miss Gameshark, those were fun times. These days I have to suffer through some of the hardest fucking games ever made, oh hi Twisted Metal Black… you were cool, you won’t be hard right? Guess it depends on what car I pick for the first 6 hours.
Let’s paint it black!
Twisted Metal Black’s Story is probably the most Twisted of the lot of em
The Twisted Metal Series on the PS1, though wickedly zany, always had a light hearted undertone to them. Despite the games themed at the dawn of the apocalypse at the hands of a wish granting madman, Calypso, the worlds depicted were colorful and full of hope and it was like the people that did exist thought the concept of Twisted Metal was cool. Not this time around.
Twisted Metal Black is a way more serious (its hard to say realistic as this game is about cars with guns on them) approach to the world of vehicular combat. All the other games in the genre are always over the top and happy and colorful, nope, not this one. The Twisted Metal games revolve around a tournament hosted by Calypso where the winner gets any wish granted. Calypso usually turns the wish around upon the competitor as he twists their words to fuck with their lives more so than the tournament itself, usually its pretty funny. In Twisted Metal Black, Calypso has decided that his competitors are going to be inmates of a mental asylum, Blackfield Asylum.
Each character has a prologue, middle and epilogue cutscene. The prologue sets up how they got into the asylum and hints at their wish. The middle part elaborates more on their insane story. The epilogue is them getting their wish and most than likely someone dying. Each stage has a little bit of a written section that displays before the start that also gets more into each character’s psyche. I think every story in this game is a revenge story. Now, don’t get me wrong as I love the Twisted Metal TV show that is on the Peacock, the stories in this game are fucking awesome. If you like dark stories of revenge and anger, much like a side story of Tales From the Crypt, this is the game for you. The problem is that getting there is a bitch and half.
I tried to play the game as one of the better stories, Roadkill, but got my ass handed to me on the Prisonship time after time after time so I gave up and played as a better car with a crappy story, Spectre. If you want to see a badass ending to this game, you have to see the Mr. Grim story. It is the best. This game is probably the reason I like really fucked up movies like Oldboy. I blame Mortal Kombat for my love of Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki. As I stated before, the stories are really hard to unlock but well worth the fight. The voice acting, the storyboarding, the animation, its all so awesome. Especially for 2001.
Now, we must touch on this a bit to elaborate on the story a bit more. On the surface this seems like just a slap a story on a violent design type game but there is a much deeper story to this game. In Twisted Metal 2 the cannon ending is Roadkill’s driver Marcus Kane’s story, the story where all of Twisted Metal is just a coma dream. Marcus Kane is the sane side, Needles Kane is Sweet Tooth, they are not brothers, Marcus Kane has split personality disorder. This game is Sweet Tooth’s dream.
P.S. SHUT UP AND BLEED YOU MOTHER FUCKER (play as Sweet Tooth to understand this)
Twisted Metal Black Story 10/10
Twisted Metal Black features some intense Gameplay
Every Twisted Metal at its core plays the same. You select a car/driver, drive around and collect weapons, RAIN FIRE UPON THE ASSHOLES THAT TRY TO BLOW YOU UP. The problem is that in this game… you are the asshole that rain falls upon. In the other Twisted Metal games, you slowly build up to more and more enemies, in this game you start off having to blow up half of the roster. There are 8 stages, expect to have to kill about 50 mother fuckers. Stage 4 is Minion, Stage 8 is Warhawk, a military helicopter, and a hard ass fight.
All the old weapons are back, the fire missile – that fires a somewhat homed attack, the homing missile that will track an enemy unless it hits a wall and the power missile that fires in a straight powerful shot. There is also the ricochet, that isn’t a rolling bomb this time but more of a hockey puck, it does what it sounds like, richochets off shit until it hits someone, that someone can be you so watch out. The gascan, which once again, you can fuck yourself up with. The environmental attacks, they are only fun in multiplayer as the AI follows you around and if you use the enviro attack near the area it is effective in… you fuck yourself up… ITS REALLY EASY TO FUCK YOURSELF UP IN THIS GAME. The new badass weapon is the Zoomy/Reticle/Satellite weapon. The reticle will shred the shit out of someone if you can get all 10 missiles to hit. The true power is in the special attacks. Everyone’s specials have a little bit of extra spice to em. Roadkill’s for instance, if you hold the fire button down for a bit, you can shoot more than one missile at once. Spectre’s missile can be shot backwards… if you can figure it out, I couldn’t but I know you can do it.
Ugh, so why am I saying that this game is hard? Well, the AI could give two shits about killing each other, they just want to kill you. The AI will gang up on you and set you up. They will hit you with full charged specials around corners like they knew you were coming. Whoever you leave for last in the stage gets buffed, so choose wisely. They do not play fair in this game at all.
I found the easiest way to beat this game is to find areas to camp. Like I pointed out in the streams/vods, I call it sectoring. You will notice that certain enemies stay in certain areas and you can lure them to you in various ways by using different tactics. Find out what works best for you and your character and you will do just fine with some patience. But god damn, the small stages, the fucking small stages suck. There is no sanctuary in the small stages at all, they are just corridors of death that you have to hope you can pass with a little bit of luck.
You get two lives per stage and two uses of the full heal. So you got 4 real attempts to take out as many of these lunatics as possible. Good luck and hold the machine gun fire down!
Twisted Metal Black Gameplay 7/10
Twisted Metal Black Difficulty
Like I was saying, it is not fair how the AI starts playing you in this game. They start getting in your hiding spots and reading how you play. The AI will piss you off in this game unlike any other Twisted Metal. There are unfair set ups in this and super hard stages. Also, Minion and the final boss both having shields you have to disable is some bull shit. Make sure you play this game on normal if you want to see the end as well, if you play on easy you only get half of the game.
Twisted Metal Black Difficulty 6/10
Twisted Metal Black Graphics
This was the game I wanted a PS2 for. The first PS1 game I ever had was Twisted Metal. The graphics of that game for 6 year old me blew my mind. Yeah… Seeing the graphics of this game at 11 years old blew my mind yet again. The graphics are not superior to other games of this generation but they were a great window of things to come. Each car is super detailed in its own little way that shows a little bit of the personality of each driver. Also, the balls of fire that each car blows up into is sweet.
There is a lot of small things in this game that make me smile. Being able to shoot down the 747 flying around the junkyard, killing everyone on the ferris wheel, the way the water tower falls in suburbia. The unfolding of the stage design of the Prison Ship into the Prison Island. The way the plane is crashed into that skyscraper in the high rise stage. It is all so sweet.
Twisted Metal Black Graphics 10/10
Twisted Metal Black Controls
Man, the controls are a bit lacking here. To use Turbo you gotta hit X twice, I kept doing that over and over and over again, it would only sometimes work. I then realized it was because of the pressure sensitivity controls. The AI drives with extreme precision, good luck trying to master 0-100 MPH turning and aiming. You will find yourself driving past things you meant to collect or pick up and probably dying on your second attempt.
Twisted Metal Black Controls 6/10
Twisted Metal Black Sound
As mentioned before, the voice acting is amazing in this game. The OST is super suspenseful and fitting and atmospheric and those damn blood curdling screams when you die, so good. Each weapon has its own. signature sound as well.
Twisted Metal Black Sound 10/10
The AI gave this game a 77%, I give it
Twisted Metal Black Overall Rating
%
Rating
The next PS2POCALYPSE game is #0004 Fight Night Round 2, The Next PSXSLAYER game is #0002 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Twisted Metal Black was TV-666EP#PSX-0002-0/2-0003-2/OV4. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence was played before this, Fight Night Round 2 is to be played after this.
About the Author: Re_LodeR was born in the 90s and lives in Michigan. Hobbies including complaining about video games and life, Listening to a lot of niche music and enjoying classic flims like Die Hard. This guy is a huge Simpsons fan and likes to watch wrestling.
He can be found on Twitch, contacted on Discord, and you can email him at ReLodeR@thenegativepress.com