Twisted Metal: Black

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Twisted Metal: Black
"Three months in the nuthouse. It's the longest I have been confined...."
Genre(s): Vehicular Combat Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Release Date: PlayStation 2 NA: June 18, 2001 EU: December 7, 2001 PlayStation 3 NA: February 14, 2012 EU: March 16, 2012 PlayStation 4 NA: December 5, 2015 Developer(s): Incognito Entertainment Publisher(s): Sony Computer Entertainment Country: United States Series: Twisted Metal Predecessor: Twisted Metal 4 Successor: Twisted Metal: Head-On

Twisted Metal: Black is a 2001 PS2 vehicular combat game published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Incognito Entertainment.

Why It Rocks

1. The game is a major improvement over the third and fourth entries in the Twisted Metal series, fixing most of the issues from the those titles.
2. 14 Cars with some new ones.
   • Junkyard Dog: the first of the four new cars introduced in Black. A tow truck that can throw flaming spiked balls from the tow arm.
   • Brimstone: the second of the four new cars. A coupe utility vehicle with a body bag of a sinner on the back that is squirming around, The special weapon launches a man fully strapped with dynamite is hurled towards opponents to grab onto the vehicle’s roof and then explode on the vehicle.
   • Outlaw: a police car, now redesigned into a police van that has a turret that you can use to launch missiles onto the other cars instead of the omni taser from the first two games.
   • Mr. Grimm: a motorcycle with max stats in everything except in armor (weakest vehicle in the game) and a replacement in the special weapon. Instead of using death spawns, Mr. Grimm now throws scythes that were once used to clear the fields in Vietnam, which can explode onto other cars.
   • Roadkill: a junk muscle car that has balanced stats and a charge up special weapon which fires lots of missiles at the same time. Holding onto the charge too long will lose the special.
   • Crazy 8: the third of the four new cars. A hot rally rod with an electric surge that attacks nearby cars by pressing L2 as fast as the player can.
   • Spectre: a sports car with missiles that can go through walls and deal a lot of damage and is very fast.
   • Darkside: a semi-truck that has a lot of armor and can activate power rams to hit the other cars with lots of damage instead of the laser beams from the first game.
   • Shadow: a hearse with balanced stats and two special weapons. The first one is similar to Shadow's special in the second game, and the second one is a faster and stronger version of Outlaw's Special.
   • Yellow Jacket: a taxi cab that shoots spikes at other vehicles in all directions.
   • Axel: a two-wheeled contraption with two Special Weapons. The first one is the Shockwave from the second game, and the second one uses the two wheels to crush the opponents.
   • Warthog: a station wagon with tank threads, uses a cannon that is a flamethower and in Twisted Metal: Black: Online, It launches fireballs.
   • Mansaughter: the last of the four new cars. A giant truck with a tray of explosive rocks that the vehicle can throw to strike multiple opponents.
   • Sweet Tooth: the mascot vehicle. An ice cream truck that has a new special weapon. Instead of launching napalm cones like in the first two games, Sweet Tooth becomes Sweet Bot and launches Zoomy missiles at other cars.
3. Excellent stories for each of the new characters that fit well with the game's tone and the characters have different appearances such as Sweet Tooth being rewritten as a murderous psychopath.
4. New characters include:
   • Dollface: Drives Darkside, A woman who has a mask sealed to her face.
   • Preacher: Drives Brimstone, An religious man who was seemingly possessed by a demon, leading him to kill everyone in the church he was in.
   • Raven: A high school student who had her life torn apart after having her friend being murdered by the bullies that messed with both of them.
5. Awesome graphics for its time. Instead of having bland color pallets, the color pallets does a great job fitting the game's dark tone.
6. 19 Levels. (10 Single Player only, 9 multiplayer only, 2 players modes can access all levels in the game)
7. The levels are more detailed and are fully interactive.
8. Multiplayer with four players locally. Game modes include:
   • Deathmatch: Can be played with four players. Four players battle with no other opponents.
   • Two players Death Match: Classic deathmatch like in the first two games.
   • Team deathmatch: Same as four players deathmatch but two vehicles has to battle two vehicles
   • Co-op Story: two players only. Same as story but with two players.
   • Last man standing: two players only. Two players fight to the end with an identical list of vehicles. The players alternate choosing vehicles in the selection screen. As each vehicle is destroyed, the player uses the next car on his/her list. The winner is the one who destroys all of his/her opponent’s
9. The soundtrack is also amazing.
10. There is a different version of the game that includes online multiplayer (though it has since had it's servers shutdown).

Bad Qualities

1. Warhawk cannot be driven by the players due to hardware limitations of the PlayStation 2. This caused no playable flying vehicles until Twisted Metal (2012).
2. Doing energy moves are confusing because you have to do button combinations like in Twisted Metal 2.
3. The PAL version of the game greatly suffered cuts which included the removal of all the cutscenes (except a heavily cut middle cutscene of the selected vehicle entering and leaving Minion's Stadium and a shot of the vehicle driving down a street in the ending cutscene). Other cuts included the removal of the Boeing 747 in the junkyard level, the loading screen text pieces and in game info of the drivers. Also, flaming drivers do not run screaming from the wreckage after you make a kill.

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