Twisted Metal: Head-On
The godfather of car combat franchises returns to take the crown in a whole new format. We go hands-on with the latest build.
Published: March 7, 2005
I can still remember normally stodgy game editors forgetting how uptight they normally are and actuallycheering when the close of the Twisted Metal: Black promo video finally rolled around. It was exactly what the PlayStation 2 needed, a revitalization of the franchise that had long since gotten stale when the original development team departed en masse when their development studio closed after the second Twisted Metal.
Reformed and with an uncanny level of coding sophistication, Incognito Studios emerged as a second-party development powerhouse, and helped establish the feel and refinement of the early PlayStation 2 lineup, just as they'd done with the original PlayStation. After some name clashes, a re-dubbed Incog Inc kicked out some follow-up efforts that weren't quite on par with their debut, namely the oddly focused mountain bike racer Downhill Domination and the much better but painfully short War of the Monsters.
With Head-On, however, the developer has gone back to its bread and butter for a PSP car combat entry that's every bit as fast and unrelenting as the Twisted Metals of yore. While the series doesn't quite carry the same bleak look that TM:B flexed so convincingly, things are still dark, and they play off of familiar source material.
The malevolent trickster Callisto has once against called together the demented crew from the last TM offering them a simple but undeniable prize: one wish. Anything they desire will be theirs, they need only ask it... after blowing up, pulverizing, puncturing, perforating and mutilating the competition in a climb to the top.
Despite the familiar characters and setting, the game does offer some unique bonuses in the form of teleporters scattered throughout the different levels (which have gotten a nice boost in complexity) that transport combatants into special stages that range from survival races to a shooting gallery. The meat of the gameplay is exactly as we remember it, though, right down to the d-pad-driven special moves that can freeze or mine or cloak or shield vehicles.
The same homing or power or ricochet or napalm canisters and more came into play, though we'll have to spend more time with the game to see if and how the environmental triggers work. Everything still moves at an insanely fast clip, though, and it took a while to get re-acclimated to the speed of all the destruction.
The levels you'll be able to go careening around in have a decidedly international flavor; L.A., Egypt, Russia, Rome, Greece, Monaco, Tokyo and of course Paris are just some of the 12 locales rich with destructible touches and literally non-stop combat.
Visually, the game still looks impressive, although it's possible to see the first-generation PS2 feel to things. The modeling and texture detail are solid, as are all the special effects and the audio, but it feels like overwhelming detail was sacrificed to keep the game running at a smooth clip at all times, which is fine; we didn't have much time to stop and take in the scenery anyway.
It seems entirely fitting that the PSP would get a car combat game right out of the game, given that the genre more or less defines the PlayStation brand. There may not be too many car combat games these days after Incog (who now apparently has retained their old, full Incognito name) produced something no developers dared take a poke at, but that doesn't mean they aren't a blast to play -- especially with friends, which the game will allow for in either local wireless ad-hoc mode or the online service that Sony has already finalized for the PSP launch.
Reformed and with an uncanny level of coding sophistication, Incognito Studios emerged as a second-party development powerhouse, and helped establish the feel and refinement of the early PlayStation 2 lineup, just as they'd done with the original PlayStation. After some name clashes, a re-dubbed Incog Inc kicked out some follow-up efforts that weren't quite on par with their debut, namely the oddly focused mountain bike racer Downhill Domination and the much better but painfully short War of the Monsters.
With Head-On, however, the developer has gone back to its bread and butter for a PSP car combat entry that's every bit as fast and unrelenting as the Twisted Metals of yore. While the series doesn't quite carry the same bleak look that TM:B flexed so convincingly, things are still dark, and they play off of familiar source material.
The malevolent trickster Callisto has once against called together the demented crew from the last TM offering them a simple but undeniable prize: one wish. Anything they desire will be theirs, they need only ask it... after blowing up, pulverizing, puncturing, perforating and mutilating the competition in a climb to the top.
Despite the familiar characters and setting, the game does offer some unique bonuses in the form of teleporters scattered throughout the different levels (which have gotten a nice boost in complexity) that transport combatants into special stages that range from survival races to a shooting gallery. The meat of the gameplay is exactly as we remember it, though, right down to the d-pad-driven special moves that can freeze or mine or cloak or shield vehicles.
The same homing or power or ricochet or napalm canisters and more came into play, though we'll have to spend more time with the game to see if and how the environmental triggers work. Everything still moves at an insanely fast clip, though, and it took a while to get re-acclimated to the speed of all the destruction.
The levels you'll be able to go careening around in have a decidedly international flavor; L.A., Egypt, Russia, Rome, Greece, Monaco, Tokyo and of course Paris are just some of the 12 locales rich with destructible touches and literally non-stop combat.
Visually, the game still looks impressive, although it's possible to see the first-generation PS2 feel to things. The modeling and texture detail are solid, as are all the special effects and the audio, but it feels like overwhelming detail was sacrificed to keep the game running at a smooth clip at all times, which is fine; we didn't have much time to stop and take in the scenery anyway.
It seems entirely fitting that the PSP would get a car combat game right out of the game, given that the genre more or less defines the PlayStation brand. There may not be too many car combat games these days after Incog (who now apparently has retained their old, full Incognito name) produced something no developers dared take a poke at, but that doesn't mean they aren't a blast to play -- especially with friends, which the game will allow for in either local wireless ad-hoc mode or the online service that Sony has already finalized for the PSP launch.