Product description
-------------------
Suffering from road rage? Prefer offensive driving? Check out
Twisted Metal 4, the latest edition in PlayStation's bestselling
demolition derby franchise. The game opens with news of the
return of Sweet Tooth, this title's maniacal clown who is up to
his not-so-funny antics again. Along with a horde of mini-sized
clowns, he presents eight interactive battlegrounds on which to
do combat, including his bedroom, the carnival, and eight hidden
levels.
.com
----
Suffering from road rage? Prefer offensive driving? Check out
Twisted Metal 4, the latest edition in PlayStation's bestselling
demolition derby franchise. The game opens with news of the
return of Sweet Tooth, this title's maniacal clown who is up to
his not-so-funny antics again. Along with a horde of mini-sized
clowns, he presents eight interactive battlegrounds on which to
do combat, including his bedroom, the carnival, and eight hidden
levels.
These new environments have more traps and gizmos than previous
Twisted Metal games, including randomly deposited barrels,
secret areas, and new weapons in larger quantities. The game also
introduces the ability to drive on walls and make giant leaps
from building to building. Players can choose from 20 new
characters and deathmobiles, including a demented family with a
fierce station wagon or rock star Rob Zombie's Dragula mobile.
Also new to this edition of the car-combat freak show is the
"create a car" option, which allows you to customize a car's
size, color, model, and special weapon. The rock and rap
soundtrack for this combat chaos is provided by Rob Zombie,
Cypress Hill, Cirrus, Ghoulspoon, One Minute Silence, and Skold.
A multi-tap ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000205Y6/${0} ) (sold
separately) allows up to four people to play at once. --Carrie
Bell
Pros:
* The next installment in an already successful franchise
* New cars, new characters, and a new plot
* Up to 4 players can hit the road with a multi-tap (sold
separately)
Cons:* Camera angle problems can cause poor visibility during
combat
* Almost as many moves and button configurations to memorize as
in a fighting game
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Review
------
The Twisted Metal series first arrived a few months after the
PlayStation's US debut. It was in the forefront of games that
really showed off the difference between 32-Bit CD-based systems
and the 16-Bit cart platforms that came before. While driving and
shooting games had previously existed, Twisted Metal was
responsible in part for defining the car-combat genre by putting
over-the-top characters into vehicles with arsenals of weapons
and special moves and letting them battle it out until only one
remained. The second game in the line, Twisted Metal II: World
Tour, was a longer, improved version of the original, and it is
generally thought of as one of the best games ever released for
the PlayStation. But by the time the third title came along, the
series' developer, SingleTrac Studios, had been sold to GT
Interactive, and publisher 989 Studios opted to bring the line
in-house. While the game had new weapons, contestants, and
multiplayer options, its levels lacked the originality of the
earlier titles, and its new physics engine was more of a
frustration than an improvement. Though it sold very well,
Twisted Metal III was a huge disappointment, making the question
of how Twisted Metal 4 has turned out all the more important for
its fans. Rest assured; it's much, much better than its
predecessor. To begin with, the level design in Twisted Metal 4
is a big improvement over Twisted Metal III's. There are more
hidden areas than in the previous games, and you'll likely play a
level more than a dozen times before finding everything. Standout
levels include ia 3000 BC, which has quite a few different tiers
to sneak off to, and The Oil Rig, which has lots of satisfying
places to set traps. Each stage also has a secret weapon that you
can use on your enemies until someone comes and knocks you off
the weapon's controls. For instance, in the first level you use a
large magnet, which sucks your nents high up into the sky,
preparing them for a big drop. The levels aren't quite as epic as
those in Twisted Metal II: World Tour, but they get the job done
well. The only one that's kind of dull is the first - a
construction yard with a lot of topographically flat spaces. The
control and physics are also better than in TMIII, but they
remain a little too touchy and unforgiving. It's still a little
too easy to flip over, or miss a ramp, or go skidding off and get
momentarily stuck on a ledge, but it doesn't happen nearly as
often as in the previous game. Though prettier than those in
TMIII, the graphics in TM4 aren't nearly as sharp as the graphics
in its current main competitor - Activision's Vigilante 8: Second
Offense - and while the game music fits well enough, it doesn't
really draw you in. Each level has its own extended, looped
version of songs by bands like Cypress Hill, Cirrus, and Skold;
the best among them being remixes of the Rob Zombie tracks that
appeared in Twisted Metal III. Several new weapons in the series
will become quick favorites, such as the M.I.R.V., the freeze
remote (a remote bomb that freezes everyone in the area), and the
proximity mines (which work well when you leave them in teleport
areas or drop them as you're being chased). Other welcome
additions to the line are the new tournament contestants, which
include the exterminator truck-driving Goggle Eyes and Rob
Zombie, whose Dragula possesses a special weapon that grabs any
vehicle in the area and holds it for a moment, while he shoots at
it until it explodes. The new create-a-car option offers you
three choices for size, style, and paint; four choices of special
weapons; spoilers; and more than a dozen taunts. While this is a
decent start and better than nothing, doubling the numbers would
have really given you the ability to customize a ride just the
way you like it. As it stands, you'll likely just use one of the
vehicles already provided for you. Another change is that instead
of just having a mid-boss and an end boss, Twisted Metal 4
features bosses at the end of every level who are made up of one
or two "super" versions of missing contestants (such as Axel and
Thumper). It may sound like a good idea, but it ultimately ends
up taking away from the feeling of dread you used to feel when a
boss emerged in the past. (Remember when the words "Prepare for
Minion" appeared in Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal II: World
Tour?) At least that's the case for all the sub-bosses. When
Sweet Tooth finally comes out in the end, you'll run like hell.
The two-player multiplayer modes - co-op and deathmatch - still
let you configure the split screen by horizontal or vertical cut
as well as variations on a four-way split where the other two
boxes are filled with radar, speedometer, and weapons info. (The
four-way split modes are the best, since you view the world
through a smaller version of the full screen.) The problem is
that the frame rate in the multiplayer modes isn't nearly as fast
as in the single-player levels. If you play as one of the larger,
slower vehicles, you'll end up using the turbo quite a bit out of
frustration. (Luckily, the framerate's not noticeably lower in
four-player thanit is in two-player.) Even with this working
against it, the multiplayer mode offers tons of replay value,
whether in a deathmatch or a co-op tournament with a friend. And
adding to the single-player side is the option to use a CPU ally
to help you in the fight. While all these options were also
present in Twisted Metal III, they're better realized here
because TM4 is a game you'd actually want to play. In the end,
Twisted Metal 4 is as huge a leap ahead of Twisted Metal III as
the second was to the original. While the series hasn't quite
recled its former glory, it at least seems to be on the right
track. --Joe Fielder
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
See more ( javascript:void(0) )
- New cars, new characters, and a new plot.
- Twisted Metal 4 will only work on the original Playstation (PS1) or Playstation 2 (PS2) systems..