#darksidehasreturned

This is not a typo, I did NOT mean Twisted Metal 2. Nor did I mean Twisted Metal Black. I mean the much-maligned, everyone would-rather-forget-it-happened third game in the series. The one made by 989 Studios* with the heavy, floaty car physics and the Rob Zombie soundtrack. This was the first time I ever zoomed through the ditches and burned through the witches.

A few months after I graduated from high school, I started hanging out at a buddy’s house every weekend or so. It was always either LAN games, or I’d bring my Playstation over and we’d play Diablo. I’m sorry to anyone injured by that sentence. Eventually he got his own Playstation and with it, games that were not the stuff I was used to. The only way to get out of playing Tekken 3 was to agree to play Twisted Metal 3 with him. We played co-op with shared lives, and for awhile there his job was to defeat all of the enemies while my job was to not lose all of our lives.

Up to this point, any driving or racing games I'd played had been with a D-pad and not analog sticks. This doesn’t sound like a big deal if you didn’t grow up with NES and SNES control schemes, but as it turns out it was a big deal. The learning curve was a steep and frustrating one. As is usually the case though, getting through that learning phase and gaining some mastery over the game was super-rewarding.

                                                 Comin’ at ya in hi-fi!

The gist of Twisted Metal is that it’s a car combat tournament where the winner is granted a single wish but SPOILERS the dude granting the wish finds a way to fuck you over with it. Which is fine I guess, but I remember finishing the game with Outlaw - a cop who wants to eliminate crime. When he gets his wish, there is no more crime but Outlaw is sad because HE IS OUT OF A JOB NO MORE POLICE OH MAN WHAT HAVE I DONE.

Anyway, I don’t care about cars, driving, or arena combat. So I latched onto what I did care about while trying to learn the layout of the stages and master the sluggish (I had nothing to compare it to) controls. I really liked the variety in vehicles; different ratings for speed, armor, handling, and unique special attacks made each character feel distinct. The stages were also fun to explore, and learning where the various powerups spawn and the little secrets in each zone was rewarding.

                    Darkside has returned, and he’s out for blood....YOURS.

Eventually I got good, and Thumper became my main**. My buddy and I spent countless hours wreaking havoc on the countryside, and we repeated this with Twisted Metal 4 and Twisted Metal Black. We’d get to where we could play any vehicle capably, but always had our favorites. Eventually with Twisted Metal Black we started doing head-to-head battles, which was surprisingly fun as we were at the same skill level.

Car combat games are lumped into a group of genres I used to love, but will probably never revisit. I spent a lot of time with Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8, and Rogue Trip, but my car combat days are behind me along with my real time strategy days. This series will always hold a special place in my heart.