The Twisted Metal franchise has a flawless elevator pitch. What if we made a game where we strapped a bunch of weapons to cool cars driven by psychopaths in a winner-take-all demolition derby tournament? Unsurprisingly, this airtight premise catapulted Twisted Metal to iconic status during Sony’s ‘90s-era PlayStation heyday. Then TM nearly became the victim of its own success. After four releases in four years, it seemed like the franchise was running out of gas in Twisted Metal 4. Two years later, in 2001, Twisted Metal: Black returned with the best the series had to offer. Too bad it wasn’t enough.
Twisted Metal: Black is a great example of Captain Picard’s famous adage that it is possible to commit no errors, but still lose — that’s not weakness, that’s life. There’s no way the team at Incog Inc. could’ve known that, despite having fantastic character depth, peak system performance, and some of the best car combat mechanics ever designed, 2001 would see a seismic cultural shift that would wipe our appetite for Twisted Metal-style games off the map. The era of Grand Theft Auto had arrived.
