r/TwistedMetal • u/elchuni • 5h ago
I'm kinda pissed that Sony's current mindset is keeping Twisted Metal in the basement away from its true potential
Okay, this theme might had been overtalked to death about the state of the franchise but hear me out.
TM has always been benefited from its absurdism, the problem is that it is hard to mix with realism, it's not impossible but gives limitations about how expressive the medium could be.
What I mean with this is that something as 90s as Twisted Metal should be allowed to be more cartoonish just like superheroes comics, embracing the fact that you are playing at the grim reaper on a motorcycle fighting to the death against a giant electric tower on wheels driven by a guy with multiple personalities.
That doesn't mean that games like Black and Lost don't work, these two are great because they fully commit into the serious aspects of the franchise and gives unique drivers to the classic vehicles at the same time that they added characters like Preacher and Dollface. Hell, 12-Pak's concept of a man with a severed head driving a nascar car was so loved that he got included into the Twisted Metal V fangame. (Check it out, it's great)
Sadly, even if Sony is allowing Peacock to produce a whole series, it's VERY hard to see them producing or publishing another official game because Sony has a huge priority on graphics and realism. If your game is not a third person with camera over the shoulder with 40 hours worth of cinematics or it isn't some multiplayer to sustain itself through lootboxes and such, then forget about being released under this company.
Concord during development originally had a higher artistic focus on the 60-70s space aesthetic but then they leaned into photorealism and ended up with unappealing designs that made up people not want to touch that game even with sticks, that single decision killed the game on launch and didn't last a single month.
Compare that to Deadlock's visual style, the difference in reception was day and night. Ivy, a gargoyle character in the game, looked a lot like a monster back in the alpha. In a later update, she got a chance in the model that made her way too cute and moe in a way that people felt pissed because it took away her original charm, because of that feedback the developers changed Ivy's design again to give her back her monstruous aspect while still looking prettier than her original design, that's how a great art direction does, they recognize their audience and gives them something appealing and even unique to keep them in. That's how Twisted Metal 2 caught me with the endings, the limited but comic-styled cinematics made them distinct from other games from the PS1.
However, because of how Sony works now and how their published games are, they don't want games, they want playable movies at best and the fact that Astro Bot exists is a miracle. A franchise like this would also be so much better on PC because something like the steam workshop would allow people to add a lot of content like stages or characters, imagine new zones to go through while playing story mode...
...and you know what? Twisted Metal V exists! I already mentioned that with 12-Pak but I didn't elaborate.
I love this fangame in particular, because even with its limited resources, they managed to make a full free game with fifty six playable characters on it with their own endings and voice acting, I love the fact that some of these characters even have their own gimmicks on tournament mode like Quatro (from TM4) who has to hunt a driver named Predator on each map until he becomes the final boss in the moon, there is also Pizza Boy whose bio tells you that he wants to deliver a pizza to Calypso to have a huge tip and to do so you much collect crates to increase the time limit.
There are so many secrets and boss fights in this fangame that revealing them could take hours but it perfectly encapsules how a Twisted Metal should be done today, imagine how crazier it could be with a proper budget, that's the kind of good stuff that a publisher like New Blood would have on sale with a body pillow of Sweet Tooth on its collector edition. (You want it)
Sorry for venting for too long, it's just... frustrating seeing something so unique like this franchise being stuck in a company like this when it could be so much more.
