For a brief time in the 1990s, vehicular combat games were all the rage. They were fast, fun and filled with colorful characters with even crazier cars. And while there were plenty of games that contributed to the road rage, the two main franchises at the time were Sony's Twisted Metal and Activision's own Vigilante 8. As a fan of both, I sometimes wondered which series the critics preferred. To answer that question, I decided to flip through old issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly to see what their Review Crew had to say about all this car-crazed chaos.
Now, in case you're wondering, EGM reviewed a total of eight Twisted Metal games and three titles in the Vigilante 8 series. That basically includes every single Twisted Metal game, with the exception of the 2012 reboot. It also means they covered both of the Vigilante 8 games, though not all of the ports. This is one of those lists where we're really only missing one major release, and that's only because EGM folded a few years before it came out. What we're going to do is countdown the best and worst games in both series using Electronic Gaming Monthly's own words and scores. There's no editorializing here, because we're going to focus on what the critics said back when these games first came out. So grab your favorite ice cream truck and load it full of napalm, because this is another explosive episode of EGM Ranks Twisted Mertal and Vigilante 8.
Twisted Metal: Small Brawl (PlayStation)
#11
"Sony's sanitized take on the classic Twisted Metal series should please tykes looking for some car combat, but series veterans won't be impressed. Cutesy cars, kiddie characters and firework weapons work within the game's playground premise, but most Twisted Metal fans will likely miss the old kick-ass vehicles and nasty psychopaths. The chunky, ugly visuals and hair-band music don't help much either. Luckily, the gameplay is fairly tight, and some of the levels are creative, such as the miniature golf course and the kitchen. Others, however, are too small or too boring to affect the action. This woefully average retread will only keep youngsters entertained." (3.5 out of 10)
Twisted Metal III (PlayStation)
#10
"While I'm happy to see the Twisted Metal series finally get an upgrade in graphics, I'm not too happy wit the new physics engine. The cars don't handle anywhere near as nice as they did before. I especially hate the way the cars flip around so much – it's an opening for mucho cheapness (just use the freeze burst on the helpless victim). The lackluster arenas don't help the score. Decent, but extremely disappointing." (5.4 out of 10)
Twisted Metal 4 (PlayStation)
#9
"I don't understand why this game is updated and rehashed every year like it's a sports game. The first two were fine! I never got into Twisted Metal before, and number four didn't do anything to convince me that I'm missing out. Multiplayer is no fun with any more than two players, and the cars are so small that you can hardly determine what's a weapon and what's a power-up. If you've played Twisted Metal before, this is all-too familiar territory." (5.9 out of 10)
Twisted Metal: Head-On (PSP)
#8
"You know that kid, the one who always played by himself at recess, crashing Hot Wheels cars into each other? Well, this game is what he imagined, a demolition derby clattering with the sounds of machine-gun fire and industrial demolition, a strange place where cops, army men and evil clowns seek to murder each other for no particular reason. Twisted Metal has circled the block a few times, and it shows. I resisted the archaic control scheme, I scoffed at the charmless characters and simple jousting patterns. But as the later, larger levels opened up and I started getting a feel for the combat, Head-On grew on me." (6.7 out of 10)
Twisted Metal: Black Online (PlayStation 2)
#7
"Picture a bunch of human-controlled cars zipping around arenas, with gunfire, missiles and special attacks flying every which way ... it's fast and furious vehicular combat, the way it's meant to be played. No more cheatin' A.I., no more having to eliminate your drone opponents methodically, and no more lonely matches. Just keep your expectations low and take the game's name literally: This is little more than an online version of the PS2 title we played a year ago. Twisted Metal Black Online has a few minor additions, but none of the new stages or cars you'd want in a “sequel.” But hey, this one's a freebie. Who am I to complain?" (7.7 out of 10)
Vigilante 8 (PlayStation)
#6
"I must state the obvious: If you like Twisted Metal in any way, you HAVE to check out Vigilante 8. Luxoflux has raised the bar of quality in every conceivable area – graphics and animation, sound, level design and realistic game physics. Totally destructible environments is the icing on the cake. The action can drag on at times, since all the vehicles can take a great deal of damage before dying off, but that's a very minor complaint." (7.9 out of 10)
Vigilante 8: Second Offense (Dreamcast)
#5
"For the most part, Vigilante 8: Second Offense is a decent if not slightly buggy game. Collision detection is loose in places. Several times I passed directly through an enemy vehicle at close range. It's be nice if the handling was a bit tighter as well. It's tough to keep some of the cars in a straight line. Yet even with the drawbacks, it's still really fun. Because of the fast frame-rate, four-player is the most functional I've played of any car combat game to date." (7.9 out of 10)
Twisted Metal 2: World Tour (PlayStation)
#4
"I know a lot of people weren't wild about the mindless ride that Twisted Metal was, but how could you not enjoy blowing other cars up? I love Twisted Metal and I love Twisted Metal 2 just as much. It brought out the little Mad Max in me. The levels and special moves are the only real improvement to the game. The different cities add that certain themed touch that works so well here. I only wish that the designers could've improved the game engine somewhat. Just about everything looks like it did in the original. Same lame explosions, same lame missile firing, same lame machine gun attacks. Give us a better-looking game for part 3!" (8.25 out of 10)
Vigilante 8 (Nintendo 64)
#3
"All I have to say is: Sweet! Finally, we get to blow up a bunch of cars on the N64. It's about time. Vigilante 8 is everything the PlayStation version is and much more. The added solo and multiplayer modes and secrets make this game even more fun than usual. The frame-rate drops a bit in the high-res mode, but it still looks decent. Thankfully, the frame-rate doesn't drop much at all when playing four-player games (in low-res)." (8.5 out of 10)
Twisted Metal: Black (PlayStation 2)
#2
"As a fan of these types of games, and this series in particular, I couldn't be more happy. Twisted Metal lost its luster years ago, but now it's truly back (in black, yeah, yeah). It floors me that the original developers were able to step back into the saddle years later and dig this franchise up from the grave. The gameplay that made Twisted Metal popular has returned, albeit a little more difficult. The biggest surprise is the Seven-ish feel that gives the combat a unique edge. It goes beyond just running over briefcase-carrying pedestrians; the dark humor knows just when to give you a good kick in the balls. And isn't that what we're really looking for in a video game?" (8.5 out of 10)
Twisted Metal (PlayStation)
#1
"There is nothing else like this game! Where else can you throw napalm out of an ice cream truck, smash into Diablos and run over pedestrians. With a choice of 12 vehicles – all of which vary in armor, weapons, speed and agility – any gamer, including myself, will never get bored. The control, which is very precise and clean, varies from vehicle to vehicle, as do the endings. Any game with Molotov cocktails, exploding cop cars and napalm ice cream cones has got to be good." (9.25 out of 10)
