Twisted Metal - Proof that even a shitty PS3 game can't kill a fun franchise

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

So I was pretty surprised to see that nobody has created a topic on this. It's a TV series based on a bunch of 90s video games about a car combat tournament to the death and it's actually fairly decent.

Plus now we're on Season 2 and we actually get to see the Twisted Metal contest where characters are actually dying fairly regularly, which is a breath of fresh air from all the recent TV shows where they'll spend an entire season to set up something and then asspull at the very end so we're back to square one and you need another season to get to the same point. I was absolutely convinced at the start of Season 2 they'd spend an entire season getting the characters ready for the tournament and then we'd have 3 years to wait until Season 3 where the tournament either happens, we got another asspull or it got cancelled.

The pacing is odd at times and there's fingerprints of someone trying to actively sabotage it at points but overall it seems like it's getting there and out of all the recent video game adaptions I've seen lately (Fallout, Halo might count but I never watched more than one episode) it's easily the best. Probably because it's able to work from a shitload of characters from a game which already didn't have any rigid lore.

Plus Samoa Joe is Sweet Tooth.

 

[ANF]

It's an alright show aside from the occasional gross-out humor. The amount of fanservice is also insane, and it's surprisingly obscure at the times, you could tell there are some big fans of the series on the production team.

 

[An Idle Observer]

The amount of fanservice is also insane, and it's surprisingly obscure at the times, you could tell there are some big fans of the series on the production team.

It almost makes me wish I could do streaming at home.

Twisted Metal: Black is one of the best examples of just straight nailing a vibe I've ever seen in video games. Returned to it in emulation... still GOATed.

Mr. Grimm being a war vet cannibal on a classic bike-and-sidecar will never not be absolutely fucking badass from beginning to end. Especially when you blow up Manslaughter with a sickle after playing bullfighter with him all map long.

 

[Rembrandt]

I am Calypso and I thank you for playing Twisted Metal

 

[Bâtard Consanguine]

I tried watching it, but it was just some black guy running deliveries between settlements in a post-apocalyptic world. When does the magic devil man start a car combat tournament to grant a wish to the winner?

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Twisted Metal: Black is one of the best examples of just straight nailing a vibe I've ever seen in video games. Returned to it in emulation... still GOATed

that game had perfect characters to fit the vibe and it will never not make me upset with how it all got thrown away in the new game. my personal favorite was dollface though i also really liked the way they handled the story of sweet tooth instead of just making him random clown guy whos head is on fire for some reason.

 

[An Idle Observer]

that game had perfect characters to fit the vibe and it will never not make me upset with how it all got thrown away in the new game.

I could see what they were going for, and I will be honest, Twisted Metal 2013 is easily the best-playing Twisted Metal of them all. Fighting game inputs just for the basics like rear fire and shields is bullshit IMO, and Meat Wagon is hands down one of my favorite vehicles to ever be in the games. But I get why people didn't like the story progression change and locking Warthog behind all gold medals in the story mode is just... cruel. It's a shame I didn't get the chance to do much of the multiplayer either, the modes they introduced then looked pretty dang interesting.

It's just depressing at how badly it failed to launch honestly.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

I tried watching it, but it was just some black guy running deliveries between settlements in a post-apocalyptic world. When does the magic devil man start a car combat tournament to grant a wish to the winner?

You're never going to believe this, but Season 2 episode 5.

Yes. One and a half fucking seasons to get to the part where the entire show is based around.

 

[Rango Dango]

I've played the PSP game as a kid

 

[Tablet County]

You're never going to believe this, but Season 2 episode 5.

Yes. One and a half fucking seasons to get to the part where the entire show is based around.

Isn't Calypso a lady for some reason and not a weird demon person either?

 

[An Idle Observer]

Yes. One and a half fucking seasons to get to the part where the entire show is based around.

Wouldn't be the first time we got some kind of deep cut about shit. Did you know there's a Twisted Metal comic out there? Released around Twisted Metal 2, and it tries to go into some detail explaining shit.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

Isn't Calypso a lady for some reason and not a weird demon person either?

Nope, Calypso pretty much looks like how he's portrayed in 1+2 with long black hair and looking weird as hell. No idea if he looked the same in 3,4 or head on but I know he was significantly different in Black because the game exists in Sweet Tooth's head therefore Calypso is VERY similar to Sweet Tooth

I'll say this though, Season 1 was decent for worldbuilding as a bunch of extra characters were weaved in between the Sweet Tooth and John Doe storylines but it could REALLY have benefited with one of the Season 2 characters being introduced earlier so less time would be spent with the will they/won't they shit with John Doe and his Brooklyn 99 psycho bitch partner.

Considering what they've done so far, I'm really hyped for the end of Season 2 because the stakes have gotten very high and Calypso has reinforced that it's a battle to the DEATH so eventually some hard choices are going to be made and a lot of well liked characters are going to have to be killed in the process.

If it ends up being some fucking asspull where the plot armour characters all team up to take down Calypso to prevent any hard choices being made I'll happily admit that I was wrong and the show was written by retards.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

So Season 2 ended and it actually did a really job of killing some key characters while setting things up for Season 3, while also providing a pretty nice conclusion for Season 2 if it ever gets cancelled.

So overall, the good (obvious end of Season 2 spoilers in all of these:

• It was obviously written by fans of Twisted Metal who knew their shit, it was packed to the brim with obscure references and gameplay mechanics that a hardcore fan would be able to do the open mouth soyjak to, while not having it being distracting.
• The actual car combat was great, they actually delivered on the brutality.
• It was brutal, and even the non-car episodes had their fair share of gibs.
• The intertwining of personal relationships was phenomenal, with the 'disco' episode genuinely one of my favourites for how it set up everything for a lot of characters to die with more emotional attachment to them.
• We got a definitive Twisted Metal winner AND a very Twisted Metal style wish granted.

The bad:

• Minion being 'that', I mean I get the budget was smaller and they couldn't get a tank but Doomguy? And Doomguy with an obvious video game weakpoint?
• The plot armor is ridiculous, and more to the point why the absolute fuck are people helping out people in a contest where it's a battle to the death? Like why the fuck would you enter a contest against your own sister or against the child you pretty much adopted while knowing that you'd have to kill them at some point?
• Speaking of Dollface, they did a really shitty way of starting Season 3 by killing the momentum stone dead with three low stakes episodes in a row. Considering how frantic it got midway through I'm genuinely amazed they thought that'd be a good way to introduce the Dolls and Mayhem.

And the interesting implications

• Axel was welded to his wheels, allowing him to return to the competition.
• While Raven is dead, her lover was still in a coma and could wake up to save Raven.
• The preacher baby was growing at a very fast speed, so by season 3 he could be Season 1 preacher or another actor altogether
• "When a doll dies, another one takes the mask" meaning we could actually get a non-negress Dollface
• Sweet Tooth's dad being alive has the potential for Yellowcab or Dark Tooth.

Overall? While it has a bunch of flaws it's still easily the best video game adaption of a series I can think of and managed to do a really good job of respecting the chaotic mess of Twisted Metal lore and managing to create something that's easy to watch. A HUGE improvement on Season 1.