One of my all-time favorite, car combat games is the Twisted Metal series. The first Twisted Metal is one of the first games I played and can honestly say that is brought me into gaming (including Sega and Nintendo games). I was never interested in any other car related game but this one. Racing games was something that was just over done and had no good value to them, even for a car loving guy like myself. The ability to fight in tournaments, using vehicles and weaponry was such an exciting new idea towards video games. I remember I would play this game for hours for its crazy gameplay.
The one I consider to be the best car combat game in the Twisted Metal series is “Twisted Metal 4.” The overall story in the games is basically an arcade type of feel. Every character in the games has characters with their own purpose to play in the deadliest tournament known to man-kind. The price can be anything the contestant can possibly desire, but the stakes for playing in the tournament are high. The costs of losing the tournament, is one’s mortal soul. What made Twisted Metal 4 such a good game and the best amongst the others was the ability to have a boss battle. As soon as they came up with Twisted Metal Black and Small Brawl, they excluded the boss battles (excluding from there on as well).
They also included the ability to use these characters (bosses) in the arcade mode once you have defeated them. They incorporated over 15 arenas and the game has great story endings. I hate the character endings they made for the “Twisted Metal 3” game they came up with. It really makes you feel like you played the game for a dumb purpose. Calypso (the man in charge of the tournament who grants your wish) makes your wish into your nightmare, and makes it feel like you just got cheated. The fourth game puts Sweet tooth as the tournament leader and final boss instead of Calypso (Calypso is still a playable character). I just love the environments/arenas they have for this game as well. One of them is Sweet Tooth’s bedroom while you are literally miniature cars combating each other. It’s an amazing game that would attract any game-lover for hours.
