The Twisted Metal Series has been a best seller since the days of the original PlayStation console. Twisted Metal, TM2, and of course Twisted Metal Black Online have all been very popular, and now Sony has brought it over to their PSP.



TM is part driving, part shooting but all action. This is truly a pick up and play game. Turning on the game, you’ll have 3 options: single player, multiplayer and options (go figure).

The single player option gives you three additional options: story, challenge or endurance. I recommend going through the story mode in order to get some unlockables. In Story mode, you’ll just pick a character and go through the usual routine. There’s nothing new to the game, just blow stuff up and isn’t that really the circle of life? As to be expected, each character tells a different story and their vehicles have different attributes some are easier to drive while others are well protected. There are 10 different characters to choose from. There are also 10 different venues that you’ll be playing in.



The vehicles vary from a police car to an F1 race car and everything in between. Each car/motorcycle does indeed drive differently and pretty much as you would expect; the F1 race car is fast but has very little armor; while a vehicle named “Warthog” is slow but armored.

As mentioned earlier, your goal is to destroy your opponent. In order to do this you can drive into him (a la demolition derby style), use your basic machine gun, or use your ‘special’ weapons. Each vehicle has a special weapon and as well as energy attacks. While the special weapon is custom to the vehicle, the energy attacks are available to all, as long as you have energy. Some vehicles have more than others and some regenerate it quicker than others as well. You can acquire power ups and weapons like missiles throughout the level. Finally, when you retire another vehicle, the remains of the car leave an upgrade power up. The biggest benefit of these upgrades is that they carry over between levels, but only if you don’t die. If your car is toast, you lose the power up.

While the story mode is over pretty quickly, there is some replay value in offline mode. First, it’s fun carry out story mode with each person and vehicle as each one is a challenge to complete. It’s not a huge challenge, but it is fun nonetheless. Second, there are also mini games within the levels. When driving on a secret teleporter in each level, you can be whisked away to a minigame. There is one minigame in each level and most are a blast…in the first level (Big Blue Stadium) there is a Demolition Derby minigame where you have no weapons and have to destroy taxi cabs.

Single player isn’t all there is in TM: Head-On. This is one of the first games that says it supports Infrastructure mode and actually delivers. If you are at home and have a wireless router, setting up online play is a snap with your PSP. Of course, if you can find a wi-fi hot spot you could also play there. Personally, I enjoy going to the bookstore. My wife will go find her books and I’ll go to the café and play a game or two. Of course the possibilities here are endless. Never has a trip to the john been more enjoyable.

Internet wireless play is a blast. At the time of the PSP launch, there were some pretty big hiccups logging onto the server, however after the first week, it seems that everything has been fixed and logging in is very simple.



TM:Head On really delivers online. It keeps running stats and the lobby isn’t bad at all. You can set up different types of games, change the venue and set up the number of players. There’s also a co-operative mode online for those times you don’t feel like shooting everyone.

I cannot express enough how much fun the online play is and the ability to play practically anywhere really adds to the replay value of the game. The game supports up to 8 players in infrastructure mode, and I have found that a 4 player game is often the best. There are disconnects from other players, but I can only speculate on the reasons for the disconnect. During the first week, it was obvious there was a server issue, however in subsequent gameplay, one wonders if someone’s mommy told the boy to stop playing or if their wi-fi connection went bad. I have personally had few disconnects since that first week.



The instruction manual is well done, and it’s highly recommended you familiarize yourself with it.



The graphics are decent in the game. They are well above that of other handhelds but are probably not as good as the console version (however the fact we’re even comparing a handheld to the PlayStation2 is impressive in itself).

The controls aren’t bad…of course in any driving game, you wish that you had a steering wheel. Using the analog stick isn’t the best way to control a car – however it is manageable. You can use the d-pad if you like, but I don’t recommend it.



In game sound is fine – the audio fits the game, but no licensed music or excitement to write home about. The crashes sound nice enough.



Overall this is a game that is a great pick up and play experience with a ton of replay value. Even better, it’s just plain fun and should be one of your first pickups with the PSP, especially if you like playing online and have a wi-fi connection at your home.