Seriously Twisted
Those of you who had the opportunity to mess around on the Playstation (whether you owned one personally or not) would likely have played Twisted Metal.
Twisted Metal featured the two key points of well-designed gameplay; it required only a small amount of finesse to pick up and play [it was easy to play] and it featured a rather high skill cap [it was hard to master].
Being the kind of game it was, it was also great fun. If you’ve ever played any game from the Rampage series, you know what kind of gameplay i’m talking about. To spout out an incredible overused quote: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” – Mel Brooks.
Don't taze me, bro!
Twisted Metal’s shenanigans came from a combination of racing and destruction, as did the objectives of the missions or maps. Believe me; when you combine tank-tough cars and excessive weaponry the collateral damage is obscene. However, despite all the mindless fun and mayhem, the game actually had a story arc that was vaguely interesting.
The story starts with an everyday family man with a wife and daughter. One day they go out for a drive and a freak accident causes their vehicle to have a head-on collision with a brick wall. Naturally they are all killed (although his daughter makes an appearance in a later game, but that’s another story) and the man’s face is basically burnt off. Nice.
So while he is in limbo he is approached by a being known by the alias ‘Mr. Ash’ who says he will return him to life in exchange for souls (face not included). The specifics of it aren’t really portrayed and you are left with an open-ended interpretation of how things play out (which works out rather well, actually) but my understanding of it is that he gains the power to grant wishes. The power is stolen from a demon named Minion (who would try to win the power back in the future) either by the man himself or by a demon transferring the ability to him.
2 years of seething self-hatred and existential issues later, the man reappears with the alias of ‘Calypso’ and announces a contest: Twisted Metal. Racers who choose to compete do so at horrible risk, but have the opportunity to make a wish of their choosing if they are victorious.
Sweet Tooth might be using too much hairspray.
The wishes themselves are incredibly powerful but there are two twists on Calpyso’s power.
Calypso seems quite capable of granting anything the victor desires but, unfortunately for him, seems incapable of manifesting these powers for his own gain beyond a certain level. In previous games he has even been arrested, incapable of doing anything to protect himself.
Unfortunately for the racers, Calypso is a freakin’ nutcase with issues. Due to this, he rarely actually grants wishes as they were intended. He tends to take particular pleasure in screwing with the more noble or heroic wishes, since he usually lets the more greed-based or malevolent wishes come true. One example was when Spectre explained that he was an aspiring actor and wished “Make me famous! Make it so the entire world knows my face!” so Calypso stretched Spectre’s face out like dough to a massive size and left it floating face-down above New York City.
You’re probably wondering why i’m even bringing this game up?
Behold, the trailer from E3 2010:
[I understand that it's hard to hear the announcer in parts of this video, but the information and footage provided show the game's potential.]
This game was slated for release around mid-2011.
After watching various videos and reading press releases regarding this new game, it seems that the video i’ve linked pretty much sums it all up. I recommend watching it through and (trying) to listen to what the announcer says about the game. If not, just enjoy the random explosions and carnage going on.
This game is definitely on my watch list.
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Here’s another question i’ve received from a reader:
“Hey there. I played some wild 9 and it was fun but the graphics are old. Do you know if they released a sequel? I’d like to try that.” -Rachel, regarding the Gimmick Games article.
To the best of my knowledge; there has never been an official sequel to Wild 9. If you are looking for something of the same feel you might enjoy Bulletstorm, which is what i consider its spiritual sequel.
I mean, you could have called the game ‘Wild 9: Bulletstorm’ and renamed the protagonist to ‘Wex’. Maybe throw in a small, goopy green alien thing that yells ‘momma!’ for good measure. I’d probably have accepted it. Why?
- Both games utilize a ‘rig’ gauntlet, letting you throw enemies/objects around with an electric lasso. Both also grant benefits to catching things in mid-air, or throwing enemies into certain environmental hazards for progression.
- The games share a common need to spout cheesy-yet-entertaining dialogue (one-liners).
- The main character of each game looks the same. I mean, they are even both space-guerrilla agents.
- You can do hideous things to enemies for laughs in either game; In Wild 9 the freakin’ slogan is ‘torture your enemies’ and you do so for both fun and advancement. Bulletstorm promotes it in a similar way, implementing a ‘point system’ which pays you ‘points’ based on creative attacks against enemies, which you can spend like currency.
Give Wex more guns and change his perspective to that of a First-Person Shooter and you have the foundation upon which all of Bulletstorm is built. I’m not knocking the game… in fact, i’m recommending it based upon the similarities. If you enjoyed Wild 9 then you will probably like Bulletstorm.
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That’s it for now. TTYL!
Seriously Twisted