Twisted Metal Black - Going Old School

My PS3 isn't backwards compatible. This makes me sad in many ways. I've really been spoiled by the wireless remotes. Having a cord connected is such a massive hassle nowadays. But my wife wanted to play some Twisted Metal and since Twisted Metal for the PS3 hasn't been released yet I had to hook up the PS2, corded controllers and all.

Amazingly enough my PS2 still functions and it's one of the older brick models. But I really want backwards compatibility in my PS3. I have a fairly decent PS2 collection and sometimes I would like to just pull out a game without having to hookup the PS2. Backwards compatibility is the only reason I was even interested in custom firmware for the PS3. But I don't want to lose my account access so I'll just skip on that.

Now a sign of a good game is that ten years later the game is still fun. Twisted Metal Black is that game. Having been released June of 2001, Twisted Metal Black was one of the first "must own" titles for the PS2. In case you don't know, Twisted Metal Black is a car combat game. It's the one with the clown who's head is on fire.

Sure the graphics are dated. And the car physics are pretty laughable by today's standards. But the game is still fun. My wife and I played for about 2 hours blowing up each other and the AI contestants. We laughed, we cried, we yelled and we forgot the control scheme. Seriously, we were trying to remember how to pull off certain tricks the entire time we were playing. And that's probably my biggest gripe with the game. There are special attacks hidden in the button presses. You can shoot an iceball or you can jump, but you can't just press the X button to jump. Nope. You have to press a specific button combo to activate the jump. This problem isn't new to Twisted Metal Black, its plagued the entire franchise. Doesn't mean that I have to like it.

The other thing I want to complain about are the boss characters. Minion is cheap. His weapons cause massive damage and they seem to hit you anywhere. But the final boss, Warhawk is even worse. HE'S A FREAKIN' HELICOPTER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! I really want to know who said "Hey this is a car combat game right? We should have a flying enemy for the final boss. That would be cool!" News flash! It's not cool. Never do that again. If I'm playing a flight game then sure, I'll fight a helicopter. But if I'm playing a car game I would like to fight a car (or some form of ground vehicle).

But enough with the complaining. All that you really need to know is that the game is still fun and I would still highly recommend it. Now who's up for a game of Twisted Metal Black Online?