My first experience on the PSP was, shall we say . . . twisted!?!
Anyways, let's start at the main game menu . . . surprise, surprise! From here you have three choices. The first choice is "Single Player" and within this option there are a few different game modes you can pick from. The first game mode is "Story" and is the main single player component of this game. When you choose this mode you next pick the character you want to play with. To begin with you can pick from amongst 10 characters, but as you progress through the game you can unlock more characters and in the end I believe there are 17 playable characters in total. Once you choose your character you are whisked off to the tournament and must survive through 11 consecutive levels of vehicular carnage to take home the Twisted Metal grand prize. There are actually 13 levels in total, but along the way you twice get to choose your next destination between a couple of different locales. The levels in the game break down as such: Big Blue Stadium, Los Angeles, Paris or Egypt, Los Angeles – Cousin Eddy (mid-game boss fight), Roman Ruins, Russia or Greece, Monaco, Tokyo Streets, Tokyo Rooftops, Tokyo – Dark Tooth (boss fight) & Tokyo – Tower Tooth (boss fight). On each level you are given 3 lives to defeat all competitors you are up against, there are between 3-5 other vehicles you have to square off against in these levels (with the exception of boss fights of course). Once the levels start there are many things you need to look out for, other than laying a severe beating on your competitors. The most plentiful thing you will find scattered throughout each environment are weapons pickups. Each vehicle is equipped with machine guns as it's standard primary weapon, but you can also fire a secondary weapon and there are many to choose from, including: homing missiles, fire missiles, power missiles, cluster missiles, ricochet bombs, remote bombs, napalm, and an environmental weapon that takes on a certain function depending on what level you use it in. There may be some others I missed but these are the bulk of them. There is also a secondary weapon that is unique to each vehicle in the game but you don't gain them by way of pickups, they regenerate automatically and are added to your weapon inventory as they become available. As for other pickups, the ones you'll be searching for most are health pickups! They aren't nearly as prevalent as weapons pickups and come in two forms: 30% health pickup and full health pickup. Each vehicle has a turbo function for when you need to add a burst of speed and the turbo pickups in each level are usually fairly plentiful. A very important pickup to grab are the ones that appear after you destroy your enemies. If you take somebody out, a few seconds later an upgrade icon will spawn over that vehicle's wreckage. These pickups upgrade your vehicle in a number of categories including energy and turbo boosts, jump upgrade, machine gun upgrade, armour upgrade, special weapon upgrade, and maybe one or two others I may be forgetting. The last thing you need to be aware of throughout these levels are warp platforms. They are blue glowing platforms that, when you come to a stop on them, will warp you to another area of the level, usually fairly far away. Most levels also have bonus game warp platforms which look almost the same, they are just coloured with a bit of red as well. These platforms will warp you to a bonus game specific to the level you are in and they mostly take on the form of some sort of a race/obstacle course type of thing you have to win. If you complete these bonus games within a certain time limit you get to keep all the pickups you gained in the process, your health is refilled, plus you unlock a special bonus. The bonuses include extra lives, cheat codes, Death Match levels, and additional characters. Completing certain bonus games is how you unlock the remaining characters in the game with the exception of the boss characters, which are unlocked simply by defeating them your first time through on Story mode. You need to use all of these little tricks and pickups to last through 11 levels and bring down Tower Tooth in the end to complete the game. Pretty straightforward and massively fun!
The next choice under Single Player is "Challenge" mode. This mode is simply a one-off battle you can partake in from among any of the levels you come across in Story mode. Once you choose this mode to start the game you pick the character you want to play with, pick the level you want to play in, and then choose anywhere from 1-5 opponents who you want to face off against in said battle. The only difference from Story mode is that you don't get three lives, you just get the one. So health pickups are even more important in this mode! Earlier on I mentioned that you can unlock Death Matches when you successfully complete certain bonus games. You can select the Death Match option in Challenge mode and basically what they do is just take a level in the game and cordon off a small area of it where all the fighting will take place. This is a lot tougher as there is nowhere to run and hide when you need to lick your wounds and search for health. It also goes a lot faster because destruction comes way quicker all around! The Death Match function is available only in the Paris, Egypt, Roman Ruins, Greece & Tokyo Streets levels.
The third and final choice under Single Player is "Endurance" mode. To start this mode you do exactly the same as you did in Challenge mode . . . pick the character and then pick the level you want to fight in. However, the difference here is that you don't fight more than one opponent at a time. An opponent will randomly start off the level against you and once you destroy him or her another one will spawn in his or her place. This will keep on happening and your task is to destroy as many opponents in a row as you can without dying. Death Matches are applicable in this mode also.
Back to the main menu, the second choice you come to is "Multiplayer" and is the online function of this game. If you have a Wi-Fi connection you can select this option and be taken to a menu listing all of the available online multiplayer games going on at that time. You can choose to join one of these games or create your own game room. There are many different rules and stipulations you can put on these multiplayer games so they can all take on a bit of a different tone from each other. Unfortunately I haven't been able to enjoy this Multiplayer function yet as nobody seems to be online playing this game anymore! Bah.
The third and final choice you come to on the main menu is "Options". There are a number of things you can view/adjust under this option including choosing from between four different control schemes, adjust audio (both music and effects volume), choose between four difficulty levels (Super Easy, Easy, Medium & Hard), load game data, save game data, delete saved games, restore default settings, and view movie clips. Among the movie clips is the game's intro movie, game credits, as well as all 17 characters' ending movies. Note that these ending movies all have to be unlocked and to do so you have to complete the game with each of the 17 characters. After you beat the game with a certain character you will see their particular ending movie and it will then be added to this Options feature.
As for the game controls, they vary slightly depending on the scheme you choose to go with, but they are simple and intuitive. I like the default setting best so I'll lay that scheme out for you. On the control pad the left and right directions are what steer your vehicle. Up on the control pad is used to give your vehicle gas, and down is to brake and then reverse. The X button is used to make tight turns, the O button is your brakes, the square button can also be used to give your vehicle gas (double tap and hold to engage your turbo function), and the triangle button is used to cycle through your available secondary weapons. To fire your secondary weapon you press the L button, and to fire your machine guns you press the R button (make sure to not constantly hold them down as they will overheat and seize up eventually).
In terms of the game's presentation it is absolutely fantastic, as Twisted Metal games usually tend to be! This is actually my very first experience on the PSP and I was amazed with the graphics. For such a small screen the fine detail in this game is very impressive. I've played the PS2 version of this game as well and there actually seems to be a bit more detail in this version than there is on the console, go figure! As for gameplay it is bang on as usual, very impressive. The camera angles are perfect and the controls are so easy to use that you don't even think about it once you've been in to the game for a little while. This game is very easy to play. The sound was very good too. The only thing that is maybe a bit lacking is the unlockable content . . . I love unlockable content! The ending movies are nice and all, but that's about all this game has to offer in that respect. Maybe a batch of concept art or something of that nature could have been added to make it a bit fuller. But no matter what this game in it's audio/visual presentation and functionality, is dynamite.
For tips and tricks there are a few I would recommend. First, get to know the levels and the locations of a couple of very important things, namely the health pickups and the warp platforms for the bonus games. Simply getting to those bonus games can throw enemies off your trail and buy you a bit of time to recover. And if you beat the bonus game even better, you'll be back to full health and stocked with ammo! Also get to know which weapons you find effective and which ones you don't. It's always good to have crappy weapons rather than no weapons, but if you go out of your way to pick up a weapon you don't find effective or can't seem to use properly, any damage you take in the process you'll regret. Find what you like and try to stick to it as you'll be way more effective and efficient in your destructive prowess. Lastly, for Death Match levels I highly recommend the slower and stronger characters. Their brawn and armour resistance come in way more handy than a weaker character's speed and stealth does.
And that's all! Another very strong entry in the saga that is Twisted Metal. I know they're coming out with a new Twisted Metal for the PS3, but for the poor folk like me who can only afford the handheld system I really hope they create another entry for the portable library!