Twisted Metal: Difference between revisions

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The eighth entry into the series, simply titled ''Twisted Metal'', was released on February 14, 2012.

 

* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: ''Black'' has a sewer level with tunnels large enough to drive a semi truck in.

* [[All Just a Dream]]: From various in-game hints, ''Black'' seems to occur completely in Needles Kane's head. In ''2'', the driver of Roadkill {{spoiler|wakes up from a coma caused by a massive highway pileup, giving the impression that the competition happened in his head, with the other drivers involved being the other contestants.}}

** [[Or Was It a Dream?]]: However, Marcus' ending shows with a brief glimpse of Calypso's burning eyes...

* [[Anime Hair]]: Dollface in reboot sports bright pink hair.

{{quote|'''Sweet Tooth''': Its good to be back.}}

* [[Area 51]]: A stage in ''Twisted Metal 3''.

* [[As Himself]]: [[Rob Zombie]] is a playable character in ''4''.

* [[Avenging the Villain]]: {{spoiler|Needles' son wants to kill Calypso for killing [[You Killed My Father|his father]]}}

** {{spoiler|And Calypso resurrects Sophie Kane in the reboot.}}

* [[Bad Boss]]: Both Needles and Dollface in the reboot are revealed to be pretty dickish towards their [[Sidekick|gunners]]. The former killed off his gunner after he finished planting the C4 under the remaining Grimm Brother to detonate the bomb. The latter shot her gunner after defeating the Carnival of Carnage. Seems that only the 'asshole' Mr. Grimm [[Only Sane Man|isn't such an asshole he claims to be]]. In fact, he would have let his men who were driving the "Brothers Grimm" Monster Trucks enter the nest tournament, had they killed Needles.

* [[Bedlam House]]: Blackfield Asylum, of course.

** {{spoiler|It seems that Calypso has the Preacher from the reboot sent to this during the ending. And then the camera scales back, and back... and back.}}

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: The Kanes. Needles Kane (the driver of Sweet Tooth) is a serial killer, and Charlie Kane is either an old drunkard taxi driver turned insane (main series) or a dead zombie remote-controlled by his son (''Black'' continuity). Marcus Kane seems to avert this {{spoiler|until we learn that he and Needles are the same person, just two different personalities.}}

** And in the reboot, {{spoiler|his son, Charlie, takes over his father's (Needles specifically) place and Calypso resurrects his daughter, Sophie, as a female version of the titular clown.}}

** In a manner of speaking, The Joneses from ''4'' also qualify. Damn tourists. Sweet Tooth was right to drive them all off a cliff at his own expense!

** The Boss Characters in ''4'' don't have specific ending FMVs either, it's the generic one also used when playing with a custom car.

* [[Boss in Mooks Clothing]]: Juggernaut in the reboot certainly counts if you're fighting against it in the campaign. [[Mighty Glacier|An already tough vehicle]] which can dish out tremendous damage by just [[Car Fu|ramming you]], it also always has it's trigun and quad cannon activated (both capable of spamming TONS of [[More Dakka|bullets]] and [[Macross Missile Massacre|swarmers]]) and is bound to be a [[Mook Maker]]. If that wasn't bad enough, it's weakpoints are pretty hard to hit; it's trailer doors open for a brief moment when releasing [[mook]]s and trying to attack it head-on is usually near suicide.

* [[Bowdlerise]]: Due to their ''very'' graphic and unsettling nature, the PAL version of the game saw the removal of character FMVs.

* [[The Cameo]]: The final boss of ''Black'' is a large assault chopper called Warhawk; ''[[Warhawk (1995 video game)]]'' is a small series of Sony-platform games created by Singletrac/Incog where the player pilots such a vehicle.

* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: Twisted Metal: Head-On acts as a direct sequel to ''2'', and ignores Twisted Metal 3 & 4. ''Black'', meanwhile, is set in its own continuity, as is ''Twisted Metal: Small Brawl'' (basically ''Twisted Metal'' [[Lighter and Softer|for kids, with RC cars]]). The reboot is yet another continuity.

* [[Catapult to Glory]]: Brimstone's special weapon involves launching a crucified sinner through the air who then latches onto your vehicle and ritualistically kamikaze's with dynamite while yelling "Repent!" on contact with enemies.

* [[Character Customization]]: Amazingly present in ''4''. However, it's ''extremely'' primitive, with few options for your vehicle and only four breeds of special weapon from which to select.

** In the first game, Calypso just grants the wishes straight-up, without any twists or manipulation... {{spoiler|save for Outlaw}}. In the "lost endings", he's more of a dick, granting and then brutally subverting the wishes. (What he does to Scott Campbell is outright [[Kick the Dog]].) It's only with the second game that he becomes the master of [[Be Careful What You Wish For]] and [[Literal Genie]].

** The first game plays "Needles" Kane's psychosis purely for laughs, ''especially'' in the dumped live action endings. The second game added in the perma-burning scalp, but still treated him as an actual clown with murderous tendencies. It wasn't until ''Black'' that he was fully transformed into the very definition of a [[Monster Clown]], both in backstory AND in-game.

* [[Composite Character]]: Dollface in the reboot has the mask of the ''Twisted Metal: Black'' Dollface, but shares her name (Krista Sparks) with an unrelated character from ''2'' and ''Head-On'', and her motivations (pursuit of fame) call to mind the driver of Spectre in ''2''.

** From the first ''Twisted Metal'': Sweet Tooth's imaginary friend Crazy Harold the Wacky Lunch Sack, Crimson Fury/Warthog's black box and Spectre/Yellow Jacket's vial of potion (from the live-action endings)

** From ''Twisted Metal 2'': Twister's fossilized helmet, Hammerhead's plane tickets and some bricks from Simon Whittlebone's tower.

** From ''Twisted Metal: Black'': The girl's teddy bear from Outlaw's story (though it could also be Krista's teddy bear from ''Head-On''), No-Face's surgical boxing gloves, Shadow's voodoo dolls and John Doe's wallet

** From the 2012 game: Sweet Tooth's Machetes.

* [[Cool Car]]: Virtually every vehicle in the series.

** [[Cool Bike]]: Mr. Grimm.

** [[Tank Goodness]]: Minion, usually. Warthog to a lesser extent (if it's not a tank, it's a hummer.)

* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: In 2012, if you watch one of the AI opponents, you will notice they can re spawn their special weapons almost instantly. With one time using its special five times in one go just after the match started. It is also able to use other items without having to previously acquire them.

* [[Exact Words]]: When you meet Calypso, you need to be ''very'' careful how you word your wish...

* [[Expansion Pack]]: ''Twisted Metal Black Online'', which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

* [[Expy]]: Mr. Grimm in ''Twisted Metal 2'' bears a striking resemblance to the [[Ghost Rider]]. When you select him on the car select screen, his skull even catches fire.

* [[Eye Scream]]: No-Face from ''Black'' had his eyes and tongue removed by {{spoiler|a back alley doctor who lost $20,000 betting on him in a boxing match}}, although [[Disability Superpower|he can still see well enough to drive]]. Also, Shadow's ending in ''Black'' features {{spoiler|Raven using voodoo dolls to gouge out the eyes of the two punks who killed her best friend Kelly, then implying that she will do the same to her parents}}.

''Calypso is promptly gunned down by his old guards.'' }}

* [[Freestate Amsterdam]]: ''Twisted Metal 2'' stage [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|"Holland: Field of Screams"]] which consists of several tulip fields and a pair of windmills.

* [["Friend or Idol?" Decision]]: Dollface in ''Black'' has the chance to obtain the key to unlock her mask, {{spoiler|but at the life of her boss, who put the thing on her in the first place. She takes the key, killing him, but decides that she doesn't want it anyway, saying that the mask will never grow old and ugly, while her normal face will.}} Although in ''Twisted Metal: Lost'', this was revealed to be a bad decision, because as Dollface found out, {{spoiler|while the mask will never age, it will never grow either, and being a fourteen year old girl, her SKULL IS STILL GROWING...}}

** Hold on a second... if she's ''fourteen'', [[Fridge Logic|how'd she get a job?]] You'd think they have child labor laws even in the TM universe.

** It goes beyond that. In her flashback, she says that "it was [her] first '''real''' job after college..." Wait, college? 14? What?

*** Well it has been stated that Black takes place [[Journey to the Center of the Mind|inside Needles' imagination]]...

* [[Gay Paree]]: ''Twisted Metal 2'' stage "Paris: Monumental Disaster". It consists of a small chunk of the Paris city center filled to the brim with historical monuments, boutiques and alleys, and crammed between the Eiffel Tower (which you can destroy by detonating a remote bomb on the upper level) and the Louvre Museum. And it's [[Video Game/Levels/Awesome|awesome]]. So awesome, that they remade it in ''Head-On''.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: The Robertses in ''Head-On'', with regards to Calypso's wish granting methods. But, of course, they had already been screwed over twice before, so they learned from their mistakes.

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: At least once someone has been able to successfully make a wish that screws Calypso over. This isn't the only way Calypso is defeated though.

** Most directly was ''Head-On'', where {{spoiler|Sweet Tooth wishes for he and Calypso to swap bodies. Sweet Tooth immediately orders Calypso's guards to shoot him}}

** Tower Tooth in Head-On, conveniently hiding in the streets of [[Animeland|Tokyo]] as an ice cream shop.

* [[I Am a Humanitarian]]: {{spoiler|Mr. Grimm}} in ''Black''

* [[I Am Not Shazam]]: The [[Monster Clown]] is Needles Kane. His ''car'' is Sweet Tooth. The [[Canon Discontinuity|third and fourth games]] screw this up and call the clown Sweet Tooth, but Incog Inc. makes a point of having characters only ever call him Needles.

* [[Last Breath Bullet]]: {{spoiler|Outlaw}}'s ending in ''Black''. Just after {{spoiler|killing the terrorist the second time,}} he looks over at {{spoiler|the family he was trying to save. We hear over his earpiece "Target is still hot! Repeat, target is ''still hot!''" just before the [[Pink Mist]] gets splattered everywhere.}}

* [[Legacy Character]]: Many of the cars that appear in multiple games keep their appearance and special attack. Some, however, like Sweet Tooth, don't technically count, since their drivers are actually the same person every time.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: ''Small Brawl''. it's still somewhat dark, however. The game itself is bloodless and kid-friendly because you drive radio-controlled cars, but then you get to the endings where Calypso {{spoiler|is eaten by a giant frog, nearly blown up with a large firework rocket, shoots one of the drivers into space or leaves a giant pile of explosives to try and blow up another participant}}.

** ''4'', while not to that degree, is in general much sillier and more colorful than any other game in the series so far.

* [[Mayincatec]]: The "Amazonia" level from the second game features Aztec-style pyramids surrounded by lava emerging from a volcano, [[You Fail Geography Forever|in Brazil]].

* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Some weapons such as the MIRV, Rain 2, Reticle, Zoomy, Swarmer and the specials of some characters such as Sweet Tooth's and Roadkill's in Black.

** Twisted Metal's alternate universes are also pretty damn confusing to get it right. While Black does takes place in Needles' mind, Marcus also made an appearance in that universe (as Minion) who as we've known, is always paranoid about Twisted Metal being just a nightmare. He says that he misses the colourful world. But in the colourful universe, Marcus is still as paranoid as ever, forever stating that everything isn't real while Calypso always tells him that Twisted Metal is as real as how he wanted it to be. This could be suggested that the colourful universe takes place in Marcus' mind. That said, the Black and colourful continuities are both just dreams and that nothing is real.

*** And then we have Small Brawl, which is a [[Lighter and Softer]] version for kids. You wouldn't expect ''this'' to be connected to the Black and colourful universes, right? Well, in Spectre's ending, it was revealed that the boy was the son of Ken Masters, the Spectre in Twisted Metal 2, which is set in the colourful universe Marcus always regards as a nightmare. This makes Small Brawl a dream ''within'' a dream... Goddamn! Are the creators of Twisted Metal fans of Studio Gainax's or 7th Expansion's animes or what?

* [[Monster Clown]]: Needles Kane. What else do you expect from a serial killer whose head is on fire?

** {{spoiler|Sophie Kane}} in the reboot is an [[Evil Is Sexy]] version.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Does anybody else agree that Calypso in ''1'' resembles a burnt-face Gene Wilder?

** In ''Black'' he looks very much like [[Friday the 13th (film)|Jason Voorhees]] minus the mask.

* [[Not Drawn to Scale]]: Scale problems exist like nuts in this series. Axel, a man on a platform stuck between two wheels, is approximately 20 feet tall, judging by the civilian and house sprites on some levels. Even the motorcycle & dune buggy vehicles are house-sized.

** This even leaks into gameplay. In ''Twisted Metal 2'', Axel could run over ''and crush'' any other vehicle short of a boss, justified by being bigger than any of them, despite being just a man standing upright between two monster truck wheels. Yes, he can crush Hammerhead, which is an actual monster truck.

* [[Pause Scumming]]: The second game implemented the pause feature in an odd way. Your car and the enemy cars would stop dead as expected, but projectiles would continue as normal, the sole exception being the ricochet bomb. With timely use of the pause button you could land every single Roadkill boomerang, every single Sweet Tooth ice cream cone, every single freeze missile, break out of a Mr. Slam infinite freeze missile loop, blow up opponents with their own mines (because the delay before they arm didn't stop when the game was paused, of course) and avoid running into projectiles fired in front of you. The list goes on. Conversely, you could also die during the pause screen.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: First used in ''Black'' by Needles in his intro. It was [[Curse Cut Short|bleeped out though]]. The reboot was the first time in the series where the F-bomb was used openly. In a nod to ''Black'', the first time the F-bomb ''was'' used, it too was [[Curse Cut Short|cut short]] by the scream of Marcu's/Needles' wife upon {{spoiler|her getting chopped}}. For the rest of the game, F-bombs were dropped without censors.

* [[Real Song Theme Tune]]: ''Black'' uses "Paint It Black" by [[The Rolling Stones]] in the credits.

* [[Ring of Power]]: ''Twisted Metal 4'' sets up the premise that Sweet Tooth managed to steal a magical ring from Calypso that gave him all his powers to grant wishes.

** ''Twisted Metal: Lost'', the mini-game found in the [[PlayStation 2]] port of ''Head-On'' which serves as a "sequel" to ''Black'', treats ''EVERY'' ending from Black as having happened, even if they included objects/events impossible to come by any other way. Maybe Calypso got nicer and granted everyone's wishes after the tournament?

** ''Twisted Metal 3'' had the same issue to a lesser extent, what's with Warthog's driver wishing to have the head to match his body, the two Outlaws being reunited and Axel claiming he separated from the machine (though his hands does seem undamaged).

* [[Rob Zombie]]: A [[Guest Fighter]] in 4. He even drives his Dragula roadster.

* [[Ruined FOREVER]]: Some people despise 3 and 4 while others despise Black.

* [[Sdrawkcab Name]]: The name of the Doctor that gave Dollface/Krista her mask in the 2012 reboot? Dr. Ospylac.

* [[Secret Character]]: Minion in every entry in which he's playable, but also Sweet Tooth in ''2'' and ''3''; Manslaughter, Warthog, Yellowjacket, and Axel in ''Black''; Axel, Darkside, Mime, PieceMeal, and Trapper in ''Small Brawl''; Axel, Mr. Slam, Hammerhead, Crimson Fury, ATV, Cousin Eddy and Dark Tooth in ''Head-On''; and Warthog in the 2012 ''Twisted Metal''.

* [[Signature Line]]: The page quote.

* [[Slasher Smile]]: Needles Kane throughout the series, and Calypso in ''2''.

* [[Spinoff Babies]]: ''Twisted Metal: Small Brawl''.

* [[Split Personality]]: Needles Kane, the driver of Sweet Tooth, and Marcus Kane, the driver of Roadkill. Starts out as [[Split Personality]], but eventually turns into [[Jekyll and Hyde]], and [[Enemy Without]], then into [[Split Personality Takeover]]. Needles could also be considered a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: After making ''Twisted Metal 2'', Singletrac was bought by GT Interactive and lost the Twisted Metal license. This lead them to create two stand-alone vehicular combat games: ''[[Video Game/Rogue Trip|Rogue Trip]]: Vacation 2012'' and ''[[Critical Depth]]''. Both games ended up leaving their mark on the series - ''Black'' adopted the visible damage indicator and slightly more involved storytelling of ''Critical Depth'', and ''Rogue Trip'''s faster pace and more interactive arenas.

* [[Stock Scream]]: The death screams, notably in ''Black''.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: One of the main features of the series.

* [[Take a Third Option]]: More of a second option, but in ''Head-On'', the driver of Crimson Fury, Agent Shepard of the FBI, chooses to simply arrest Calypso in his ending rather than trying to collect his prize from the [[Literal Genie]].

* [[The Kid with the Remote Control]]: The driver of Yellowjacket in ''Black'' is Charlie Kane, reanimated by his son and literally controlled by a remote control. Also, the vehicles in ''Small Brawl'' are RC cars driven by little kids.

* [[The Grim Reaper]]: Mr. Grimm, in the first <s> two</s> three games and ''Head-On''.

* [[Transforming Mecha]]: Sweet Tooth's super in Black turns it into one of these.

* [[Troll]]: Calypso. He makes contestants risk their lives fighting in his freak show contest then screws them over when they make their wish, complete with his own trollface.

* [[Weaponized Car]]

* [[What Could Have Been]]: The first game was originally titled ''High Octane'', but was changed due to another game called ''Hi-Octane'', a car-racing game. Then again, ''[[Meaningful Name|"Twisted"]] Metal'' seems an appropriate title for this series.

*** Actually, the post-apocalyptic approach was being developed after ''Black'' in what would've been ''Twisted Metal: Apocalypse''. However, six members of the team working on that game died in a plane crash, leaving the game unfinished. However, their work did land into the hands of ''Eat, Sleep, Play'', which incorporated the work into ''Twisted Metal (2012)''.

**** I'm pretty sure that plane crash was [[Kayfabe]].

***** The game they were working on was Twisted Metal: Harbour City, not Apocalypse. The remnants of Harbour City were integrated into Head-On as a bonus.

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: The fact that Needles and Marcus Kane, despite being split personalities (Needles being a violent, psychotic half and Marcus being his sanity and reason), exist as two separate entities, drive two separate vehicles, and constantly battle each other until the Dark Tooth ending from ''Head On'' where {{spoiler|Needles and Marcus meet in the middle of a field curious about seeing the other but ultimately decide to work together, resulting in an unstoppable force of destruction.}}

* [[Working Title]]: As noted above, ''High Octane''.

 

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[[Category:Twisted Metal]]