Before PlayStation was a household name, I can remember the original system launch; walking into a store shortly after the PSOne hit shelves and seeing a game with a demented clown...

+ Fast-paced action; + Online is a blast; + Weapons are fun to use; + Excellent arenas

Online has growing pains; Only three main characters

The PlayStation brand is closely tied to a lot of big-name games, but it hasn't been tied to many of them for quite as long as Twisted Metal. The gritty car-combat series – which stars a bunch of crazies in heavily armed vehicles who massacre each other for a chance at a wish from a dark trickster...

Huge amount of variety to play around with; Story campaign hides a ton of hidden extras; Nuke is a cool addition to multiplayer

Multiplayer feels sparse next to campaign; Races tend to hinge on just picking the fastest car; The difficulty; if you prefer to breeze through games

After a long sabbatical, one of Sony's most nostalgic franchises is back. Twisted Metal will be instantly familiar to the legion of gamers who spent hours orchestrating vehicular mayhem on their PSOnes. As it turns out, after so many years, very little has changed.

Creative modes and interesting character design; Strong multiplayer; Well-designed arenas and nice array of vehicles

Pinball physics and extremely old-school design add frustration; Single-player mode is lackluster; Controls can be problematic and certain level and design elements are poorly executed; Unspectacular graphics

Good: A solid game that definitely has an audience. Might lack replay value, could be too short or there are some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.

Once upon a time, a man named Calypso regularly held a tournament. It was a grisly contest of vehicular carnage in which entire cities were razed as the competitors destroyed everyone and everything around them in their mad quest for victory. But for many years now, the screams have gone silent.

Vast; complex; largely destructible environments; Diverse assortment of weapons calls for on-the-fly tactical smarts; Responsive controls let you react to constantly evolving dangers; Campaign has great cutscenes and memorable boss battles; Online competition is fast and thrilling

Odd narrative disconnect between vehicles and drivers; Online connectivity issues and other quirks

If you're up for a challenge and some old-school fun, then Twisted Metal is the game for you.

Great variety of cars and power-ups; B-movie cut scenes are especially well done.

Twitchy controls in places; Car and environment physics are pretty much non-existent; Unbalanced AI

It's been a long wait for fans that have been patiently waiting for the chance to bask in the explosions, gunfire, carnage, and high-speed action that is the Twisted Metal series. Over a decade ago, Black gave the series a dark and gritty new look, and after Head-On changed things up again in 2005,...

As a package Twisted Metal stands very much as a singular vision of David Jaffe and Eat Sleep Play. It revels in its uncompromising nature and harkens back to the series' roots, which go back as far the PlayStation itself.

Twisted Metal is currently the oldest franchise that is exclusive to the PlayStation brand that is still running to this day. The series' first instalment was released way back in 1995 on the original PlayStation, which has been followed by numerous sequels over the years.

Twisted Metal never escapes the fact that it feels completely old and archaic. The premise is timeless, and there should always be room for a game of mindless destruction, but the execution is poor here.