Retro Gaming 90’s- Twisted Metal 2: (1996)

When it comes down to classic video games from the 90’s during the PS1 era of gaming one of the few titles that almost everyone instantly remembers is Twisted Metal 2. For those who do not know Twisted Metal 2 was released back in ’96 and was the sequel to the original title which came out a year prior during 1995. The setting for Twisted Metal 2 takes place a year following the events of the original game with the story of the game being pretty much the same. Similar to the original Twisted Metal game players compete in a worldwide demolition derby competition with the winner taking on its creator Calypso. Players engage in vehicular combat in multiple locations including New York City, Paris Moscow, Hong Kong and Antarctica with competitors trying to destroy each other in each stage. For a 3D demolition derby game Twisted Metal 2 was impressive by ’96 standards especially considering the fact that most three dimensional titles from the PS1 were slow paced during that time period in relation to gameplay.

During each competition players had large choice choice of weapons to choose from and were able to collect medical kits if their health got to low after destroying certain objects. The playable characters in Twisted Metal 2 featured the likes of Axel, Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, Roadkill, Thumper, Hammerhead and Shadow. Axel had the coolest lookin vehicle of them off all especially considering the fact that it was featured on the PS1 box cover of Twisted Metal 2. For the most part people had nothing but good things to say about Twisted Metal 2 and its widely considered to be arguably the best installment within the entire series. In 1996, Twisted Metal 2 was to teenagers what Mario Kart 64 was to children in terms of overall fun and excitement. Even though, the vehicular combat genre has sharply declined in popularity since the mid 90’s Twisted Metal 2 is definitely one of those games that Sony should for a current generation game system like the PlayStation 5.