Do you think Sony would bring back Twisted Metal for PS5?

I've recently discovered that David Jaffe, the creator behind Twisted Metal (and God of War) regularly streams on YouTube, answering question and employing a lot of weird layouts and animated gifs much the same way Jeff does. I skimmed some of his videos and came upon one where he discusses the current state of Twisted Metal. This got me thinking - would Sony ever bring this franchise back? Twisted Metal is kind of a relic in that vehicle combat had it's time and place but largely was kind of an awkward affair. I remember really enjoying Twisted Metal Black and Jaffe mentions in the video how it was one of the better selling PS2 classics. I don't particularly remember how well the 2012 reboot did but I have vague memories of GB being somewhat cold on it.

That said, I think given the proper overhaul, a proper Twisted Metal game could be a fun thing. Physics and driving simulations have gotten really good and the state of next-gen graphics could definitely make a car based game shine. The problem as ever is the nature of vehicular combat being a tough nut to crack. Driving forward and doing handbreak 180's constantly to shoot your opponent does get tiresome after a while. I'm certain a really brilliant designer could come up with an interesting system that I simply can't fathom. Do you think Twisted Metal still has a chance in modern gaming or is it a property that just wouldn't really work anymore? They rebooted God of War with great success, maybe Sweet Tooth will also see his day in the spotlight once more?

I think it's pretty unlikely. Games are much more expensive to make now, and projects need a broader appeal. The 90s "EXTREME" tone of Twisted Metal isn't really popular anymore (even Tony Hawk took the blood out in the remake) and without that what even is this property?

What's the market for the franchise at this point? Are there a bunch of mid-30s dudes who are really pining for Twisted Metal?

I could imagine a Crash/Spyro/Tony Hawk style remake as a nostalgia play if this were Activision, but the car combat genre is dead at this point. When was the last time we even had a game in that genre?

Heck the racing genre (which is a different genre but was always way bigger than car combat) is pretty extreme niche at this point.

The time as passed. You won't see another Destruction Derby, either. Not when Wreckfest has it down.

I think the closest we'll see to a new Twisted Metal is Sweet Tooth showing up inexplicably in some other game, like as a guest skater in Tony Hawk or something (assuming that series is actually starting up again and this 1+2 collection isn't a one and done).

If destruction all stars is actually a hit, I could see them considering a twisted metal in this gameplay style

but highly unlikely.

I wish. It would probably come back with a much simpler design compared to what they did on the PS3. I loved the original games, and Black is still one of my favorite PS2 games.

It might be more of a multiplayer PS+ sort of offering with a limited story mode. When battle royales hit it felt like a perfect series for the concept, too.

Twisted Metal is an icon and deserves to be an ongoing series in a world of online games.

If they can figure out a way to add slow walking and talking to their car combat game, then sure.

All kidding aside. I don’t think it’s completely off the table, but I don’t know who would make it, or if they would get the mood right. Honestly I don’t think any series is dead, just dormant.

Yeah.. I think Twisted Metal's time has come and gone with the 90s. But hear me out on this... What if they maybe a Twisted Metal game, but also there's this giant ball in the middle of the map. And you've got these two goals on either side that you're trying to knock the ball into. Like some sort of... vehicle based soccer game.

I would even just take a remake of Twisted Metal 2, similar to what Activision did with Crash, Spyro, and Tony Hawk. I know car combat isn't the genre it used to be, but I'd definitely take another over the top, colorful, and goofy game like the original first two Twisted Metals.

I know this is probably a hot take, but I did not really like Twisted Metal Black or the Ps3 Twisted Metal.

Twisted Metal Black was just too dark and edgy for me. I liked the more goofy and odd tone that the ps1 games struck. Twisted Metal on the ps3 had great potential but eliminating all the different types of characters in favor of car types with just 3 gangs to choose from? Ehh, for me, the characters and back stories were half the fun of the series.

I would rather have a stand-alone TM game revolving around Axel, because that is still one of the most ridiculous character designs ever (and keep as a giant).

I thought they already tried to sort of reboot/bring back the franchise last generation and it was met with a fairly "meh" response?

Either way, Jaffe seems like a dude that never grew up beyond the late 90's/early 00's so I'm sort of hoping he just leaves his "unique" style of game design in the past. I was never a huge fan of the series either way, but it could maybe be salvaged with perhaps some new minds on it.

What if we just bring back Rogue Trip instead? And Ska too while we are at it.

If that weird car combat game (the one that looks like it should probably be free to play or part of some Game Pass service) does extremely well I could see another Twisted Metal happening. I don't think that's going to happen though.

I completely forgot about that game but now that you mention it, I would probably wager that at most they would do Twisted Metal themed DLC for that game sooner than making a brand new TM. Which is a shame I think. Twisted Metal while very much of it's time is one of those hallmark titles for Playstation. Heck, they remastered MediEvil for whatever reason.. they could do much worse than revisit this franchise.

@brian_: You don't even joke around about ska coming back. 2020 is bad enough already. It doesn't need the rebirth of Ska.

@humanity: Twisted Metal was a hallmark title of an era of PlayStation that Sony isn't really interested in returning to. It was a cool game series in a lot of ways, but it was both simple and pitched at a very specific audience of young 'edgy' boys and men. It's just not what they do anymore and it's not the corporate branding. MediEvil was not nearly as popular a game but potentially has broader appeal because it's just a silly fairytale type thing with a light Halloween gloss.

@csl316: An online only free on PS+ shooter based on a David Jaffe project sounds perfect. What could go wrong?

I would bet that the disaster that was this game also has an impact on the chances of Twisted Metal being revived, not just because of the association with Jaffe but because it shows how poorly that super edgy aesthetic can play these days.

Games are generally either nicer or deeper and more nuanced than Twisted Metal was. I'm having trouble thinking of a single huge franchise that's as over the top and cynical as that 90s aesthetic. Even Gears of War and Mortal Kombat have developed into sincere stories about characters you're supposed to care about.

@bigsocrates: In all fairness, Mortal Kombat 1 didn't really have any real lore and those characters were as paper thin as any other games of the 90's. You had Yellow Ninja man and Blue Ninja man and also a Bruce Lee looking guy. It took Mortal Kombat the better part of 10 releases to nail down the tone and the lore.

@humanity: Right. That's why I said it "developed into" sincere stories about characters you're supposed to care about. I would say that really started with MK IX, which was the first one with a real cinematic story mode that tried to tell a more serious story.

The thing is...you can't really do that with Twisted Metal because there are no "normal" characters to build off of. Mortal Kombat's characters were over the top, but they were based on kung fu movie tropes so it was easy to slot them into a kung fu movie type narrative. To do that with Twisted Metal you'd have to like introduce a bunch of new characters to be the Johnny Cage/Jax/Sonya/Liu Kang "normalish people in an insane world" type characters. But that's not what people who are nostalgic for the franchise (such as yourself) want. You want to play as Sweet Tooth. And you can't really have a grounded and relatable version of Sweet Tooth.

Again, those types of games just aren't being made with a big budget anymore. Neither the genre of car combat nor the Twisted Metal aesthetic. It's just not what Sony's into. It's possible they'd do some kind of remakes as a nostalgia play, but even there I think the aesthetics would make it hard. Teens and young 20-somethings these days have different tastes, and the people who would have nostalgia for that time are all grown up, mostly with families. The pitch "Do you want to relive your favorite PlayStation memories of doing sick trips on a skateboard?" is still pretty compelling. "Do you want to relive your favorite car combat memories playing as a killer clown in an ice cream truck" is much less broadly appealing when you're in your late 30s or early 40s. Plus something like Tony Hawk or Spyro the Dragon can be shared with your kids and family. Twisted Metal? Not so much.

@bigsocrates: You can definitely do back stories for all these insane characters while also re-designing them in various ways. Sweet Tooth isn't that different from like a Scorpion or a Reptile. Scorpion for the longest time was just a flaming skull man with a grappling hook. I think Twisted Metal Black tried that with these characters all having some monkeys-paw tragic background that made them into the "twisted" and insane characters you control. It was very hit and miss but some of them could be expanded upon in a more serious and grounded way. I mean like anything, it would take a lot of effort and a lot of ret-conning. God of War is another Jaffe property that was rebooted from a paper thin angry man to a solemn "human" being dealing with trauma and guilt. Sony wasn't into that aesthetic anymore and they changed it. From all those behind the scenes interviews with Cory Barlog it took a tremendous amount of effort to do so and a lot of moments where they couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. All of this can be done, it just takes a lot of work and talent.

Like you said though - is it worth it? It's ultimately all about the business end of things and it would take a lot of imagination to modernize car combat into something that is both easy to grasp and fun to execute. If they found someone that could modernize the game from the ground up and reboot it much the same way a lot of classics have been re-worked into the modern age - like God of War, Mortal Kombat or even Tomb Raider, then that would be a really amazing comeback for a franchise. Is it likely to happen? Probably not.

@humanity: I actually think you're underestimating the degree of difficulty here. Scorpion was thinly drawn at the outset but his lore pretty quickly developed to something you could work with (ninja from a clan feuding with other ninja clan.) More crucially, even though Scorpion was the MK poster child and is on the box for the new games, he actually wasn't that important in rebooting the narrative and series "hooks." That fell to the less over the top people in the cast. Then once people were sort of reintroduced to Mortal Kombat and acquainted with that world through the characters, the crazier stuff was reintroduced.

Twisted Metal doesn't have any more relatable characters. They're all wildly over the top.

As for God of War, while that reworking was incredible, Kratos was always kind of a conflicted character with a lot of story attached to him, it was just kind of poorly done.

And of course the character action and fighting game genres are still active and popular. That's a big difference.

I guess I'm not saying it's totally impossible to make a new Twisted Metal game and somehow make it relevant. Creative people can do a lot of surprising things. I just don't see it as fitting in with the image that Sony is trying to project right now. When it does "Mature" rated games they tend to be "mature" not just in content like blood, but with mature themes aimed at adults, like Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us Part II, and Demon's Souls. When it does simpler games for teens they tend to be more family friendly in one way or another. Over the top violence for just the sake of fun violence just doesn't seem to be a Sony thing at this point.

@bigsocrates: Like I said, it would take a lot of talent. The reason these reboots were all succesful was largely because of the miraculous rewriting and tonal change. Of course amazing gameplay as well because at the end of the day you can't have one without the other, but with God of War especially I think a lot of critics were taken aback at just how much of a shift they were able to get away with. You keep saying that Sony doesn't want these over the top games anymore so it wouldn't fit their catalogue and while I agree with that, I'll reiterate that this is exactly why a proper reboot with the proper tonal shift would be able to change that. It doesn't matter what Twisted Metal was in the 90's because it can be something very different in 2021 while retaining some of the core values. Kratos doesn't engage in sex-mini-games anymore because the times have moved on, but it's still a game about killing mythical creatures and violence. All of that has been brilliantly re-imagined to suit todays standards of a serious action game. I don't know if any of us could have imagined that a modern God of War game would look and play like this and somehow still retain it's identity. The hardest trick in the book is giving people something they didn't know they wanted.

@bigsocrates: Honestly, TM2 was pretty cartoony and had that 90's comic book aesthetic. It can easily be updated to something a little more modern. But I also don't think Jaffe needs to be back. He's done some great stuff over the years but someone that grew up on those games might be a better lead on a new TM project. Catch the essence and the spirit of those games. Jaffe would try something new with it but the core concept just needs to be smoothed out for the modern age.

Anyway, while we're here, gimme another Critical Depth with more underwater wailing guitars.

It would be great to see a remake of TM2 since I think it's the best one, I spent a lot of time with that series when it first came out.

Another game that would be nice to see redone would be Destruction Derby 2 or Jet Moto 2

I think it could be done. The last Twisted Metal was a big let down and I found it so completely uninspired. I think it would take a reinvention of the genre but I would love to see it. I don't think its likely though.

For me I would want basically an earnest TM: Black 2. I loved the production value and presentation of that game and would love to see that angle picked up again. However, that would take more work and vision than certainly the last TM game.

And this is the single worst thing about Sony right now and why all their first party output is so fucking samey. (as far as the violence tho, huge disagreement from the GoW games and particularly both Last of Us games, which are as violent as any game there is)

They could just do a new TM: Black that rides the line between humor and comic book style depravity but it'll probably be about how Sweettooth is a reluctant Dad lol.

Yeah, that's probably what they'd do instead. A Twisted Metal Sweet Tooth DLC pack or something. I fear it'll do well enough even for that though unless they end up doing what EA did with Rocket Arena and after it bombed throw it into EA Access. Make it the first PS5 PS Plus game or something.

As a full-blown $70 project, no. As some $30 thing, I think it's a very real possibility. It's a product people recognize, which seems to be the only quantifier used these days as to which IPs get dredged up, and I think there's potential in it as a reworked product. Say, for example, turning it into a combat racer, which we haven't really seen since the 360 days. Or as a car-based minigame thing.

TM2 was the only great TM game and Id play a remake or even a remaster of it death.

TM Black gets a lot of love but I dont understand why. The enemy AI was terrible. They’d go from a standing start to 100mph in nothing flat and turn on a dime and do the same. Cheap shit.