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00:00I let it serve as a reminder that everyone has a chance of winning my contest, even fools!
00:08Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're taking a look at 25 facts you may not have known about Twisted Metal.
00:15Whether you love the games or the show, this series has had an extensive history spanning all the way back to 1994 before its inception.
00:24Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:42The Lost Endings – Twisted Metal 95
00:52For as great as the original Twisted Metal was for its time, the way the endings capped off campaigns was somewhat anticlimactic.
00:59All you got was a text crawl with an image of Calypso before it switched over to showing your character driving off in the distance.
01:06Well, we were supposed to get actual cutscenes for these endings, and they were all directed by series co-creator David Jaffe himself.
01:14Unfortunately, they were all really, really bad.
01:18You can appreciate them for their corny demeanor, but Sony ultimately decided that these endings could possibly be a detriment to the game's success.
01:33And so, the cutscenes were axed, never to be revealed until 2008 when it came packed with other cut content in Twisted Metal Head On Extra Twisted Edition.
01:42You guys are both sick. I'm getting out of here, and I'm taking your truck.
01:50Choosing the Bosses – Twisted Metal 4
02:02One of the unique aspects of Twisted Metal 4 is how every stage presented a boss fight as opposed to just reusing Minion or Darktooth and nothing else.
02:10Some bosses are original, but a majority of them are souped up versions of returning characters.
02:23Why these characters in particular? Well, it all came down to votes.
02:27Developer 989 Studios held an internal ballot where staff could vote on which of their favorite characters from the first three games should be put in as bosses for TM4.
02:37And that is why we got Super Augur, Super Thumper, Super Slam, and Super Axle.
02:49Early Incarnations – Twisted Metal 2012
02:53During its development, TM12 went through some stark changes in terms of themes and what direction to take the franchise in.
03:08One of these versions aimed for a game with a similar tone as the Rockstar Games racing series Midnight Club,
03:14focusing on hip-hop vibes and replacing the cast with Yakuza, cops, FBI agents, and other figures of crime or authority.
03:21Another version was planning to take Twisted Metal into a post-apocalyptic world almost similar to the one we saw in the TV series with derelict and decaying buildings.
03:30Both ideas were dropped due to being way too different for the series or just for not fitting the spirit of Twisted Metal in general,
03:37which is familiar settings, psychotic drivers, and sound environments awaiting inevitable destruction by players.
03:43Unfocused Focus Groups – Twisted Metal 95
03:55In this day and age, Sony has made it painfully clear how aggressively focus tested their games truly are.
04:11What with the chatterbox protagonist solving puzzles for you within three seconds of finding them.
04:16Funny enough, this history of seemingly unreliable amounts of focus testing goes all the way back to the very first Twisted Metal.
04:23In the documentary Twisted Metal The Dark Past, Jaffe and co-creator Scott Campbell revealed details about a focus test
04:30that had been conducted mere days before the game was supposed to go gold.
04:40According to them, marketing had brought in a group of players who excelled in fighting games
04:45and explained to them that Twisted Metal was, quote, a fighting game with cars, end quote.
04:51The players spent the entire session criticizing and mocking the game, leading Jaffe to believe he might be out of a job.
04:57Twisted Metal would end up winning game of the year from some outlets and wound up becoming a critical and commercial success.
05:03Supreme Stunt Work – Twisted Metal
05:15With the technological advancements we've seen in the 2020s, movies and TV shows have noticeably become more dependent on computer-generated imagery than ever before.
05:30However, Twisted Metal's TV adaptation has been way more practical than some would expect, particularly when it comes to stunts.
05:37With the exception of the more extreme stunts that involve explosions and crazy driving maneuvers,
05:48some of the Twisted Metal cast, like Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz, do their own stunts and fight choreography.
05:55Beatriz herself has noted how working on the show forced her to learn how to drive a stick shift for the first time ever.
06:01Absurdist Metal – Twisted Metal 2
06:08After the success of the first game, Twisted Metal almost went down a rather bizarre path for the sequel.
06:22Just as the first game was hitting the market, Jaffe Campbell and the team sat down to identify problems and come up with ways to remedy those issues.
06:30One idea that was explored for a bit was the idea of going from cars to hovercrafts and vehicles with insect legs.
06:38This was believed to give the player more freedom and movement, thus preventing players from ramming into walls constantly,
06:44a common issue the team kept seeing when watching players at public kiosks.
06:48Of course, this idea was never brought to fruition.
06:51A common misconception about the original Twisted Metal's development was that the game started out as a game about delivering pizzas.
07:14This was a misconception that even Sony PR fell for on social media once.
07:18What really happened was that Jaffe and his cohorts had drafted up a whole design document for what would become Twisted Metal
07:25and sent it off to Utah-based tech firm Evans & Sutherland.
07:28The firm responded by sending a design document to them for a completely different game.
07:34That game being the pizza delivery game.
07:37Almost unsurprisingly, Jaffe had some choice words for that change in direction even being suggested.
07:48The support we never saw.
07:51Twisted Metal 2012.
07:53In retrospect, it seems weird that TM12 never got any DLC, given that DLC was really taking off as a possible source of revenue for gaming at the time.
08:08So why didn't Sony and developer Eat Sleep Play jump on this opportunity?
08:12Well, they were about to, actually.
08:14In 2016, Twisted Metal 3D artist Shiloh Baker posted models of Crazy8, Twister, and Yellowjacket on his ArtStation profile, revealing that these three cars were planned for DLC before they were cancelled.
08:27With TM12 having middling commercial performance, the idea for DLC was likely never revisited.
08:33Destroyed.
08:34One enemy remains.
08:40You won the battle.
08:41Making Axel a reality.
08:43Twisted Metal.
08:44When watching the show, it's sometimes obvious when Twisted Metal was shot with practical effects and what parts were CG.
08:53But when it comes to Axel, it's a little hard to tell in the less action-packed moments.
08:58However, one might be surprised to know that Axel's entire rig is absolutely real.
09:04The entire rig was built for the show and turned out to be the heaviest vehicle of the bunch.
09:14The thing is that it is only ever used for minimal movement during scenes just to ensure the safety of the cast and crew.
09:21Still, it's wild that the most absurd vehicle in Twisted Metal history is now a reality.
09:37PC ports, Twisted Metal 95, and Twisted Metal 2.
09:42In this day and age, it is still bizarre to see Sony announce yet another of their console exclusives make their way to PC.
09:56But what many players fail to remember is that some PlayStation games did get PC ports back in the day, especially some that were published as PS1 exclusives.
10:05Twisted Metal and its sequel were among these rarities, made to showcase Nvidia technology on Windows 95 computers.
10:12So, it's been funny seeing all these console warriors think that their exclusives were always made just for them, if they only knew.
10:21The name of the game, Twisted Metal 95.
10:31It's fairly normal for a game to go through name changes as development continues.
10:43Typically, you have a codename to keep the project a secret until you're ready to start the marketing process.
10:49As for Twisted Metal, there were at least three names given before settling on the name that we know today.
10:56It first started under the codename Firestorm before it was given an official name, High Octane, which was the name of the tournament in the game for a while.
11:05Then, at some point, it was changed to Urban Assault to fit the game's themes of driving around realistic locations and firing missiles.
11:13Battle Cars was tossed around for a bit until the team found out there was an SNES game already called Battle Cars.
11:20Then, it became the generic title, Cars and Rockets, which is one title to kill interest in a game for anybody.
11:27A consultant producer named Andy Sells came up with Twisted Metal and it was settled with not much passion for the name.
11:34Factoring in Factions
11:40Twisted Metal 2012
11:42Tonight, it all comes to an end.
11:46A contentious talking point regarding TM12 is the significantly downsized cast.
11:51TM12 places a deep focus on only five characters, Sweet Tooth, Grimm, Dollface, Calypso, and Preacher.
11:59This decision still flummoxes some fans today, but there is an explanation for this from Jaffe himself.
12:05Jaffe has stated across several interviews and videos that he and the team figured that the vehicles of Twisted Metal were the real stars of the games, not the drivers.
12:13And so, they didn't think players would be all that upset about a game that hones in on their staple characters and dives into online gameplay a bit more like we were wanting to for years.
12:23Especially when there are more vehicles thrown into the mix than ever before.
12:27It's almost just like how we told Rocksteady for years that we wanted to drive the Batmobile in Batman Arkham.
12:32The glitched ending.
12:42Twisted Metal Head-On
12:44Twisted Metal games have come out polished in most cases, but some PSP copies of Head-On contain one bug that will occur under very specific conditions.
12:58For some reason, this game will potentially suffer from a glitch when played without any save data, and you won't know this until after you finish a campaign.
13:06Regardless of who you played as, if you do not have any save data for Head-On whatsoever, there is a chance that you will not get to see your own character's ending.
13:15Instead, you will see Mortimer's ending as if you just won the game with Shadow.
13:20Why this problem even exists is anybody's guess.
13:23That's the thing about video game development.
13:25All kinds of crap can break in ways that you will just never be able to explain.
13:29The Legacy of Sweet Tooth
13:38Twisted Metal 95
13:40The funny aspect about Sweet Tooth was that he was never officially planned to be the face of the franchise, and neither was the Ice Cream Truck.
13:51During development, Jaffe, Campbell, and the team kept revisiting the movie Maximum Overdrive.
13:56Based on the Stephen King story of the same name, the movie featured a semi-truck with a goblin face on the hood.
14:02After incorporating a similar design into an ice cream truck, Jaffe's then-girlfriend gave the truck the name, while Sony's marketing team would use the clown face for the cover art and promotional material.
14:13Ever since then, it's been hard picturing a Twisted Metal game without Sweet Tooth, and he's been on the cover of every single game.
14:25A Total Rush Job
14:27Twisted Metal Small Brawl
14:30When you look at the release of every Twisted Metal game, it seems bizarre that a PS1 game aimed at kids came out right after a gritty reboot made for the then-new PlayStation 2.
14:45Interestingly, Small Brawl was initially planned to be a PS2 game as well, before the team went against this idea.
14:52Didn't want to cannibalize the sales of Twisted Metal Black, you know?
14:56However, the PS1 was quickly becoming the obsolete console, so developer Incognito Entertainment would have to belt something out quickly if they wanted to squeeze revenue from the box one last time.
15:06Because of this rushed development, a lot of content, such as Axel's ending and character redesign, wound up getting cut from Small Brawl.
15:19Zack Snyder's Twisted Metal
15:21Twisted Metal 2012
15:23I teased her.
15:26Oh, she was delightful.
15:30Just a quick disclaimer, no, we're not saying that Zack Snyder was involved in TM12 in any way, shape, or form.
15:38However, his movies clearly gave some inspiration for how the team wanted to handle cutscenes.
15:43Jaffe and his crew looked to Watchmen and 300 for both visuals and narrative inspiration as a means to figure out how TM12's cutscenes should look and feel.
15:53Take me to her now!
15:58Your wish is crap.
16:00Whether or not they accomplished that is, of course, within the eye of the beholder, but we'd like to think that Jaffe and the crew achieved this perfectly and are proud of the work, even if folks weren't crazy with how the single player campaign was approached this time around.
16:13She's been dead for ten years.
16:16You can't kill me!
16:20You can't kill me!
16:21You can't ever kill me!
16:23Realism with Convenience
16:26Twisted Metal 95
16:33Now, full disclosure, we could not find any valid sources to confirm this, but this was an interesting tidbit we came across.
16:40Rumor has it that Gas Station Chain 7-Eleven was almost involved with the original Twisted Metal.
16:46The story goes that 7-Eleven entered negotiations with Sony to help fund the game in exchange for in-game 7-Elevens to be placed in some of the maps.
16:55It wasn't until 7-Eleven got a look at the game before they noticed just how violent and dark Twisted Metal was.
17:01Sweet Tooth and the other degenerates were too much for 7-Eleven to handle, causing the corporation to back out of the deal.
17:08Time to play!
17:14Twisted Metal 2012
17:25One would think that Sony would use an IP known for crazy vehicles to extract some extra cash out of merchandise.
17:31You know, shirts, toys, collectibles, models, and the like.
17:35The idea didn't seem to spring into their minds until 2012 when TM12 was storming the PlayStation 3.
17:41Suddenly, you almost couldn't escape Twisted Metal in your typical nerd in gaming stores.
17:46You could get models of Sweet Tooth's truck, action figures of Sweet Tooth himself, even an ice cream scooper from Loot Crate, the once popular merch subscription service.
17:55A Funko of Sweet Tooth and his truck would come years later, but now, the most merch you can get commercially is in relation to the show, and the occasional nod from Sony themselves.
18:05I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad I got sunshine.
18:13Throwing Money at a Wall
18:15Twisted Metal 95
18:17Due to the nonsensical arms race in graphics, the cost of game development has grown substantially over the past few decades.
18:33It doesn't help that companies, such as Sony, pay exorbitant amounts of money for various licenses instead of making original assets.
18:40So, it's really hard to imagine a game like Twisted Metal being made as cheaply as it was.
18:45Though the budget was initially $750,000 USD, the final budget came out to roughly another $100,000.
18:52When adjusted for inflation, that comes out to about $1.7 to $1.8 million to make a game like Twisted Metal.
19:00And yet, so many AAA games waste hundreds of millions and come nowhere close to the level of quality Twisted Metal had.
19:07Or even the number of sales it made.
19:10You're about to die to find health.
19:13You're about to die to find health.
19:16Axel's Ending, Twisted Metal Small Brawl
19:20We know that this is the second entry about Axel, but we promise this isn't favoritism.
19:33The character and vehicle have had an interesting history between all the different depictions, like the one we saw in Small Brawl though.
19:40In this title, Axel is a kid who, judging by Small Brawl's intro, winds up in a wheelchair after Calypso kicks him down the road.
19:48He was initially going to be a part of the roster until Sony stepped in and demanded his ending be removed from the game.
19:54The reason for this is because Sony deemed the line,
19:57You said you could make me walk, a possible cause for controversy.
20:01And so, the ending was dropped and Axel wound up being a secret character.
20:05The team would attempt to rework Axel into a young girl with an affinity for machines and no wheelchair,
20:11but there was just simply not enough time in development for this change in character.
20:15And Talon will go, sailing no more.
20:25Twisted Metal 95 in Twisted Metal 2012.
20:28The idea for aerial vehicles was briefly explored during development for the original Twisted Metal game.
20:42Unfortunately, technology for game development was not as advanced just yet,
20:46and the team could never figure out how to get it to work properly.
20:49This led to Talon being scrapped and left on the back burner for years and years.
20:55Talon's concept would be revisited for TM12 just in time for a game focused on online multiplayer.
21:01Although, what ended up happening was a major imbalance in gameplay.
21:05Talon players could easily aim and shoot at cars from comfortable distances,
21:09while normal ground-based players had a hard time landing shots and driving at the same time to avoid incoming fire.
21:15Some fans still thought this was a cool concept,
21:19but Talon is one of a handful of ideas that caused players to view TM12 as a stain on the franchise.
21:25The thing about stepping out of vehicles.
21:35Twisted Metal Harbor City.
21:37A concept that was frequently revisited throughout Twisted Metal history
21:47was the idea of letting players step outside of the cars and roam around the world.
21:51This push likely began with Sony higher-ups after noticing the success of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its successors,
21:58games that were praised for giving the player a ton of freedom in where they can go and what they can do.
22:03Scott Campbell and the team at Incognito Entertainment were already hard at work on Harbor City,
22:08the follow-up to Twisted Metal Black, when they got word about what Sony was looking for.
22:12The team attempted to pivot and show the possibilities they could do for an on-foot Twisted Metal, but it was too late.
22:18Sony pulled the plug on the project out of fear of the IP's performance in a post-GTA market.
22:24The two levels that were made were included as part of Twisted Metal Head-On Extra Twisted Edition.
22:30The cancelled PS5 game.
22:36Harbor City would not be the last Twisted Metal game Sony would cancel.
22:47In case you hadn't heard, we were supposed to get a new installment made specifically for PlayStation 5,
22:53but there were a number of problems that led to its cancellation.
22:57First off, it was initially being developed by Lucid Games, the developers of the ill-fated Destruction All-Stars.
23:03Because of that game's failure, Sony ended up poaching a portion of the team
23:07and moved development to one of their internal studios, Firesprite Games.
23:11The project proceeded for a while and even saw collaboration with the crew from the TV series during production of the first season.
23:18But after the disaster of 2024's Concord, Sony began cancelling a number of live service games that had been in the pipeline.
23:26Twisted Metal for PS5 was one of them, and we soon learned that the game was to be a third-person battle royale.
23:33Not sure which is worse, the game getting cancelled or the fact that it was going to be yet another battle royale game.
23:39But you know, let's kill another IP that Ty loves!
23:51Twisted Metal the Movie
23:54What many folks often forget is that we were supposed to get a movie based on Twisted Metal many, many, many moons ago.
24:12At the time TM12 launched on PS3, Sony announced plans to produce a Twisted Metal movie, and there was already a name attached to the project.
24:21Ryan Taylor, the director of movies such as Crank, Gamer, Jonah Hex, and Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance, was set to direct and write the movie.
24:28And that was the last time Sony said anything about the project.
24:32Years went by until Taylor himself finally revealed that the project had already been canned as of September 2017.
24:39Sony deemed the Twisted Metal fanbase to be too small to justify the budget that was required to fund the movie.
24:45So what made them change their minds for the TV show two years after the news broke?
24:50Who knows?
24:51Because Sony is going to Sony with their own Sony logic.
24:54So the chamber is loaded with ghost bullets or something.
24:57And welcome to Twisted Metal!
25:00And lastly, the plane crash story.
25:08Twisted Metal Head On Extra Twisted Edition.
25:19Extra Twisted Edition is one of the most eerie and fascinating entries in the series for the sole reason that it is tied to the deaths of six key developers.
25:27Hoot up the Twisted Metal lost portion of the game, and you'll be told that you're about to access levels that were initially meant for a new Twisted Metal game.
25:36But because of the deaths of six members of the team, the game was canned by Sony, until they received a mysterious letter begging for the finished work to be released.
25:46If you wanted to see the proof for yourself, you'd have to beat all three levels on hard difficulty.
25:51Well, that story was a bunch of bullshit.
25:54Over the years, Jaffe has had to explain the story several times, but he made up the whole thing as a means to justify Twisted Metal lost.
26:02Campbell and the team needed a story to go along with TML, and Jaffe came up with this myth to invoke mystery and help tease the imminent announcement of TM12.
26:12Was there a Twisted Metal factoid that surprised you?
26:25Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos every day.
26:31I am Calypso, and I thank you for playing Twisted Metal.
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