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I have many a fond memory from yesteryear huddled around the TV at 2 in the morning with my friend Paul laying waste to one another in a little game known as Twisted Metal. The original game spawned the sub-genre of vehicular combat and gave birth to numerous sequels, Twisted Metal Black: Online being the latest. Personally though, the highlight of the entire ride with the TM series was Twisted Metal 2. Something about that title sticks out amongst the rest of the series even today. It had a very distinct feel, unique set of characters and even some of my all time favorite maps in the series (go <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Paris!). I was ecstatic, then, when I realized just how closely Twisted Metal: Head-On resembles the beloved classic I’ve enjoyed for so many years. But resembling an 8 year old product can’t be a good way to showcase a brand new piece of hardware…. Can it?

The answer is a resounding yes. Though Head-On may feel like Twisted Metal 2 on many levels, including the roster line-up choices and a few choice stages, Head-On is a beast entirely it’s own.

If you’ve played any Twisted Metal game in the past, then you pretty much know the basic premise of the game, which remains unchanged in the latest iteration: Take an over the top vehicle, load it up with more weapons than the French army (bad example) and throw it in an enclosed area with likewise vehicles and have at it. It’s a simple design, really, but when blowing the hell out of everything in sight is as much fun as the Twisted Metal series has made it, it would be a waste to take it much deeper.

The single player campaign of the game is a straight forward progression through each of the games stages, offering the objective of taking out all opposition on the map. Through the campaign, you’ll come across boss battles which, if won, will unlock the vehicle for play. Nothing really changes from beginning to end of the campaign, your objective is always the same: kill them before they kill you. The only real difference is who it is you’re indeed killing, and how many of them there are. Of course the difficulty ramps up as you go along, but that’s a given.

The campaign isn’t very long, lasting only about 30-40 minutes if you play on the less difficult settings, but there’s plenty of reason to play it over time and again. One of those reasons being to unlock the endings for each character, another being plenty of unlockables to grab either by beating the game or secretly placed within the games stages. In any case, as short as the campaign may be, your first run through won’t be your last.

Of course, as any fan of the Twisted Metal series will surely attest to, the real joy of the series never was the single player at all. It was the games excellent and very addicting multiplayer that made fans love the series so much, and Head-On looks to further that tradition by including not only wireless multiplayer with nearby friends, but a full fledged online mode that you can enjoy right out of the box, thanks to the PSP’s brilliant WiFi capabilities. Multiplayer works very much the same either way you play it. You enter the game as you please, find a target, and blow ‘em up somethin’ fierce. The multiplayer modes (8 in all) borrow heavily from Twisted Metal Black, including the presence of power-ups, relic collecting, etc. Up to 6 players can join a multiplayer game either through local LAN or online. This, if you have the proper set-up (ie. Friends with the title, or a wireless internet set-up/hot spot) will be where you spend the most time with Head-On. While the single player is great, nothing beats Twisted Metal with a few friends.

Visually, Head-On does a great job of throwing a ton of explosions and effects on-screen at once without even the slightest hitch in frame rate. Even online with all 6 people throwing Napalm and missles everywhere, the frame rate never so much as stutters. The vehicles themselves are clean and detailed, though not to the extent of say, Ridge Racers cars, but competent and pretty none the less. The stages are all very much inspired by TM 2 if not ripped right from the game (again, I mention Paris, among others) and all play very well. The lighting in the game is good, but not great, still offering up some nice visuals to wow your friend with while flaunting your new shiny PSP at them.

From an audio standpoint Head-On gets the job done, but doesn’t really impress. The sound effects are all great, but the voice acting is horrible (almost to the point of intentionally), and the music isn’t really anything more than generic rock blasting through the speakers to help the atmosphere.

After the bombs explode and the napalm simmers, Head-On is not only a great addition to the Twisted Metal family, it’s also one of the best titles available for the PSP at launch. There’s plenty of meat in the single player mode, and multiplayer will keep you coming back like a bad habit. I’d call it Twisted Metal’s return to greatness, but the series never sucked to begin with.