RetroGaming

Ok here's my take from someone who hasn't played them in probably close to 2 decades, didn't actually own them but just played with a friend who owned it. But I did love the series at least enough that I still have impressions of my feels from over 20 years ago.

I remember loving playing Twisted Metal 2. I can remember sitting in front of the TV plating the single and multiplayer. I can't remember the specifics of much more beyond very basic mechanics but there is a very positive emotion. My memory of Twisted Metal 3 is just disappointment and blandness.

I didn't get much time with either game but I remember having the choice between them and choosing 2 over 3 consistently.

If a large chunk of people are in a similar situation as me, only vague limited impressions from long ago, give their opinions you their opinion over more than a decade you build a very negative image.

Throw in people just discovering the games and being told 2 is good and 3 is bad. They then compare maybe minutes of the gameplay before deciding which to play and reinforce the narrative. You can end up with a fan base with an unjustly harsh view.

I can honestly see 3 being just kind of mediocre and just being judged awful because of how good 2 was.

One thing that definitely contributed to this: when these games were coming out, those of us who were reading the gaming magazines at the time were aware that Sony had taken the IP away from the original devs, Singletrac, between 2 and 3. So we went in skeptical, and then… the controls were squishy, the power ups all looked the same (replaced the 2D icons with 3D pickups in an age where that just did not work), the weapons didn’t pack as much visceral ppunch… it just didn’t feel right. And knowing that this was an entirely different dev team, “not feeling right” felt like a betrayal. So while 3 probably isn’t a massive downgrade from 2 in an objective sense, that feeling of betrayal turned mild disappointment into HAAAAATE.

And then Rogue Trip came out, which was the new car combat game from Singletrac, and there was a collective “oh, this is what TM3 was supposed to feel like.” And that didn’t help matters.

Played a bunch of twisted metal. Driver and Die Hard Trilogy were also great car action games.

No cars, but we had the first one or 2 levels of Loaded on a demo disc, and I always wanted more.

I only owned Twisted Metal III and Twisted Metal (2012). So to me, TM3 WAS Twisted Metal and I loved it.