Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition may be the longest name this side of the upcoming release from Penny-Arcade, but it makes up for it’s mouthful title with equal weight in extras. For long-time fans of the series it might be worth the $20 (US) just for the art book and the free soundtrack.

That’s not to say that it’s by any means perfect. The games, while coming in a trifecta of awesomeness, are incomplete save for the polished up PSP port. Really, how does one review an incomplete game? By looking at what it promises? What it has? It’s all a bit of a conundrum, but know this, the parts that are there serve as their own separate roles in the greater picture.

The piss-poorly named “sweet tour” also known as the much cooler “I Am Sweettooth”, is a manhunt style action game that never was in which you walk around collecting commentary nodes that reveal background and concept art. The first of these makes no qualms about the “game”, it’s incomplete, the art isn’t final, obstacles lack clipping, some of the animations are laughable, but hey, it’s free. If nothing else it serves as a fun if only slightly inconvenient way of viewing the bonus content.

Then there’s Twisted Metal: Lost, which makes me think David Jaffe’s been watching a bit too much of the island-drama that’s been plaguing network TV by faffing about without a plot for far too long. My thoughts on the shit writing of the mainstream aside this half-game is somewhat of a cocktease. Mentioning a free-roaming Twisted Metal and giving characters excellent continuity in their storylines only to have it not actually happen is a bit like David Jaffe promising free cake and then running as far as he can in the opposite direction. I mean, come on! Mr. Grimm becoming a cannibal who patrols the streets of mid-town looking for victims and talking to his friend’s skull whilst slowly developing the dementia that he is in fact the grim reaper is pure unbridled awesome. The game doesn’t really have that though, what it does have is about four levels and a new character who’s pretty neat. The whole thing really serves as more a cog in the overall feel of this compilation though, a cryptic hint at what is to be.

The added documentary, which clocks in at about half an hour, is filled with more Lost-isms you see. Basically what it boils down to is that the series is coming to the PS3, a move so “no shit” worthy that I personally give a thousand face-palms to anybody who’s actually shocked. You can be happy, overjoyed, manically cheerful even, but if you’re surprised it’s time for you to go buy a dunce cap or a helmet. The documentary itself is nice, if nothing else it takes a few pot-shots at the series’ shortfallings (namely Sony’s censorship and anything having to do with 989 studios).

The meat and potatoes of this disk, however, is the PSP port. Part of me wants to just link you to a review of that game and be done with it.

And yet another part of me wants to talk about how the framerate is amazing at all times. Seriously, no-matter how much shit is going on on-screen at once there seems to be a perfect 60fps rate, with the only exception being (oddly enough) when the game’s soundtrack switches between one of its seven songs. The graphics have been tweeked for the PS2, which at this point I’m not sure if that means they’re better or worse, but I do know that watching the missiles travel parallel to the often bumpy ground instead of crashing into the slightest hill as they would in previous entries is a thing of beauty.

Overall I’d say this is how ports should be done. It’s almost as if the folks over at Eat Sleep Play are following the Valve formula and giving me as much value as they legally can, and that’s enough reason for even those who are new to the series to go pick this one up. It’s simultaneously sad and awe-inspiring to see the final games on any given console as you know it’s the machine’s swan-song but they’re often the ones that push it to the limits promised by long-forgotten tech-demos. Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition feels not only that way, but also as a sort of full-circle end to the PS2, which for many started with Twisted Metal: Black and for that it deserves its poetic spot as the chronological bookend of one of gaming’s greatest libraries.