I love the Twisted Metal series and eagerly look forward to each installment. I actually love the car combat genre as a whole but anything done by SingleTrac, or any members there of, are usually my favorites. For the most part these titles consist of the main Twisted Metal series. The one notable exception happens to be one of my favorite games for the PlayStation, Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012.



In Rogue Trip you play as an automercenary, chauffeuring cheap tourists to various scenic points in gaudy post-apocalyptic vacation spots. It features the usual eccentric cast of characters driving equally strange vehicles and also an array of missiles and other deadly weaponry that had become a staple of the car combat genre. There is also the same offbeat humor found in SingleTrac's other titles. It’s a fairly standard game set apart by a few interesting game play mechanics.


Does this look phallic to you?

The tourists are what really set this game apart from the rest of the herd. As you shuttle a tourist around you earn money that you can use to buy weapons and power-ups. There is only one tourist in a level so most of the time it’s a fight to get him into your vehicle while keeping him away for the other drivers. If you are killed the tourist is ejected from your car and becomes fair game. There is also a weapon that causes the tourist to automatically eject for your or an opponent's car, sending everyone scrambling to pick him up while fending off other drivers. This adds a nice change to the usual run and gun game play found in games like this.


The deadliest game of chicken.

Rogue Trip also features a pretty good soundtrack. While it's not exactly in tune with the feel of the game, it’s definitely memorable. I can’t really say that Ska is the first genre of music to come to mind when I think of a Road Warrior-esque post-apocalyptic setting, but whenever I hear "Rascal King" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones I think of this game.


Split screen is where it’s at.

In high school this was one of the favorites among my friends. Between split screen and cross console link play, there were several ways for us to blow the crap out of each other. The interesting Crazy Taxi mixed with Twisted Metal game play made it a regular part of our game rotation even after we moved on to other consoles. The only thing that doesn't really stand the test of time are the graphics but really, few PlayStation titles have. I’m even thinking about buying another copy to play through it again, ugly graphics be damned.

The game’s intro and demo:


Did I mention you could blow up the earth? Because you totally can:


Well, there it is another feature to add on to the pile. There will be plenty more in the future as well, I start another one each time I get stuck on one my current ones. Right now I’ve started three features in the four months I’ve been blogging, so by my calculations after a year I’ll be switching themes at least twice per post. I suppose I could just buckle down and work on my current features, fleshing them out and making them more than me going, "Hey, remeber this game? It sure was awesome or terrible." Nah, screw that, I’m going to play Burnout instead, Vroom Vroom.