'Twisted Metal' blasts into the 21st century

— -- Sitting in traffic on the way to work has led many a driver to wish his vehicle — like James Bond's heavily armed Aston Martin— could blast a path to freedom.

Video game designers David Jaffe and Scott Campbell decided to build a game on that primal feeling. Released for the original PlayStation in 1995, Twisted Metal put players behind the wheel of weaponized vehicles and spawned a series of million-selling sequels.

"The concept is universal," says Dan Hsu, editor in chief of GamesBeat on VentureBeat.com. "Who doesn't want to mount big weapons on cars and blow other people up?"

The franchise's first full-fledged new entry in a decade, Twisted Metal ($60, out today, for PS3, ages 17-up), amps the vehicular combat action up to high-definition.

"This one represents the fulfillment of the fantasy that the development team had back in 1993 when we were stuck in traffic on the 405 (freeway in L.A.) and just fantasizing that our cars were equipped with rocket launchers," Jaffe says.

King of the road

Twisted Metal is a mash-up of influences: part NASCAR for its speed; part Stephen King thriller for its creepy characters, including a homicidal clown called Sweet Tooth; and part Mad Max movie. Players take the role of one of the competitors in a demolition-derby-to-the-death. The goal is to be the last driver driving in the Twisted Metal tournament and become recipient of the grand prize: a wish granted by shadowy puppetmasterish host Calypso.

"I heard it described this way: It blends Mario Kart battle mode with fighting games with more of the arcade-y first-person shooter games like Unreal Tournament and Quake, and puts it in a M-rated, bloody Twilight Zone world," Jaffe says. "If I'd had that elevator pitch back in 1993, I would have gotten a green light a lot quicker."

Over the years, Twisted Metal became the longest-running PlayStation franchise, but there hasn't been an original game for home consoles for a decade. After helping create the two God of War games, Jaffe reunited with Campbell at Eat Sleep Play, a new development studio in Salt Lake City. They first released Twisted Metal: Head-On — Extra Twisted Edition, a buffed-up PS2 version of a 2005 PlayStation Portable game, before beginning work on this new release.

Beyond richer graphics, a larger environment and faster action, this new Twisted Metal also is the first to be designed from the outset for online group play. Each of the game's dozen vehicles can be customized with your own custom artwork.

"Each car is built to be like a fighting-game character," Jaffe says.

He hopes players who are intimidated by the online multiplayer modes in other games give Twisted Metal a try online. "A lot of shooters, they are great, but you get shot and you respawn and you walk back to the fight and you survive 20 to 30 seconds, and you die and you do it again. That wasn't satisfying," he says. "We wanted to build a game that allowed you to stay alive long enough to get in great action-movie chases and turn the tables on enemies."

Reigniting 'spirit of fun'