-Kilrahi- wrote on 03/29/19 at 03:02:07:
Honestly with Twisted Metal canon is a tricky subject.
I'd really like to think of TM:Lost as more of a glimpse into what Harbor City might have been like. However, we have no evidence, or reason to believe, that when ESP ported those five levels (one is hidden on the disk, sadly) they made any effort to base the little story snippets off of what Incognito had planned for Harbor City. For all we know Jaffe sat down and wrote those in an hour. I enjoyed them too, but I didn't feel they were really thought out or completed ideas.
There are other issues too. Honestly, I hated the continued story as told in TMHO. I didn't like Marcus Kane and Needles Kane being the same person - I thought that was stupid.
So for me, that game was canon breaking.
I guess with the Twisted Metal universe, though, the truth is you never know what is happening. TMX completely redid the whole thing, and half redid it at that.
It's true, the canon is tricky and I agree Head-On is perhaps most guilty because they didn't learn from 989's failed sequels.
Somehow Head-On makes TM3 look like it did a decent job in storytelling even though TM3 just repeats TM2's general story, even copying the idea of starting the tournament in a ravaged LA & bringing back Calypso's blimp. 989 didn't really mess with the lore in TM3, yet with TM4 they re-did everything and the only returning characters were Sweet Tooth, Calypso, and Grimm yet they were all re-imagined radically.
But Head-On did not take advantage of 989's mistakes. It's not a great sequel to TM2 either. Calypso and Sweet Tooth do not retain their classic looks but resemble their TM Black counterparts. The roster of Head-On has pretty much all the TM2 vehicles returning plus Crimson Fury, except Minion, and a couple new additions. As much as I love TM2, I think that was kind of a dumb way to go. Head-On is sort of like Twisted Metal 3 by essentially just trying to re-create TM2 rather than give it a proper follow-up, except Head-On adds the whole twist about Marcus Kane and Needles Kane being the same person, which makes things all the more confusing, especially because Marcus Kane isn't even in the first game.
Twisted Metal 2012 is the biggest offender though when it comes to the story. It gets farther away from the classic story as possible, maybe even more than TM4 did.
If you dig deep into the story of TMX you know that Calypso is the Devil, and the reality perceived by everyone is an illusion, and they are in Hell playing Calypso's cruel, sadistic contest for a wish that will never have a positive outcome, and anyone (Preacher) who sees through the illusion is locked away in Hell's version of Blackfield Asylum.
TMX is perhaps an alternate universe of some kind where Calypso managed to usurp power from Satan and ditched doing Twisted Metal on Earth for doing Twisted Metal in Hell (diguised as Earth), and Calypso, proud of his past achievements, kept trophies from past games, even breaking the 4th wall to use Playstation games as trophies.
It's unfortunate Twisted Metal's lore is all over the place. It could have been better and rivaled other video game universes like Mortal Kombat. I mean Mortal Kombat has had its story issues, but nothing as confusing as Twisted Metal.
All that I feel certain is canon in TM is TM1 and TM2 with Black and Small Brawl being semi-canon. What I take out of Small Brawl is that Ken Masters did indeed die in TM2 leaving behind a son and vehicle, and TMB really just offers insight to Sweet Tooth's perspective and mind.
I almost want to include Head-On as semi-canon but the writing wasn't particularly good.
Calypso summoning Krista Sparks to enter Twisted Metal and then getting sad for having to twist her wish was a bit of forced unnecessary drama. Krista wishes that the car accident that killed her and her mom never happened, yet the TM2 tie-in comic book showed that Krista's mom died from getting hit by a bouncing wheel at a demolition derby Calypso was participating in... shortly after that happened Calypso was haunted by her and he killed himself and Krista by driving straight into a wall with Krista in the backseat. I much prefer that version of the story.
Also, a lot of the returning characters have stories that only work if they/or their twin counterpart in Twister's case won TM2... Twister, Mr. Slam, Outlaw have stories that follow their previous endings, yet they couldn't have all won.
I think I would have preferred Head On to have less returning vehicles and more original characters. Twisted Metal 2 added Shadow, Axel, Twister, Mr. Slam, Grasshopper, and Dark Tooth... and Head-On only adds a mid boss Cousin Eddy, a joke character in ATV, and the final boss Tower Tooth lol.
TM Lost was similarly disappointing with only offering 12-Pak and Gold Tooth as additions, while returning all the TMB vehicles with modified (for the worse) specials, except Minion who must have died in the fictional plane crash that killed the TMB2 team. I kind of wonder if any of the TMB vehicles actually would have been cut from Harbor City. That's another reason why I don't take the TM Lost stories seriously even though they offer a glimpse of what could have been... who knows what that roster of vehicles would have been