The game’s creator David Jaffe stated that he writes each game is a standalone and doesn’t follow a specific timeline or cannon. I like to imagine each game is set in their own alternate reality.
So Twisted Metal and Final Fantasy follow the same sequel pattern of "This is not a sequel, it's just in a parallel universe that uses the same motifs"? I like it. :)
If you read the Manslaughter Character Bio from Twisted Metal Lost, it states that Black (Manslaughters Driver) is from a different dimension and was sent to "The Black Universe" to kill its version of Calypso by a "More Colorful Calypso" (which to me describes the Calypso of Twisted Metal Two). So there is possibly infinite timelines of Twisted Metal with each one having their own tournament winner, their own Calypso, tournament origin, and even drivers of cars
@@kendonl.taylor5111 Black is just how Sweet Tooth sees the world, but you can say its like a different dimension then the one we all see in the first few games
I remember being a kid playing Twisted metal just chilling on all the maps on the first and second finding all the secrets. Vigilante 8 had great map secrets as well.
@@claytonkickflip7595 I’m only really familiar with Twisted Metal Black and the 2012 reboot but those games are fucking awesome and I’m assuming the classic games are as well.
@@oxitape1563 grew up with the originals 1 & 2, and after playing the 2012 version with my kids and seeing their reaction, it definitely had the same effect. Great times
For the trinkets in the show case, I believe the stack of bricks is from Mr Slamm. The bag is from Sweet Tooth's lost ending. The dolls are from Shadows ending from TM: Black. The Teddy bear is from Outlaws story in TM: Black. The Fbi id is Roadkill's from TM: Black. The ruined helmet is from Twisters ending from TM2. The key is from Dollface's mask from TM: Black
And thinking about them not knowing what to do story wise back when the first game was released just reminds me of the zombies game mode from Call of Duty, was a fun Easter Egg that ended up with a multiverse
You forgot about the second bottle. At first, I thought it was the cure for twisted metal black sweetooths ending. But looking up a video of the games endings, the cure bottle in black looked long and thin while the display bottle was short and fat. The bottle was also broken...
As a huge Twisted Metal nerd, I can tell you a majority of the items in Calypso’s trophy case. The plane tickets were from Mike and Stu’s ending in Twisted Metal 2 The voodoo dolls are from Raven’s ending in Twisted Metal Black, Twister’s Helmet from Twisted Metal 2, Teddy Bear is from Outlaw’s ending in Black, Dollface’s Key from Black
On a semi-related topic and as a (sorta former) gamer nerd myself, another detail is the War Of The Monsters for PS2 in the display case. I just have a ton of good memories with that game as a kid.
Cool to imagine Kratos as a playable Twisted Metal character. He clearly exists is The Twisted Metal Multiverse (which is what it is, like Dragon Ball or MCU)
In Calypso's trophy case, you also see several videogames the developers worked on previously. One of them is Twisted Metal 2, which in my mind confirms the idea that Calypso is a demon that can reset time or travel dimensions.
Well I think what happened is calypso died in a car accident with his family and went to hell but if he beat minion in a race he would get to go back to Earth to run the twisty metal competition will be given that ring. And he won the race. I’m pretty sure there’s a graphic novel or something.
Nah, Calypso isn't a demon but a normal guy more or less who went to Hell & escaped via a demon he somehow got under his control. So hes like a normal human who gained satanic mystical power more or less. (Correct me if wrong but there may be many origins)
I did too but I also heard it will probably be free to play which means there’s a good chance we won’t even get a story mode :/ which is literally 85% of what makes twisted metal great. It’s the characters and their stories!
I also heard that they're still making a TV series of Twisted Metal but without David Jaffe's involvement. This will either be exciting or will just be huge disaster..
Fun fact: Darkside was meant to be a playable vehicle in TM2 and it's driver was an elderly woman with a massive gun named Granny Dark. Even though the character didn't make it into the game, her character design was re-tooled and used in Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 as a tourist named Hortense Von Crank. It's possible that the devs of TM2 used the Granny Dark concept and adapted her into the driver of Hammerhead, Granny Dread.
Funny you mention Rogue Trip, as there are vehicles and names in Twisted Metal 2012 that reference Rogue Trip, like the pest control truck being named Vermin, like the time my car in Rogue Trip that’s driven by the wrestler. Then there’s the name “Meat Wagon “ which is seemingly for gruesome humor purposes applied to an ambulance car. In Rogue Trip “Meat Wagon” was a wiener mobile while at the same time there was another car ambulance named “Ozone”.
@@maxfieldstanton5005if they make a new twisted metal it'd be cool if they took more inspiration from Rogue Trip. A Wienermobile would be an awesome addition for Twisted Metal. Or a vigilante themed character in a Batmobile-esque vehicle like Intruder/Ratman would be great.
"...and L.A. is still burning? What the hell?" Me: *looks at California wildfires, and Centralia PA coal fire (burning since 1962)* Yup. Also, the 4th game could be Sweettooth's retelling of history, and much like a story told by the Joker, is unreliable as hell. If you look at it in that light though, all inconsistencies sort of vanish. This is all in the eyes of a madman. Heck, 4, Small Brawl, and Black could just be the "Sweettooth Timeline".
After looking at that timeline, I’m kind of more say… Confused in a way. Cause you see, While TM 1 has less drivers the game implies that each one of them won in some way or form but that seems… wrong in a way. Turns out i found out something, There was apparently not just one winner for these contests… quite literally calypso had the world in his pocket where everyone entered the contest and only the chosen few drivers ever won. TM1 contestants that either won or died got established by TM2, but here’s the catch… Sweet tooth dying in TM2? That actually happened, the original needles kane died and so did his father Charlie which left us with Marcus Kane and his personality who won and got transported into the Dimensional World, in that world when Marcus won again Calypso simply put him back to his house or allowed his Primal side to take over. So what about TM Black? Well that’s before Twisted Metal 1 and although the devs went with the marcus thing for minion (Because they ran out of time, thanks sony…) Minion is actually a Champion title and believe it or not War hawk is part of the military so Crazy-8 quite literally killed a non-contestant and Calypso wanted to share his gratitude for it because he hates people trying to stop him or just hates the law. So what happened in 2003’s Contest? There was no crowned Winner to be given the title of minion so a trailer gang managed to win (Surprisingly no one else won) which brings us to TM1, now TM1’s Sweet tooth does definitely like killing people and kind of has an ego telling me that TM Black is quite literally how he imagined his life despite being the total opposite of that, so the timeline i got is this… 1994-2001: 7 Twisted Metal Contests happen, A large Tanker driver wins the 7th contest earning the title of minion. 2002: Takes place in midtown, A boxing player lost his eyes and tongue, killing a few people looking for the man who took his normal life away, Calypso announces the 8th Tournament and personally Ask if Crazy-8 wants in after killing the Asylum guard for Door “C1” Canonical Ultimate Champion of the 8th tournament. Crazy-8 Wins and also “Mistakens” War hawk for a Contestant and Calypso grants him his wish with a bonus for killing War hawk. Raven wins afterwards, killing unknown contestants (Same for Crazy-8) and getting her wish. 2003: 9th Tournament happens and gang in a trailer win, earning the title of Minion. 2004: 10th tournament happens, multiple winners at the Los Angeles tournament. Winners are, Outlaw, Crimson & Yellow Jacket. Black mysteriously Disappears after Crimson wins, Outlaw is lost in space, Charlie becomes the new Minion and learns that his son is the infamous Sweet tooth. 2005: World Tour contest, Many contestants win, most notably Outlaw as the ultimate Champion (Again), However was prepared to be sent in space and saved the original driver. 2006-2011: Unknown events, possible Tournament interruptions and Calypso gives his Uncle eddie the title of Minion (Calypso considers him an embarrassing part of his family, given he’s plain stupid despite being strong enough to kill calypso with his hands). 2012: Many contestants win, Including Calypso’s Uncle (No clear Champion is given in head on… their bad i guess). 2013-2021: Calypso refines his tournament and makes it officially legal as no one from the law can face him (Since he quite literally aged backwards each year that passed). 2022: The most current tournament to date, Only 3 winners and Preacher mysteriously survived his leap of fate (God does work in mysterious ways Preacher, i can see what you mean). Preacher gives it upon himself that someone or him needs to end the contests before calypso reaches his full power. Marcus dies, his son takes up his mantle, his daughter is born as a new minion for the next Tournament. (Believe it or not… Charlie kane and Son quite literally goes towards Son being Marcus in the real world (Strange why he named his kid after his insane dad’s Grandpa, Marcus is possibly possessed by the Original Needles kane from TM1 due to the mask which means Charlie will get possessed too, but he already knows Calypso is worse then the mask he will start wearing).
Oh man, I wish I could trust this as anything but head canon. There's usually 2 rules of thumb, creators & consistency, either can overrule the other. I don't know but I appreciate your comment. Very cool & thought out for the mess The TM Franchise is.
The guy who created twisted metal , created god of war . That's why the blades are there . Happy more people are getting into twisted metal , really was hoping the twisted reboot got the support it needed to get the episodic updates they were planning .
the multiverse thing is outright confirmed, the reboot was originally pitched with the concept of all three characters getting an ending based on difficulty, which Calypso even references in the cut final cutscene when confronted by the preacher.
It's crazy watching all of this information compiled because I really don't think the ones responsible for writing this story thought this much about it lmao
I love the idea of Calypso being a multi dimensional being that occupies multiple realities. It's kind of how Darkseid works in DC comics, all of the versions of Darkseid you see aren't his true form, they are just vessels for him to present himself
@@areshenderson1533 Not completely, the new gods do in fact only have one true form in the multiverse, problem is that there are multiple multiverses which is kinda stupid
@@katiequeen7225 I am a Darkseid fan. My favorite character in Fiction to the point I'd kneel to him. With that being said, he has been clapped by Superman more than a few times in Post Crisis. At least in New 52 they tried making him more beastly by blowing a planet 🤷🤷🤷. But his overall record against Supes is not good.
@@katiequeen7225 the realm of the new gods exist OUTSIDE of the multiverse where the gods can watch and observe it. So anything that happens there won't affect them.
@@areshenderson1533 then you should know that the beings being fought are mainly the avatars of darkseid that he uses to not destroy the universe that he wants to occupy and that he did get obliterated by Superman singing his true form to death
'i want my little clown boy back!' meeting Darktooth was the most epic. the destruction aspect was almost always pure shock when it came to shooting off the map and into the diatance
Something I noticed playing Small Brawl was Spectre's ending and it's ties to TM2. Ken Masters is apparently TMSB Spectre's dad, and whether or not Ken is still alive isn't mentioned. You could interpret that as all (or at least some of) the kids in SB are the children of past TM competitors.
I think Roadkill's ending in Twisted Metal 2 confirms the "all in Sweet Tooth's head" hypothesis. Sweet Tooth wants to stay in the head canon while Marcus wants to escape. Marcus is falsely "escaping" in his ending and coming to terms with killing his family by "reuniting" with them. Head-On's ending seems to support this, as well, as Calypso basically tells Marcus he's in control of everything. Perhaps Calypso is a being that can exploit the psychological state of Sweet Tooth's mind for his own amusement. Or he might be Marcus Kane's interpretation of a psychiatrist trying to break through to him and each tournament is a heavy session where the most progress is made.
In TM2 I took his ended more to mean Marcus was in the real world he just didn’t see it as real As what Calypso says he can’t wish for him to wake up to the real world when he is already awake not an issue with him not having the power it is just a logical impossibility
To reiterate what I said in your other video, the series creator David Jaffe never intended to create an overarching storyline for these games. In summary, yeah every game takes place in its own universe and some cars you pick will have a continued story such as Outlaw or Twister, but that's only if you pick those cars.
That's how I saw it. You pick a car and their story carries on, the others don't. You pick another one and it's story carries on, the others don't. Even if they die in one of their endings only to come back in another game, the monkeys paw thing being temporary or the deaths being reversed. But none of that happened if the next game doesn't mention it, you could say they didn't come first and are just trying again.
"Time manipulation... Mind reading... Ohh, he has many powers." Preacher, referring to Calypso, TM2012. Multiversal travel is apparently correct, based on what we're given.
Back before Black was released, I’ve always liked to think that Pit Viper’s TM2 ending (Krista Sparks robot) was canonical and that 3 and 4 just didn’t exist. TM 3 and 4 were actually a lot of fun, gameplay wise, but we’re such a huge departure from the story.
TM2 taking place across a single day/night can be neatly explained by the fact that Calypso has serious supernatural powers in that one, as indicated by 90% of the endings in the game. He probably just teleported the combatants from place to place. Given the things he does in the endings, I'm sure he could do that fairly effortlessly.
I had a similar theory, I think Twisted Metal consists of pervious tournament winners with Minion being the previous winner and Outlaw being the winner of the 2006 tournament. The winners got what they wished for, or they was able to push their agenda which explains why we never seen some characters ever again. I think Sweet Tooth either died, went to hell and was brought back by Calypso, or there is more than one Sweet Tooth. Charlie Kane was on a suicide mission, until Calypso told him Sweet Tooth was his son, then it motivated him to seek revenge by becoming Dark Tooth.
On the one hand I kind of like the "Who cares!? Blow stuff up!" approach to their storytelling and canon, but the thought of a real, coherent story driven single player experience a la Mortal Kombat's recent sequels REALLY appeals to me
21:10 You're actually 100% right, David Jaffe said that they didn't want to commit to any canon, and because of that really all of the endings can in fact exist in their own universe. It's either in one of the videos on his channel talking about working on it, or in GhenryPerez's video on a retrospective of the entire series alongside an interview he got to do with David Jaffe as well.
What if the reason we keep seeing each character multiple times throughout the series despite the fact that each year only 1 person can win, in each timeline, and assuming everyone else dies. Is because Calypso is just pulling them from other near identical timelines so he can keep watching his favorite drivers battle it out.
Dude. I thought I was the only asshole that was lost in the lore of this game! I never cared for the gameplay. For me the characters and the universe makes it so interesting! I hope the next game takes its to develop this!
Exactly. I think the gameplay is found though but it’s absolutely about the wild story and even parts of the confusing contradictions are What gives this universe even more mystery.
The soul of this game can be found in 1 and 2,, they really should meditate in the elements used here because there's nothing else like it! Mad Max and fast and furious w escape from LA xD the vibe is mad and I get get enough even tho I've played these to death when they came out . I'm old As warthog man
@@adammurray8361 it’s crazy to think that I got into the game with 4, but even it was fun enough to drive me to play 1&2 and just fall in love with the entire series…
Man, I used to love this game back when I was a kid. I remember begging my parents to get me the 1st game for Xmas. Loved every moment. Especially with TM2 & 3.
I've always felt Small Brawl was meant to be more of a prequel, set before the incident with Calypso's sister that would lead him into the demolition derbies. It does also kind of give a context as to why he chose to do a tournament like Twisted Metal to gather souls as opposed to a more direct kind of approach.
TM 3&4 might not have been looked at fondly for the whacky story/endings plus that cgi lol but to me it's one of those things where it's so bad it's good type of deals and at the end of the day they both had very good refined gameplay for Car combat also the music was really good across all games. It still makes me happy seeing new folk find the series and become a fan! I grew up on this franchise and wish it could've continued.
TM4 was my most played game of this series followed by Small Brawl and I didn't even know people hate TM4. I liked all the characters and the combat was really good.
@@hamzahussain7794 4 and small brawl were the only ps1 games I would replay on my ps2 well into 2009! Unfortunately my ps2 broke and didn’t get a console until 2013 but by that time I had lost the discs and ps3 didn’t have backwards compatibility :(
@@hamzahussain7794 Same. 4 legit still is my favorite and most played next to Black and the "Andys Room" and Carnival stages are amazing. PLUS you could create your own chars. I seriously don't get the hate.
I came from that TM2 era with my neighbor having the OG. I would borrow it from time to time just so I could have the experience of playing both. Christmas came around and my GMA got me TM3. I remember I snuck the game from under the tree, opened it early, and never got caught. I was scared my mom would catch me but I pulled it off. Years later, for the nostalgia, I grabbed "Head On" as well as "Black", which came with a digital copy of "Lost". I fell in love with the character dialogues and the dark & gritty tones.
I would love to see either a long video, or a series of videos, exploring each character in the franchise. 'Cause I had no idea how much backstory there was for Twisted Metal, but now I'm super curious about it all.
when a series/franchise retcons things to the point where the canon becomes irreconcilable, i always go for the "AU" option. if its not similar enough, its not the same universe, but its "canon" in a different universe.
Reading the wiki article brought up at the end for Calypso it's weird seeing the origin of his moniker possibly being just the music I thought they chose the name originally due to it being similar to "apoCALYPSe" since the games are all kind of in apocalyptic/post apocalyptic/dystopic. Excellent video I'm so happy to see folks who care about the series after all these years I grew up with the games (born in '90) so it was sad to see them lose relevance much akin to my favorite game franchise; The Legacy of Kain. Keep up the great work!
As long as it has a decent story mode and the characters make sense. I think 2012 suffered so much because the single player was really bare bones. However, I do not want a TM4 type of story with joke characters like Pizza Boy and Drag Queen. I hope TMPS5 is similar to 1, 2 Head On or Black. Fingers crossed.
I like to think Twisted Metal 4 was the delusions Sweet Tooth had as a child, he would see the carnival roll through and he would imagine he was a part of it and he would probably make up stories in his head where he was a contestant and won, i think 4 is more like a collection of vivid hallucinations by sweet tooth. This could also be supported by the fact there is a giant bedroom, this could have been memories of Sweet Tooth playing with cars pretending he was directing Twisted Metal
i think a fairly common theory believed by some people is that small brawl takes place after calypso's ending in TM4 where sweet tooth loses the ring and a kid who looks like the calypso from small brawl takes it to start his own twisted metal.
I like the theory proposed here, and this is without even mentioning all the time travel shenanigans different winners have caused. Also, Calypso has a copy of War of the Monsters on his trophy shelf at the very end. it's not really important, but as a fan of that game it made me smile to see it. :)
I like to imagine that each ending from 2 created a separate reality, and in Head-On the champions from those games all came together in a separate reality lead by a new Calypso. Also in TM2, Marcus's ending has him waking up from a coma where he was in a 25 car pile up. Maybe that's the true canon ending, and the other games in the series are just the nightmares of the people still in comas.
Also, calypso and twisted metal black is the same exact character as sweeties. They’ve got the same body and scars and are missing the same eye. It’s just sweet tooth without the mask and the flaming hair.
@@MrStrikecentral I appreciate it but I don’t think I figured it out myself. Someone pointed it out in a video, well not the eye in the scar but they were the same character and once someone points that out you can’t really un see it ;) which is really cool and explains why calypso looks so different. Which also makes sense since everything in this game takes place in sweet tooth’s head or needles cane I should say. What a wild game.
There is one detail with dollface's story (it was either Black or 2012 Reboot, can't remember) that ties Calypso's different appearances together. The doctor she talks about's name is "Dr. Ospylac" which is "Calypso" backwards. Meaning he changed his appearance to cause her to join the games, so he has the ability to change his appearance whenever and however he wants.
I have covid and I just stuck at home and now I know what happened to one of my favorites games. I’m 28 and I played this game when I was 6. Love the channel
III and 4 is non canon because David Jaffe (the series creator) confirmed it. Small Brawl is just a one shot as well as Black and Head On is chronologically the third
Seeing this video and your video about Twisted Metal black has brought back some serious nostalgia. I’ll never forget the map secrets of Twisted Metal 2. You should check out Vigilante 8 and it’s sequel if you like the vehicle combat with deep lore and secrets. Great maps, too.
I always thought after the fourth game happened with calypso's ending is how small brawl came to be. It looks like it could fit but in that case the whole thing could have created a separate timeline.
Awesome video man I really enjoyed it!! I always love the twisted metal series and it was one of the very first games we got with the original PlayStation in 1995!!!
Talk about a game I had all but completely forgotten about. I haven't even touched a TM since the original. Your videos have been a really fun jaunt back into a world I had mostly forgot about. Thanks!
"this might work if sweet tooth has some sort of issues he haven't worked through" Really? Such a stable well put together individual like that? Huh. The more you know
Yes, those were Kratos' blades; the designer of Needles Kane also designed Kratos, but I believe you know this already. #GasterEgg I've played most of the Twisted Metal games; haven't been able to play Small Brawl, Black or 2012 yet...Head-On is definitely my fave though, and especially because we all know that some day, Krysta's gonna wake up, lolz (she's gonna be pissed too)
In the case of TM Lost, every character's bios give wildly different amounts of time since their respective "win." Billy Ray's bio says 10, No-Face's says 8, Mr. Grimm's doesn't give a number but does say it has been multiple years and basically no time at all has passed for Agent Stone as he's caught in a time loop of constantly winning TM then dying in the past.
Great Videos! I think the reason that so many characters have arcs in Head On based on them winning TM2’s tournament is because you’re playing from that character’s perspective (meaning that if you played as Axel in Head On, then he also won TM2). Your points regarding Outlaw make a lot of sense though. Also, Charlie in 2012 could be a “Charlie Jr” with Needles/Marcus’s dad being “Charlie Sr” (that’s what I always assumed)
I had no idea that there were this many Twisted Metal games in this series. Holy shit. I pretty much thought it was Twisted Metal two and that's it but the shitload that follows is insane. Kudos to you for not only suffering playing this franchise from front to back but also trying to put together the best solid timeline you could come up with and figure out. There are alot of stretches for sure. I'm surprised you were even able to come up with one at all.
Thanks for doing what you do man. This is the kind of content that I live for as a kid from from the 90's. Fr this was a cool start to my day. For the culture!
From a gameplay perspective, Twisted Metal PS3 is the best in the series, with Black and Head On being an extremely close second. I find the idea of Black being a prequel to the first game to be interesting and it could make sense from a canonical perspective too, like it could be established that Needles Kane had his breakdown and the stuff that occurred within his head happened in 2002, and then the events of the real world Twisted Metal took place three years after. Your breakdown of what happened in each game is downright fascinating and you did a pretty good job of establishing the time lines. I think 3 and 4 are indeed part of an alternate timeline while Head-on is the canonical sequel to 2. I'm shocked they didn't go further with the reboot. Again, from a gameplay perspective, it's the best of the series. Not to mention, that soundtrack is epic as hell. Anything that has "More Human Than Human" on it is a winner. They should've remastered it for PS4 with more character stories to play through, even more battle arenas and additional songs on the soundtrack. I'm shocked they didn't do so.
I enjoyed your TW videos as fun showcases of the history as portrayed in the games. You definitely extrapolate more than there is to know, and insert cohesion when there's clear discontinuity, but overall I liked the presentation and the excuse to mentally revisit a beloved franchise from my youth. Shoutout to us '96ers
You're partly right about calypso. Multi-dimensional jinn, for reference watch wishmaster. Same Jinn, but got tired of being trapped at the end of each movie.
Wow.... Thanks for the Video. TBH, I didn't care much for this series back then. I was probably 14 or 15 the first time I saw this series when it came out back then in the mid 90s. But the fact you run through the whole Franchise lore, kept me watching every second of the video. I only have Twisted Metal 2 just by recomendation and it was far from what I imagined. Probably the game is just too old or it was just me that tried the game for the first time after my 30s but just didn't click. Any way, thanks for explaning your final theory wich is probably better than any idea Hollywood or Netflix could come in produccion.
Regarding Twisted Metal 1 and 4 contradicting each other on when the tournament started, there's another option there: Declare that one of the two games is simply "wrong" on that one point, but that it's otherwise canonical. It's a solution that many fans and writers/editors trying to work out canon for other series have gone with in the past and will continue to do so, and I think it works in this case as TM1 doesn't exactly hinge on it being specifically the 10th anniversary of the tournament; it's not that hard to just pretend they got the number wrong, and TM1 has instances of early installment weirdness that might make it easier to accept as "just one of those things the developers decided to change/not to go with" if it wasn't for the fact that TM3 and 4 ended up thoroughly ignored afterwards. That said, it's still best to declare TM4 non-canon or part of a separate timeline for multiple other reasons, but that one point I can see as being reconcilable if you're willing to squint and suspend your disbelief a bit.
If Calypso has the ability to send people back in time (as established in the very first game), it is not a surprise he’d be able send people across timelines. I’ve always taken it that which character you choose to play as dictates which reality you’re observing. Calypso is more of a concept, a force of nature, than a specific man or entity. He exists because Twisted Metal exists, and Twisted Metal exists because Calypso created it. How those contradictions can be simultaneously true is the same reason multiple endings and starts of the games can exist. Another interesting concept is that Calypso has to grant the wish. The writing for each ending doesn’t always live up to this, but I’m pretty sure that the wish bends the reality for the winner into a reality where the their wish is granted. Case-in-point: Grasshopper’s ending from Head On. That one suggests that the Tournament is the product of Krista’s subconscious, which was manifesting conditions in which her grieving father (Calypso) existed in a reality where they were reunited.
Small brawl is directly connected to TW2. Specter in small brawl is the son of specter from TW2. Also: Black is non canonical because it takes place in Marcus’ head. We know this because of minion’s story line.
I heard an interesting theory regarding TM4's retcon. In it, Nelvin states he'd "heard it from his boss", referring to the story of Calypso in the opening cutscene. Someone suggested this means Needles is an unreliable narrator of sorts, and given that's the case for TMB, maybe he is
Black treating multiple endings as canon depending on who you play is actually mirrored in several Mortal Kombat games. In particular, Johnny Cage's endings in several games treat his original ending (that the entire thing was a Cage movie) as canon.
I've always thought that with the 4that game explained that the act of twisted metal has always been going on, but the first official tournament happened in the 90's
I think it is a multiverse style thing. Each competitor wins each one, on their own splitting timelines. Some subsequent timelines connect to previous ones, but they're generally fractured timelines
Here's your simplest answer to 4: Sweet Tooth did temporarily takeover the comp and everything happening within 3 and 4 are happening from the realm in which sweeth tooth now has control over; able to reconnect this back to black with sweeth tooth's inner realm, meaning 3, 4 and black are all heappening within sweet tooth's own head canon
Probably too late to mention this, but Black does take place in 2001. Mr. Grimm states in his story he was captured in Vietnam in 1971 and then spent 30 years in the asylum.
I would personally see the back story in Twisted Metal 4 as an exageration or lie. Sweet Tooth is the one telling the story after all. It still makes sense to be noncanon and set in the same timeline with three, just that scene maybe isn't the lynchpin. Great video!
The game’s creator David Jaffe stated that he writes each game is a standalone and doesn’t follow a specific timeline or cannon. I like to imagine each game is set in their own alternate reality.
100% yes, this is the best way to view the series. People try WAY too hard to connect things that simply aren't there.
It can still be fun to try and connect things though even if it wasn't the original creator's intention.
Makes a lot more sense, since Marcus Kane keeps hinting that this isnt real
So Twisted Metal and Final Fantasy follow the same sequel pattern of "This is not a sequel, it's just in a parallel universe that uses the same motifs"? I like it. :)
Makes sense as characters die in each game from being blown up
If you read the Manslaughter Character Bio from Twisted Metal Lost, it states that Black (Manslaughters Driver) is from a different dimension and was sent to "The Black Universe" to kill its version of Calypso by a "More Colorful Calypso" (which to me describes the Calypso of Twisted Metal Two). So there is possibly infinite timelines of Twisted Metal with each one having their own tournament winner, their own Calypso, tournament origin, and even drivers of cars
Kinda sounds like Kang in the MCU
Cool info
So Twisted Metal Black takes place in an alternate timeline.
@@kendonl.taylor5111 Black is just how Sweet Tooth sees the world, but you can say its like a different dimension then the one we all see in the first few games
Black was sent by the devil to collect calypso soul
If I were given the opportunity to revive one of PlayStation’s franchises I will always pick Twisted Metal without hesitation.
I remember being a kid playing Twisted metal just chilling on all the maps on the first and second finding all the secrets.
Vigilante 8 had great map secrets as well.
@@claytonkickflip7595 I’m only really familiar with Twisted Metal Black and the 2012 reboot but those games are fucking awesome and I’m assuming the classic games are as well.
I grew up playing 1 and 2, I wish they'd bring them back
@@Matty.Hill_87 yeah. A remaster or remake of those games would be awesome.
@@oxitape1563 grew up with the originals 1 & 2, and after playing the 2012 version with my kids and seeing their reaction, it definitely had the same effect. Great times
For the trinkets in the show case, I believe the stack of bricks is from Mr Slamm. The bag is from Sweet Tooth's lost ending. The dolls are from Shadows ending from TM: Black. The Teddy bear is from Outlaws story in TM: Black. The Fbi id is Roadkill's from TM: Black. The ruined helmet is from Twisters ending from TM2. The key is from Dollface's mask from TM: Black
And thinking about them not knowing what to do story wise back when the first game was released just reminds me of the zombies game mode from Call of Duty, was a fun Easter Egg that ended up with a multiverse
I wonder why the blades of chaos are there. I didnt know that. That's crazy
@@chefboiardeeznutz9881 Just there as a nice little easter egg, David Jaffe was the main guy behind Twisted Metal and God of War
@@whatthespenny4835 that is so cool lol
You forgot about the second bottle. At first, I thought it was the cure for twisted metal black sweetooths ending. But looking up a video of the games endings, the cure bottle in black looked long and thin while the display bottle was short and fat. The bottle was also broken...
As a huge Twisted Metal nerd, I can tell you a majority of the items in Calypso’s trophy case.
The plane tickets were from Mike and Stu’s ending in Twisted Metal 2
The voodoo dolls are from Raven’s ending in Twisted Metal Black,
Twister’s Helmet from Twisted Metal 2,
Teddy Bear is from Outlaw’s ending in Black,
Dollface’s Key from Black
The bricks from the tower of mr slam, the paper bag from sweet tooth 1
On a semi-related topic and as a (sorta former) gamer nerd myself, another detail is the War Of The Monsters for PS2 in the display case. I just have a ton of good memories with that game as a kid.
Cool to imagine Kratos as a playable Twisted Metal character. He clearly exists is The Twisted Metal Multiverse (which is what it is, like Dragon Ball or MCU)
In Calypso's trophy case, you also see several videogames the developers worked on previously. One of them is Twisted Metal 2, which in my mind confirms the idea that Calypso is a demon that can reset time or travel dimensions.
Well I think what happened is calypso died in a car accident with his family and went to hell but if he beat minion in a race he would get to go back to Earth to run the twisty metal competition will be given that ring. And he won the race. I’m pretty sure there’s a graphic novel or something.
aren't the robot cop character from tm4 try to arrest sweet tooth for messing with timelines and such
Nah, Calypso isn't a demon but a normal guy more or less who went to Hell & escaped via a demon he somehow got under his control. So hes like a normal human who gained satanic mystical power more or less. (Correct me if wrong but there may be many origins)
God Of War as well.
Great explanation, I heard humors of a new twisted metal and hope they take the story to the next level!
I hope a new twisted metal actually get made
I did too but I also heard it will probably be free to play which means there’s a good chance we won’t even get a story mode :/ which is literally 85% of what makes twisted metal great. It’s the characters and their stories!
You heard humors?.. were they funny? Did you laugh??
@@ashleynills7507 wow just realized this typo months later LOL
I also heard that they're still making a TV series of Twisted Metal but without David Jaffe's involvement. This will either be exciting or will just be huge disaster..
Fun fact: Darkside was meant to be a playable vehicle in TM2 and it's driver was an elderly woman with a massive gun named Granny Dark. Even though the character didn't make it into the game, her character design was re-tooled and used in Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 as a tourist named Hortense Von Crank. It's possible that the devs of TM2 used the Granny Dark concept and adapted her into the driver of Hammerhead, Granny Dread.
That would be scary to have this really old evil woman as a twisted metal character
Funny you mention Rogue Trip, as there are vehicles and names in Twisted Metal 2012 that reference Rogue Trip, like the pest control truck being named Vermin, like the time my car in Rogue Trip that’s driven by the wrestler. Then there’s the name “Meat Wagon “ which is seemingly for gruesome humor purposes applied to an ambulance car. In Rogue Trip “Meat Wagon” was a wiener mobile while at the same time there was another car ambulance named “Ozone”.
@@maxfieldstanton5005if they make a new twisted metal it'd be cool if they took more inspiration from Rogue Trip. A Wienermobile would be an awesome addition for Twisted Metal. Or a vigilante themed character in a Batmobile-esque vehicle like Intruder/Ratman would be great.
"...and L.A. is still burning? What the hell?"
Me: *looks at California wildfires, and Centralia PA coal fire (burning since 1962)* Yup.
Also, the 4th game could be Sweettooth's retelling of history, and much like a story told by the Joker, is unreliable as hell. If you look at it in that light though, all inconsistencies sort of vanish. This is all in the eyes of a madman. Heck, 4, Small Brawl, and Black could just be the "Sweettooth Timeline".
After looking at that timeline, I’m kind of more say… Confused in a way. Cause you see, While TM 1 has less drivers the game implies that each one of them won in some way or form but that seems… wrong in a way.
Turns out i found out something, There was apparently not just one winner for these contests… quite literally calypso had the world in his pocket where everyone entered the contest and only the chosen few drivers ever won.
TM1 contestants that either won or died got established by TM2, but here’s the catch… Sweet tooth dying in TM2? That actually happened, the original needles kane died and so did his father Charlie which left us with Marcus Kane and his personality who won and got transported into the Dimensional World, in that world when Marcus won again Calypso simply put him back to his house or allowed his Primal side to take over.
So what about TM Black? Well that’s before Twisted Metal 1 and although the devs went with the marcus thing for minion (Because they ran out of time, thanks sony…) Minion is actually a Champion title and believe it or not War hawk is part of the military so Crazy-8 quite literally killed a non-contestant and Calypso wanted to share his gratitude for it because he hates people trying to stop him or just hates the law. So what happened in 2003’s Contest? There was no crowned Winner to be given the title of minion so a trailer gang managed to win (Surprisingly no one else won) which brings us to TM1, now TM1’s Sweet tooth does definitely like killing people and kind of has an ego telling me that TM Black is quite literally how he imagined his life despite being the total opposite of that, so the timeline i got is this…
1994-2001: 7 Twisted Metal Contests happen, A large Tanker driver wins the 7th contest earning the title of minion.
2002: Takes place in midtown, A boxing player lost his eyes and tongue, killing a few people looking for the man who took his normal life away, Calypso announces the 8th Tournament and personally Ask if Crazy-8 wants in after killing the Asylum guard for Door “C1” Canonical Ultimate Champion of the 8th tournament. Crazy-8 Wins and also “Mistakens” War hawk for a Contestant and Calypso grants him his wish with a bonus for killing War hawk. Raven wins afterwards, killing unknown contestants (Same for Crazy-8) and getting her wish.
2003: 9th Tournament happens and gang in a trailer win, earning the title of Minion.
2004: 10th tournament happens, multiple winners at the Los Angeles tournament. Winners are, Outlaw, Crimson & Yellow Jacket. Black mysteriously Disappears after Crimson wins, Outlaw is lost in space, Charlie becomes the new Minion and learns that his son is the infamous Sweet tooth.
2005: World Tour contest, Many contestants win, most notably Outlaw as the ultimate Champion (Again), However was prepared to be sent in space and saved the original driver.
2006-2011: Unknown events, possible Tournament interruptions and Calypso gives his Uncle eddie the title of Minion (Calypso considers him an embarrassing part of his family, given he’s plain stupid despite being strong enough to kill calypso with his hands).
2012: Many contestants win, Including Calypso’s Uncle (No clear Champion is given in head on… their bad i guess).
2013-2021: Calypso refines his tournament and makes it officially legal as no one from the law can face him (Since he quite literally aged backwards each year that passed).
2022: The most current tournament to date, Only 3 winners and Preacher mysteriously survived his leap of fate (God does work in mysterious ways Preacher, i can see what you mean). Preacher gives it upon himself that someone or him needs to end the contests before calypso reaches his full power. Marcus dies, his son takes up his mantle, his daughter is born as a new minion for the next Tournament. (Believe it or not… Charlie kane and Son quite literally goes towards Son being Marcus in the real world (Strange why he named his kid after his insane dad’s Grandpa, Marcus is possibly possessed by the Original Needles kane from TM1 due to the mask which means Charlie will get possessed too, but he already knows Calypso is worse then the mask he will start wearing).
Your a hero for this comment
Oh man, I wish I could trust this as anything but head canon. There's usually 2 rules of thumb, creators & consistency, either can overrule the other. I don't know but I appreciate your comment. Very cool & thought out for the mess The TM Franchise is.
The guy who created twisted metal , created god of war . That's why the blades are there . Happy more people are getting into twisted metal , really was hoping the twisted reboot got the support it needed to get the episodic updates they were planning .
the multiverse thing is outright confirmed, the reboot was originally pitched with the concept of all three characters getting an ending based on difficulty, which Calypso even references in the cut final cutscene when confronted by the preacher.
It's crazy watching all of this information compiled because I really don't think the ones responsible for writing this story thought this much about it lmao
Sad truth. Sometimes we have to will canon into existence. Snyder Cut for example.
I love the idea of Calypso being a multi dimensional being that occupies multiple realities.
It's kind of how Darkseid works in DC comics, all of the versions of Darkseid you see aren't his true form, they are just vessels for him to present himself
Wrong
@@areshenderson1533 Not completely, the new gods do in fact only have one true form in the multiverse, problem is that there are multiple multiverses which is kinda stupid
@@katiequeen7225 I am a Darkseid fan. My favorite character in Fiction to the point I'd kneel to him. With that being said, he has been clapped by Superman more than a few times in Post Crisis. At least in New 52 they tried making him more beastly by blowing a planet 🤷🤷🤷. But his overall record against Supes is not good.
@@katiequeen7225 the realm of the new gods exist OUTSIDE of the multiverse where the gods can watch and observe it. So anything that happens there won't affect them.
@@areshenderson1533 then you should know that the beings being fought are mainly the avatars of darkseid that he uses to not destroy the universe that he wants to occupy and that he did get obliterated by Superman singing his true form to death
"Twisted metal 2012 takes place in 2022"
HOL' UP
'i want my little clown boy back!' meeting Darktooth was the most epic. the destruction aspect was almost always pure shock when it came to shooting off the map and into the diatance
Something I noticed playing Small Brawl was Spectre's ending and it's ties to TM2. Ken Masters is apparently TMSB Spectre's dad, and whether or not Ken is still alive isn't mentioned. You could interpret that as all (or at least some of) the kids in SB are the children of past TM competitors.
He probably was killed
I think Roadkill's ending in Twisted Metal 2 confirms the "all in Sweet Tooth's head" hypothesis. Sweet Tooth wants to stay in the head canon while Marcus wants to escape. Marcus is falsely "escaping" in his ending and coming to terms with killing his family by "reuniting" with them.
Head-On's ending seems to support this, as well, as Calypso basically tells Marcus he's in control of everything.
Perhaps Calypso is a being that can exploit the psychological state of Sweet Tooth's mind for his own amusement.
Or he might be Marcus Kane's interpretation of a psychiatrist trying to break through to him and each tournament is a heavy session where the most progress is made.
In TM2 I took his ended more to mean Marcus was in the real world he just didn’t see it as real
As what Calypso says he can’t wish for him to wake up to the real world when he is already awake not an issue with him not having the power it is just a logical impossibility
To reiterate what I said in your other video, the series creator David Jaffe never intended to create an overarching storyline for these games. In summary, yeah every game takes place in its own universe and some cars you pick will have a continued story such as Outlaw or Twister, but that's only if you pick those cars.
That's how I saw it. You pick a car and their story carries on, the others don't. You pick another one and it's story carries on, the others don't. Even if they die in one of their endings only to come back in another game, the monkeys paw thing being temporary or the deaths being reversed. But none of that happened if the next game doesn't mention it, you could say they didn't come first and are just trying again.
"Time manipulation... Mind reading... Ohh, he has many powers."
Preacher, referring to Calypso, TM2012.
Multiversal travel is apparently correct, based on what we're given.
Twisted Metal 4 was what got me into Twisted Metal as a kid!
Back before Black was released, I’ve always liked to think that Pit Viper’s TM2 ending (Krista Sparks robot) was canonical and that 3 and 4 just didn’t exist.
TM 3 and 4 were actually a lot of fun, gameplay wise, but we’re such a huge departure from the story.
Not to be that guy, but Krista drove Grasshopper.
TM2 taking place across a single day/night can be neatly explained by the fact that Calypso has serious supernatural powers in that one, as indicated by 90% of the endings in the game. He probably just teleported the combatants from place to place. Given the things he does in the endings, I'm sure he could do that fairly effortlessly.
I might be a Twisted Metal newbie but I adore this series so much! I love seeing videos about it pop up, its always a fun time!
I had a similar theory, I think Twisted Metal consists of pervious tournament winners with Minion being the previous winner and Outlaw being the winner of the 2006 tournament. The winners got what they wished for, or they was able to push their agenda which explains why we never seen some characters ever again.
I think Sweet Tooth either died, went to hell and was brought back by Calypso, or there is more than one Sweet Tooth.
Charlie Kane was on a suicide mission, until Calypso told him Sweet Tooth was his son, then it motivated him to seek revenge by becoming Dark Tooth.
On the one hand I kind of like the "Who cares!? Blow stuff up!" approach to their storytelling and canon, but the thought of a real, coherent story driven single player experience a la Mortal Kombat's recent sequels REALLY appeals to me
21:10 You're actually 100% right, David Jaffe said that they didn't want to commit to any canon, and because of that really all of the endings can in fact exist in their own universe. It's either in one of the videos on his channel talking about working on it, or in GhenryPerez's video on a retrospective of the entire series alongside an interview he got to do with David Jaffe as well.
What if the reason we keep seeing each character multiple times throughout the series despite the fact that each year only 1 person can win, in each timeline, and assuming everyone else dies. Is because Calypso is just pulling them from other near identical timelines so he can keep watching his favorite drivers battle it out.
Dude. I thought I was the only asshole that was lost in the lore of this game! I never cared for the gameplay. For me the characters and the universe makes it so interesting! I hope the next game takes its to develop this!
Exactly. I think the gameplay is found though but it’s absolutely about the wild story and even parts of the confusing contradictions are What gives this universe even more mystery.
The soul of this game can be found in 1 and 2,, they really should meditate in the elements used here because there's nothing else like it! Mad Max and fast and furious w escape from LA xD the vibe is mad and I get get enough even tho I've played these to death when they came out . I'm old As warthog man
@@adammurray8361 it’s crazy to think that I got into the game with 4, but even it was fun enough to drive me to play 1&2 and just fall in love with the entire series…
I do think vigilante 2nd offense did the car combat gameplay way better however their world and characters do not stack up to twisted metals.
Man, I used to love this game back when I was a kid. I remember begging my parents to get me the 1st game for Xmas. Loved every moment. Especially with TM2 & 3.
I've always felt Small Brawl was meant to be more of a prequel, set before the incident with Calypso's sister that would lead him into the demolition derbies. It does also kind of give a context as to why he chose to do a tournament like Twisted Metal to gather souls as opposed to a more direct kind of approach.
TM 3&4 might not have been looked at fondly for the whacky story/endings plus that cgi lol but to me it's one of those things where it's so bad it's good type of deals and at the end of the day they both had very good refined gameplay for Car combat also the music was really good across all games.
It still makes me happy seeing new folk find the series and become a fan! I grew up on this franchise and wish it could've continued.
TM4 was my most played game of this series followed by Small Brawl and I didn't even know people hate TM4. I liked all the characters and the combat was really good.
@@hamzahussain7794 4 and small brawl were the only ps1 games I would replay on my ps2 well into 2009! Unfortunately my ps2 broke and didn’t get a console until 2013 but by that time I had lost the discs and ps3 didn’t have backwards compatibility :(
Admittedly, 4 was the game that got me into the series, so I do have quite a bit of love for it.
@@hamzahussain7794 Same. 4 legit still is my favorite and most played next to Black and the "Andys Room" and Carnival stages are amazing.
PLUS you could create your own chars. I seriously don't get the hate.
I came from that TM2 era with my neighbor having the OG. I would borrow it from time to time just so I could have the experience of playing both. Christmas came around and my GMA got me TM3. I remember I snuck the game from under the tree, opened it early, and never got caught. I was scared my mom would catch me but I pulled it off. Years later, for the nostalgia, I grabbed "Head On" as well as "Black", which came with a digital copy of "Lost". I fell in love with the character dialogues and the dark & gritty tones.
I would love to see either a long video, or a series of videos, exploring each character in the franchise.
'Cause I had no idea how much backstory there was for Twisted Metal, but now I'm super curious about it all.
Twisted Metal 4 is literally my favourite and the one I’ve played the most. I think it’s funny how much people shit on it.
Right? After starting with 4 and playing all of them, 3 was the weakest to me…
Kratos blades of Chaos is a reference that David jafee created both twisted metal and god of war.
when a series/franchise retcons things to the point where the canon becomes irreconcilable, i always go for the "AU" option. if its not similar enough, its not the same universe, but its "canon" in a different universe.
Thats how i understand the multiverse
Reading the wiki article brought up at the end for Calypso it's weird seeing the origin of his moniker possibly being just the music I thought they chose the name originally due to it being similar to "apoCALYPSe" since the games are all kind of in apocalyptic/post apocalyptic/dystopic. Excellent video I'm so happy to see folks who care about the series after all these years I grew up with the games (born in '90) so it was sad to see them lose relevance much akin to my favorite game franchise; The Legacy of Kain. Keep up the great work!
I had always figured it was some odd connection to voodoo via the music’s origin, lol
@@____________838 ohhhh yeah that would make sense, great thought!
This game needs a come back, on new consoles it could be so good
They would just mess it up like they did with the 2012 game.
As long as it has a decent story mode and the characters make sense. I think 2012 suffered so much because the single player was really bare bones. However, I do not want a TM4 type of story with joke characters like Pizza Boy and Drag Queen. I hope TMPS5 is similar to 1, 2 Head On or Black. Fingers crossed.
this was the absolute last place i expected to hear an FTR reference but i’m here for it
I like to think Twisted Metal 4 was the delusions Sweet Tooth had as a child, he would see the carnival roll through and he would imagine he was a part of it and he would probably make up stories in his head where he was a contestant and won, i think 4 is more like a collection of vivid hallucinations by sweet tooth. This could also be supported by the fact there is a giant bedroom, this could have been memories of Sweet Tooth playing with cars pretending he was directing Twisted Metal
i think a fairly common theory believed by some people is that small brawl takes place after calypso's ending in TM4 where sweet tooth loses the ring and a kid who looks like the calypso from small brawl takes it to start his own twisted metal.
Nebulous. That is the best word to describe to the continuity between all the games. There basically is none.
I like the theory proposed here, and this is without even mentioning all the time travel shenanigans different winners have caused.
Also, Calypso has a copy of War of the Monsters on his trophy shelf at the very end. it's not really important, but as a fan of that game it made me smile to see it. :)
Captain Spears, first name Shawn. Lance Wilder, formerly Dash. I saw what you did there.
You know it.
Yeah me too
I like to imagine that each ending from 2 created a separate reality, and in Head-On the champions from those games all came together in a separate reality lead by a new Calypso.
Also in TM2, Marcus's ending has him waking up from a coma where he was in a 25 car pile up. Maybe that's the true canon ending, and the other games in the series are just the nightmares of the people still in comas.
Also, calypso and twisted metal black is the same exact character as sweeties. They’ve got the same body and scars and are missing the same eye. It’s just sweet tooth without the mask and the flaming hair.
I never noticed that until you mentioned it here. Hats off to you!
@@MrStrikecentral I appreciate it but I don’t think I figured it out myself. Someone pointed it out in a video, well not the eye in the scar but they were the same character and once someone points that out you can’t really un see it ;) which is really cool and explains why calypso looks so different. Which also makes sense since everything in this game takes place in sweet tooth’s head or needles cane I should say. What a wild game.
There is one detail with dollface's story (it was either Black or 2012 Reboot, can't remember) that ties Calypso's different appearances together. The doctor she talks about's name is "Dr. Ospylac" which is "Calypso" backwards. Meaning he changed his appearance to cause her to join the games, so he has the ability to change his appearance whenever and however he wants.
The Dash Wilder reference made me pop
AEW
Best fucking tag team in the world, and don't let anybody say differently.
I have covid and I just stuck at home and now I know what happened to one of my favorites games. I’m 28 and I played this game when I was 6. Love the channel
Did you survive covid?
III and 4 is non canon because David Jaffe (the series creator) confirmed it. Small Brawl is just a one shot as well as Black and Head On is chronologically the third
Seeing this video and your video about Twisted Metal black has brought back some serious nostalgia. I’ll never forget the map secrets of Twisted Metal 2.
You should check out Vigilante 8 and it’s sequel if you like the vehicle combat with deep lore and secrets. Great maps, too.
I always thought after the fourth game happened with calypso's ending is how small brawl came to be. It looks like it could fit but in that case the whole thing could have created a separate timeline.
Awesome video man I really enjoyed it!!
I always love the twisted metal series and it was one of the very first games we got with the original PlayStation in 1995!!!
Please do more twisted metal videos and maybe more timelines when the TV series comes out and revives the game series
TM 4 takes me back. So many good nights spent trying to beat the game with everyone to see all the cut scenes. No memory card haha
Sub for this video....we need a Sweet Tooth analysis...
Talk about a game I had all but completely forgotten about. I haven't even touched a TM since the original. Your videos have been a really fun jaunt back into a world I had mostly forgot about. Thanks!
Can you do the Backstory Of Calypso please?,I highly recommend you look up on the Twisted Metal 2 Comic it's pretty easy to know about him.
"this might work if sweet tooth has some sort of issues he haven't worked through"
Really? Such a stable well put together individual like that? Huh. The more you know
Yes, those were Kratos' blades; the designer of Needles Kane also designed Kratos, but I believe you know this already. #GasterEgg
I've played most of the Twisted Metal games; haven't been able to play Small Brawl, Black or 2012 yet...Head-On is definitely my fave though, and especially because we all know that some day, Krysta's gonna wake up, lolz (she's gonna be pissed too)
The multiverse theory also plays well into binding Sweet Tooth's appearance in other games, like in Playstation All Stars, or Rocket League.
When I was a kid, the cold audio or lack of it with simply words on screen unnerved me back in 2000 or so haha.
twisted metal taking place is multiple universes would explain why you fight the same characters in each match until the boss battle.
In the case of TM Lost, every character's bios give wildly different amounts of time since their respective "win." Billy Ray's bio says 10, No-Face's says 8, Mr. Grimm's doesn't give a number but does say it has been multiple years and basically no time at all has passed for Agent Stone as he's caught in a time loop of constantly winning TM then dying in the past.
Great Videos! I think the reason that so many characters have arcs in Head On based on them winning TM2’s tournament is because you’re playing from that character’s perspective (meaning that if you played as Axel in Head On, then he also won TM2). Your points regarding Outlaw make a lot of sense though. Also, Charlie in 2012 could be a “Charlie Jr” with Needles/Marcus’s dad being “Charlie Sr” (that’s what I always assumed)
I had no idea that there were this many Twisted Metal games in this series. Holy shit. I pretty much thought it was Twisted Metal two and that's it but the shitload that follows is insane. Kudos to you for not only suffering playing this franchise from front to back but also trying to put together the best solid timeline you could come up with and figure out. There are alot of stretches for sure. I'm surprised you were even able to come up with one at all.
Thanks for doing what you do man. This is the kind of content that I live for as a kid from from the 90's. Fr this was a cool start to my day.
For the culture!
david jaffe was part of god of war also, that's why the blades of chaos were in calypso's office
The multiverse theory all tied together by Calypsos is definitely the most solid explanation to this wild franchise, thanks for the info man!
From a gameplay perspective, Twisted Metal PS3 is the best in the series, with Black and Head On being an extremely close second. I find the idea of Black being a prequel to the first game to be interesting and it could make sense from a canonical perspective too, like it could be established that Needles Kane had his breakdown and the stuff that occurred within his head happened in 2002, and then the events of the real world Twisted Metal took place three years after.
Your breakdown of what happened in each game is downright fascinating and you did a pretty good job of establishing the time lines. I think 3 and 4 are indeed part of an alternate timeline while Head-on is the canonical sequel to 2.
I'm shocked they didn't go further with the reboot. Again, from a gameplay perspective, it's the best of the series. Not to mention, that soundtrack is epic as hell. Anything that has "More Human Than Human" on it is a winner.
They should've remastered it for PS4 with more character stories to play through, even more battle arenas and additional songs on the soundtrack. I'm shocked they didn't do so.
I enjoyed your TW videos as fun showcases of the history as portrayed in the games. You definitely extrapolate more than there is to know, and insert cohesion when there's clear discontinuity, but overall I liked the presentation and the excuse to mentally revisit a beloved franchise from my youth. Shoutout to us '96ers
What an awesome breakdown! I loved playing these games growing up and seeing them all pieced together like this was brilliant. Great work my man !
You're partly right about calypso. Multi-dimensional jinn, for reference watch wishmaster. Same Jinn, but got tired of being trapped at the end of each movie.
This is quite the deepcut! We had Twisted Metal 1 and 2. Great memories. Thanks for this analysis.
I dare you to take a shot every time he says the word canonically.
Wow.... Thanks for the Video. TBH, I didn't care much for this series back then. I was probably 14 or 15 the first time I saw this series when it came out back then in the mid 90s. But the fact you run through the whole Franchise lore, kept me watching every second of the video. I only have Twisted Metal 2 just by recomendation and it was far from what I imagined. Probably the game is just too old or it was just me that tried the game for the first time after my 30s but just didn't click. Any way, thanks for explaning your final theory wich is probably better than any idea Hollywood or Netflix could come in produccion.
Regarding Twisted Metal 1 and 4 contradicting each other on when the tournament started, there's another option there: Declare that one of the two games is simply "wrong" on that one point, but that it's otherwise canonical.
It's a solution that many fans and writers/editors trying to work out canon for other series have gone with in the past and will continue to do so, and I think it works in this case as TM1 doesn't exactly hinge on it being specifically the 10th anniversary of the tournament; it's not that hard to just pretend they got the number wrong, and TM1 has instances of early installment weirdness that might make it easier to accept as "just one of those things the developers decided to change/not to go with" if it wasn't for the fact that TM3 and 4 ended up thoroughly ignored afterwards.
That said, it's still best to declare TM4 non-canon or part of a separate timeline for multiple other reasons, but that one point I can see as being reconcilable if you're willing to squint and suspend your disbelief a bit.
If Calypso has the ability to send people back in time (as established in the very first game), it is not a surprise he’d be able send people across timelines.
I’ve always taken it that which character you choose to play as dictates which reality you’re observing.
Calypso is more of a concept, a force of nature, than a specific man or entity. He exists because Twisted Metal exists, and Twisted Metal exists because Calypso created it. How those contradictions can be simultaneously true is the same reason multiple endings and starts of the games can exist.
Another interesting concept is that Calypso has to grant the wish. The writing for each ending doesn’t always live up to this, but I’m pretty sure that the wish bends the reality for the winner into a reality where the their wish is granted.
Case-in-point: Grasshopper’s ending from Head On. That one suggests that the Tournament is the product of Krista’s subconscious, which was manifesting conditions in which her grieving father (Calypso) existed in a reality where they were reunited.
I appreciate you covering all this, these games really entertained me back in the day
Small brawl is directly connected to TW2. Specter in small brawl is the son of specter from TW2. Also: Black is non canonical because it takes place in Marcus’ head. We know this because of minion’s story line.
I love the little wrestling references you throw in "lance wilder formally dash"
“Yellowjacket digivolved into Dark Tooth” lol
Omfg I miss them days playing twisted metal with my bros toking a bowl kicking freestyles. Damn it! I'm getting old, starting to miss the old days
I heard an interesting theory regarding TM4's retcon. In it, Nelvin states he'd "heard it from his boss", referring to the story of Calypso in the opening cutscene. Someone suggested this means Needles is an unreliable narrator of sorts, and given that's the case for TMB, maybe he is
If you think of it that way, you could make some wiggle room and say TM4 is after Head-On
TM:Black will always be a masterpiece to me 🤤
Not the blades of chaos.... the blades in the Twisted metal trophy case, are the new hands Warhog gets in his ending. They were a bonus reward
Black treating multiple endings as canon depending on who you play is actually mirrored in several Mortal Kombat games. In particular, Johnny Cage's endings in several games treat his original ending (that the entire thing was a Cage movie) as canon.
I've always thought that with the 4that game explained that the act of twisted metal has always been going on, but the first official tournament happened in the 90's
But sadly the 3rd and 4th games are almost universally shit on after being released by a different studio than 1&2.
Yeah I'm subbing to this guy. If there was a 6 month stretch in him uploading TM lore in 2021 there's a good chance for more after new years
I just realized. The fact that you sound older than me. And made a video like this. Amazing what kids can do these days. Let see more!
These were the best games ever made. I played them all
Now I'm imagining Kratos running around the arenas swinging the blades of chaos at cars and demanding his wish from Calypso.
When I tell you guys I use to play twisted metal 1 for hours upon hours. I was poor and it was the only game I had.
It was like that b. 🙌🏽
Liked the video but damn dude!! the over use of the word cannon and every variation of of it you used I couldn't get passed it lmao
Those blades referencing Kratos is a just a friendly wink to David jaffe who also helped created the first two god of wars
I think it is a multiverse style thing. Each competitor wins each one, on their own splitting timelines. Some subsequent timelines connect to previous ones, but they're generally fractured timelines
Here's your simplest answer to 4: Sweet Tooth did temporarily takeover the comp and everything happening within 3 and 4 are happening from the realm in which sweeth tooth now has control over; able to reconnect this back to black with sweeth tooth's inner realm, meaning 3, 4 and black are all heappening within sweet tooth's own head canon
Probably too late to mention this, but Black does take place in 2001. Mr. Grimm states in his story he was captured in Vietnam in 1971 and then spent 30 years in the asylum.
I would personally see the back story in Twisted Metal 4 as an exageration or lie. Sweet Tooth is the one telling the story after all. It still makes sense to be noncanon and set in the same timeline with three, just that scene maybe isn't the lynchpin. Great video!