Favorites such as Sweet Tooth, Axel, Spectre, Darkside, and Minion have returned along with some interesting new guys. All the characters have their own reasons as to why they are in the tournament, and all the winners will be given what they seek by Calipso. Like the older games in the series, the stories of the combatants are as interesting as the game itself, great acting along with excellent writing go hand-to-hand to help the CG scenes actually something to look forward to. There is nothing cooler than to see a character's plot totally reverse with Hitchcock-like turns at the end, what you think will happen usually does not. The main drive of this game is the stupendous gameplay, along with smooth controls and amazing physics the game is fun to play. The satisfaction of taking the opposition out is compelling once more. This is also because the difficulty has risen to what I call insane. This may be the only real complaint I have, there were times when I was bombarded with missles, fireballs, napalm ice cream bombs and the kitchen sink all at once. Its hard people, real hard, especially...*Spoiler alert*....the last boss Warhawk(From the game too). But hell its a challenge and thats what counts, a game giving you your moneys worth, and the hidden characters are even a chore to activate.

On the graphic side, the game looks sweet, moving at a smooth moving 60FPS. The great frame rate would all be a waste if the cars and levels lacked detail. And yes the cars looks great, just seeing Sweet Tooth's transformation when he unleashes his deadly special is cool, and imaginitive. There are all sorts of details that must be caught by the human eye, blink and you might miss something cool happening. Level-wise, all I have to say is bravo! From the huge ship that you begin in thats big enough to be its own level, and then opens up into a city is unbelievable. Thrown in a dark, forboding atmosphere that adds excitement and this game has its own living world. The music which now is just a full movie-type soundtrack instead of all the license band garbage of the last two(Rid Rob Zombie from my mind) blends in with the onscreen activity. It even heightens to a more fast-paced sound when action is all over, the same real-time material seen in SSX.

Make no mistake Twisted Metal Black is by no means perfect, but its just so great to see the wondrous series back in full motion. With a great story and crazy characters, along with some nice visuals this is the best car combat game ever, even replacing the old champ; Twisted Metal 2. Also that damn Rolling Stones song, Paint it Black which also fits too and can be seen in the credits at the end of the game, is in my head good. Shit it won't leave, damn it somebody, someone, get it out, if not pick it out of my brain with a ice pick. Rating=9.5