I wish I had been more pleased with
Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. As a
Twisted Metal fan, I really was anxious to see what
TM:SB had to offer. Unfortunately, it just could have been better. The 'Small Brawl' name seems to not only refer to the scale of the levels, but the available area as well. Some of the levels seem cramped and confined.
Any other gripes? Sure: riddle me this, 'how would you go about loading your game?'. Did any of you answer, 'under the menu option MEMORY CARD'? No, I didn't think so... and yet, that's exactly how you have to go about loading your game in Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. There's no indication on your way through the menu items to play a game that you can load a game in progress. For quite a while I thought that you could save your game, but you couldn't load your game and continue where you left off.
Finally, when the game first loads, in the early menu screens, there's a delay problem. I have no idea why there's a delay problem, but it's a little aggravating. When you select an item in the menus by pressing your 'X' button nothing happens... then a few seconds later... 'bang' it's selected. Once you're into the menus a bit, this clears up, though. Still, it makes you wonder if your controller's working correctly for a minute...
PS2: It is possible to improve the graphics by using the smoothing option in the PS2's PlayStation driver options. BEWARE: It appears that the code for handling the music in Twisted Metal: Small Brawl simply plays audio tracks at the same speed as the CD player. Using the double speed option in the PS2's PlayStation driver options will cause the music to be twice the normal speed. Funny? Yes, but you wouldn't want to play the game the whole way through like that!
In conclusion, I wish Twisted Metal: Small Brawl had been a bit prettier, a bit longer, a bit more polished. It has a great concept, and a strong license, but it just seems to fall short of the mark. It's worth renting, sure. Twisted Metal completists will probably want to pick it up, if just for the namesake...