Straight from the small screen and into your living room, Sony's Twisted Metal: Head-On makes its debut on the PS2. Unfortunately for this PSP convert, Head-On also must have brought its graphics with it. On the PS2, this latest in the franchise just looks flat. While cars and environments may have looked great on the limited display of the PSP, when boosted up they don't hold up nearly as well. Some of the effects and textures in the game do look decent, and help make the game more enjoyable.

Explosions are aplenty in Twisted Metal: Head-On, to say the least. Between crashes, things being shot, and cars being blown up, you may catch a few other ambient sounds, but then you wouldn't be paying attention to the missile about to be shot up your butt. What you will miss, however, is the lack of voiceovers where you'd expect them to be, which really hurts the quality of the game.

Hunt. Shoot. Repeat. That is the basic premise of all of the Twisted Metal games, including this latest. Oh, I did forget to mention that you may need to run with your tail between your legs once in a while, didn't I? While this is a fun premise, and can actually be quite addictive, it is also all you will do ninety percent of the time. There are a few bonuses, so to speak, hidden within each level, but for the most part you eventually get a feeling of déjà vu.

Twisted Metal: Head-On contains everything from the PSP version plus the (Extra Twisted Edition's) inclusion of 4 unseen and forgotten areas from the unreleased Twisted Metal: Harbor City. This is an exciting revelation for fans of the series, but you may be disappointed that there really isn't much content other than the same old, same old. Hunt. Shoot. Repeat.

The game allows you to choose between Head-On and Lost from the start menu, but both are set up in the exact same manner. Each contains three modes of play: Story, Challenge, and Endurance. As you play through, you can earn unlockables, including bonus areas and more playable characters. Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, and friends return, and you can choose any of them to play as in any mode. Unfortunately, even the Story Mode is extremely lacking. There really isn't much in the way of a story to speak of, just that you work your way through levels of destruction, then face boss battles.

The Challenge Mode is more of the same. Face off against a group of enemies (you choose how many), and survive the round. Endurance is just as it sounds. You will face off against one challenger at a time, and must last as long as possible though the waves of opponents. There is also a Multiplayer Mode in which you can play with a buddy, but a lack of online support, the one thing that could have made Twisted Metal: Head-On a great game on the PS2 really hurts it. Instead, what should be a great party game, Head-On falls flat.

Twisted Metal: Head-On's difficulty seemed to vary greatly at times, but it wasn't necessarily because the computer characters were any smarter certain times (although there were a few times when they were quite stupid and running in patterned loops). Instead, the difficulty often depended upon two things: the placement of power-ups and health, and your method of survival. If you go about playing Twisted Metal: Head-On with the mentality of a crazy man, you'll likely find it difficult to pass certain stages. But if you explore the possibility to actually use strategy, you will likely last much longer in whichever mode you're attempting. As for the power-ups, it will completely depend upon which area you are competing in, and learning where the health is at to quickly burn all of your turbo to race to in emergency situations.

The controller scheme of Twisted Metal: Head-On is laid out relatively well. All of your weapon buttons, including firing, are at your fingertips. The shoulder buttons make shooting and cycling through your power-ups quite easy. The accelerator and brake can be done either using the face buttons or the right analog stick. Believe it or not, you may find yourself switching between the two. In certain situations, I felt the need to use the precision of the analog controls to slowly move forward or backward, while most other times I felt more comfortable just holding down the (Square) button to constantly press the gas. The only problem that I often encountered was the accidental double-tap of the accelerator, causing an unexpected turbo boost to happen. Other times, this was a very convenient way to make a quick getaway.

Twisted Metal: Head-On is definitely a fun and addictive title, and the inclusion of four bonus levels is great, but it doesn't necessarily justify buying if you've already played the PSP version. Had the game contained a true story mode, the single player experience would have been better. The exclusion of Internet play is almost inexcusable, however, even if we are talking about the aging PS2 system. Definitely worth a long rental, Twisted Metal: Head-On can be an enjoyable game.