Twisted Metal: Small Brawl is an okay title. Made for the original Playstation and released not long after Twisted Metal: Black, the M-Rated game that would bring the series back to its former glory, it is strange as to why this was made. Maybe this was made to give the franchise one last title for the PSX (or PSOne, as some people call it) while also taking advantage of the fact the PS2 can play PSX games, or the desire to make a game for those too young for Black's dark stories and gory visuals, Small Brawl is an odd title.
Basically, the series tries to go a new direction by making all the characters kids. School bully Billy Calypso is getting bored of the usual routine of stealing lunch money and other kinds of torment, and seeing a demolition derby on television, he thinks it will be fun to have the kids go at each other. However, as the playable characters are kids, and therefore, do not know how to drive, he remedies it by having them get a remote-controlled car and prepare for a tournament, where the winner will get one wish.
So, in this game, you get to choose between 16 vehicles (five needing to be unlocked). Basically, the roster is mostly returning favorites like Sweet Tooth, Thumper, and Crimson Fury (which makes its triumphant return after being playable on in Twisted Metal PSX). Only three vehicles are new: Mime, who pilots a car similar to Black's Crazy 8, only with inverted colors and the ability to fire any special weapon used by any vehicle in the battle, and the two bosses, Trapper, a safari vehicle whose Special Weapon involves firing the monkey from the Barrel of Monkeys game, and Piecemeal, the final boss who is basically the game's Roadkill, as it is made from the parts of other contestants, and like Mime, can also use their Special Weapons.
So, the game plays like any other Twisted Metal, Tournament Mode has you go through eight levels to see each vehicle's ending. The vehicles and drivers are all redone as kids piloting R/C cars and some special weapons have changed (Mr. Grimm is now a kid obsessed with halloween, and his special weapon involves firing a pair of jack-o-lanterns, Shadow is still piloted by Mortimer, who is now a nerd, and his special weapon is changed to a grim reaper action figure that can be detonated). Also, the levels are now based around places fitting for the theme, like a playground, a miniature golf course, to even a meat locker inside a supermarket. Each stage even has its own hazards to deal with (one stage, a football stadium, has a riding mower gone out of control, while another, a carnival, has a health pick-up situated over a rising sawblade, adding risk to reward).
The game is okay, but far from perfect. The main gripe with this is the lack of content it has compared to Black (hidden characters do not have endings, there are only three extra battlegrounds to unlock), and the controls are a bit hard (sometimes, when going in reverse, when stopping, the vehicle will still turn like it's going in reverse). It's an okay game, just not on the same par as it's darker PS2 brother.
