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TWISTED METAL HEAD ON: EXTRA TWISTED EDITION
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Email me here:
khfever@gmail.com
Working on:
-New sections: various Strategies and Multiplayer section.
-Correcting some errors.
Intend to add:
-Multiplayer strategies
-Bugs
-Perhaps a tier list
Table of Contents
=================
1. Introduction
a. About TMHOETE
2. Twisted Metal Head On
a. Menus
b. Characters/Vehicles
c. Upgrades
d. Energy Attacks
e. Weapons
f. Bonus Levels
g. Maps (Story Mode)
h. Deathmatch Maps (Challenge/Endurance Mode)
3. Twisted Metal Lost
a. Menus
b. Characters/Vehicles
c. Energy Attacks
d. Weapons
e. Maps (Story/Challenge/Endurance Mode)
4. Strategies
a. Character specific strategies
b. Combos
5. Multiplayer Strategies
a. TMHO
b. TML
c. Coop
6. Bonus material/Extras
a. Sweet Tour
b. Documentary
c. TM1 Ending Movies
d. Cheats/Unlockables
7. Suggestions for next TM
8. Outro
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1. Introduction
Welcome to my Twisted Metal Head On: Extra Twisted Edition guide. While
I originally planned a guide for TMHO, there was already a good one for
it on gamefaqs and even then all I would probably do is just go into
detail about the maps and characters since everything else is well
documented. With TMHOETE I made this guide because it’s a much more
complete TM experience compared to TMHO for PSP. While the game content
is largely the same there are plenty of changes, thus warranting
TMHOETE a FAQ. With that said, I’m sure you’ll be into reading the
other sections by now.
a. About TMHOETE
Twisted Metal Head On Extra Twisted Edition is a port of Twisted Metal
Head On from PSP to the PS2, except it’s much more than a port. It has
plenty of extras, but the game’s true highlight is the separate
addition of TMLost, an intended sequel to TMB that was sadly cancelled
when the 6 key members of the team (who named it TM:Harbor City) died
in a plane crash (this appears to be fabricated, though). With TMLost
however, comes an important note that explains TMLost… as well as
shedding light on a possible new TM for the PS3! If there’s a downside
to TMHOETE, it’s that it has no online play, but that’s fair enough as
all the extras compensate to make this the ultimate TM experience. If
you haven’t picked up TMHO for PSP then you won’t go wrong with a port
of a great game.
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2. Twisted Metal Head On
This is the original TMHO game from TMHO PSP, everything was carried
over with a few changes and additions, but overall it’s largely the
same game. I’ll cover the changes in their respective sections below,
mainly because I find squashing them together in one section is
unnecessary.
a. Menus
========
When you get to the menu (I have to mention that menus load faster now,
compared to TMHO PSP!) these are the following options.
Single Player – Play the game solo, with three different modes of play.
Story – Play through the game in 11 levels, this is necessary to unlock
the extra levels and characters. You can play through the game with
every car except for one.
Challenge – Choose a level, a car, and 5 opponents. All cars are
playable in this mode.
Endurance – Choose a level, and a car then battle it out until you die
or leave.
Multiplayer – As mentioned before, multiplayer is cut down heavily
without the existence of online. Thus, you have the following two modes
of play.
2P Deathmatch – Battle against your friend.
2P Coop – Play through Story mode with a friend.
Options
Audio – Adjust the music and sound effects volume.
Controls – Choose from three control options: Classic, Hit n Run, and
Run n Gun.
Difficulty – Choose from four difficulties – Super Easy, Easy, Medium
and Hard.
Save Game – Save your game as well as your settings.
Load Game – Load a previously saved game.
Restore Default Settings – Restore everything back to where it was
before.
Movie Clips – See the intro cinematic, unlocked character endings and
credits.
b. Characters and Vehicles
==========================
I’m not bothering with the stories, just the car stats and specials. I
added ramming damage for Mr Slamm and Dark Tooth because you can beef
up their specials’ damage by ramming an enemy. Sure, you can do this
with other cars but the ramming damage sometimes even occurs during the
special which is why I added it. 6 is the bare minimum without the
ramming upgrade, and the ramming upgrade lets both Slamm and Dark Tooth
do up to 12 points of ramming damage thus their upgraded specials will
always have the 12 ramming damage tacked on because you forego getting
the ram upgrade before the special weapon upgrade.
In addition, I’m also adding armor points (i.e. how much damage a car
can take before blowing up, so if a car has 100 points of health they
can take up to 100 points of damage) as well as boundary damage.
Boundary damage occurs when you exit the map’s solid ground and go
right into a part of the level that will hurt your health. The damage
will always be the same for every map but not for every car.
It appears to me that Boundary Damage takes away more than a quarter of
your health every time you receive the out of bounds penalty. However,
there’s a rather odd discrepancy with this though. For example, Dark
Tooth has 148 points of health without the armor upgrade. However, he
only dies after four boundary damages. I think the reason for this is
that when you’re about to die, the health will start blinking; when
you’re hit the damage of a weapon (specifically those with less than 15
points as well as weapons that deal damage over time i.e. Thumper’s
flamethrower) looks a lot less than normal. However, the Boundary
Damage bypasses the critical health point as it lops away a specific
chunk of your health; so even though you’re in yellow and only one more
hit from going into the red health, the Boundary Damage can already
kill you. For example, take Dark Tooth; again, he has a normal health
bar of 148 points. However, he only dies after four boundary damages.
He takes 33 per Boundary Damage, and with 4 he loses 132 points of
health but he’s already dead after the fourth Boundary Damage, even
though he has 148 points of health by default. So keep this in mind as
Boundary Damages can be very damaging and much more deadly than you
think. The only exception is Tower Tooth, as he can’t go on any map
that has “Out of Bounds” penalties in them and Roman Ruins deathmatch
has no out of bounds penalties.
Roadkill
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (100, 115)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage – 29 points
Special - (Boomerang, 15 points normal, 30 points with a return shot)
Fires a boomerang at an enemy, with low homing ability. Hitting the
fire button after firing a boomerang will cause it to return to
Roadkill. If you fire it with no target present, the boomerang will
only go straight ahead. Unlike TM2, you must hit the fire button to
manually return the boomerang. You lose the ability to return the
boomerang if it goes away from your car too far.
Upgraded – (Charged, 27-35 points normal based on range, 31-35 points
after the 3 light blinking charge delay, 30-62 on a return shot)
Fires up to six boomerangs, all home in on the enemy much better than
the regular version IMO. They deal decent damage, even better if you
get all 6 to hit an enemy on their way back. It is the most powerful
special by itself, but other characters have more powerful.
Shadow
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (110, 127)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage – 28 points
Special – (Soul Shadow, 12-16 points)
The special is weak, contrary to what the special stat says. However,
it does have a useful ability to pass through walls, whether you
detonate it or not. When you detonate it the explosion also goes
through walls, and the area of effect is somewhat similar to a Napalm.
Fortunately, unlike TM2 you can’t hurt yourself with this. It is faster
compared to TM2’s Soul Shadow but it’s slower compared to TMB’s. The
damage depends highly on how close the enemy is within the purple
circle before detonation. It disorientates the enemy, and flips them
over if they were moving prior to that, allowing for some punishment
afterwards.
Upgraded – (Charge, 27-29 points, 27 on a full charge and 29 after the
three light blinking charge delay)
While the special does more damage, the damage varies based on the
distance the enemy is from the explosion. Thus, if you’re trying to go
for the full 29 points you must detonate when the enemy is near the
center of the Soul Shadow. However the 2 point difference isn’t really
worth it.
Mr Grimm
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (85, 97)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 21 points
Special – (Screaming Soul, 25 points)
Fires three skulls ahead at an enemy. A direct hit not only causes
damage, it also bounces them up a bit. However, this was slowed down
from TMHO PSP; given that the special has a delay, you can no longer
fire two in a row for 50 points of damage. BUT it gives you a chance of
making your shot more accurate in case your enemy is moving and you’re
trying to adjust the shot to hit where they’re going. Another change
from TMHO PSP is that the special is now red even when not upgraded
(just a minor graphical difference). Also, if you switch before the
special is fired, it will cancel the special from being fired. But
since you can switch it to another weapon instantaneously after firing
it, you can immediately fire another weapon to increase the damage of
this special.
Upgraded – (Mash, fires missiles with small homing ability, 3 points
per missile, I got 43 points as max so far)
Until the Screaming Soul hits something (be it a wall, obstacle or
enemy), you can continue to fire missiles at the enemy. It’s best to
utilize the special by freezing an enemy, backing up so that you have a
large gap between you and your enemy, then fire and mash like crazy. If
you’re upclose, the special will hit and you won’t be able to get even
1 missile to hit (whereas in TMHO PSP, if you mash the fire button fast
enough a missile will come out right after firing the screaming soul,
thus letting you get 28 points even if you’re right next to an enemy).
Sweet Tooth
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 8/10 (125, 144)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 2/10
Boundary Damage – 31 points
Special – (Napalm Cone, 18 points)
Fires a cone that homes in onto an enemy. If it hits a wall it’ll
bounce around, but it loses its homing abilities. Perfect for long
range combat but not too powerful on its own.
Upgraded – (Charge, 18-30 points, fires up to 6 cones, each doing 5
points of damage)
Fires up to six cones, all home in on the enemy but if an enemy turns
too much some of the cones may miss. It’s only slightly more powerful
than a charged Swarmer.
Thumper
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (105, 121)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage - 26 points
Special – (Balls of Fire, 4 fireballs, 5 points per fireball, 20 points
plus fire damage if an enemy doesn’t turbo/shield)
Launches four fireballs at the enemy. A weak special, the homing
abilities are similar to a freeze missile – good but not great. Plus
you have to aim all 4 successfully in order to get 20 points of damage.
Special – (Mash, up to 32 points, each fireball is 1 point worth of
damage)
Thumper’s special is different; it becomes a flamethrower (colored
green instead of orange like the previous games’ flamethrowers) when
you fire it but when you mash it also fires fireballs (WOOHOO for
repetition!). Unlike other mashed specials, even after you
hit an enemy initially with the “main” special (in this case the
flamethrower) the mashed projectiles can still continue to be fired
until the special ends. It’s hard to rack up even 25 points of damage,
so freezing first may help. Add some machine guns to supplement your
damage potential.
Spectre
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (95, 109)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 24 points
Special – (Ghost Missile, 13 points of damage)
Fires a missile that goes through walls until it hits an enemy. It does
very low damage but it’s a sure hit. An opponent targeted by a ghost
missile will have a green tripod-thing around their car to indicate
that they’re being targeted, giving them time to Shield or Flak so only
use this when you know they won’t have enough energy to avoid it.
Upgraded – (Charge, 23 points on full charge, 27 points after the three
light blinking charge delay)
The upgraded version is perfect for sniping from a higher area. Again
it’s better to only fire the special when you know an enemy doesn’t
have the energy to Flak or Shield.
Twister
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (90, 103)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 10/10
Boundary Damage – 23 points
Special – (Tornado Twist, 18 points of damage)
Twister gets on its front and then spins wildly creating a tornado. Any
nearby enemies will get dragged into the tornado and spun around until
the tornado finishes, which tosses them all away. Perfect for throwing
an enemy “out of bounds” for more damage, even if they activate a
shield. Don’t use the special near walls; an enemy who hits a wall
after will fall to the ground immediately and will be immune to the
rest of the special. The area of effect is rather small, though. If you
turn, the tornado angles itself in the opposite direction of where
you’re going (i.e. if you’re driving backward, the tornado angles
forward) which gives it more range AND even if the special doesn’t hit
immediately, when you hit an enemy during the end of the special it’ll
still do 18 pts of dmg. The tornado will throw an enemy into a random
direction but if you angle it, it’ll throw them into that direction.
Upgraded – (Mash, 31 points of damage)
The same, just mash for extra damage.
Outlaw
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (100, 115)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 25 points
Special – (Tazer, 4-17 points based on how long the tazer latches onto
the enemy)
Shocks the nearest enemy with a lightning bolt. It does minor damage
and you have to run near an enemy in order to ensure the full damage,
making this one of the weakest specials. However when upgraded, it is
one of the most powerful specials overall. The Tazer can also pass
through walls.
Upgraded – (Mash, 4-32 points based on how long the tazer latches onto
the enemy and how many times you pressed the fire button)
The tazer will now shock enemies repeatedly if you keep tapping the
fire button, similar to Crazy 8’s from TMB. However what makes this
better is that it disorientates the enemy (i.e. flips them over or
causes them to be imbalanced). If you fire your machine guns while
shocking the enemy, you can do about half damage to every car in the
game. An excellent improvement over the normal special.
Grasshopper
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (94, 108)
Special Weapon: 4/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage – 24 points
Special – (Body Slam, 18 points)
When selected, an enemy closest to you will have a green circle
surrounding them, thus warning them of Grasshopper’s special. This is
also the only way to get Grasshopper to do her special. She jumps into
the air and then charges at the enemy. If you’re closer, she’ll bounce
off of them which gives them a possible chance to retaliate so it’s
better you use it from far away. If no enemy is in sight, Grasshopper
jumps up to TM2 height, which can be useful to get to certain areas
without having to use the jump upgrade (especially in multiplayer). The
special causes the enemy to bounce really high into the air, thus
setting up for further punishment. If you’re right next to them, the
special will throw them straight up but you won’t get as much height.
Upgraded – (Mash, 20-32 points, each green ball does 1 point of damage)
After jumping, mash the fire button to fire green balls at the enemy
(which will always hit), until Grasshopper connects with the special.
More damage is possible when the special is used far away. When you hit
fire, even if you don’t mash, two green balls will always be fired thus
ensuring at least 20 points of damage.
Warthog
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 8/10 (130, 149)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 4/10
Boundary Damage – 33 points
Special – (Patriot Missiles, 6 per missile, 18 points overall with 3
missiles)
Fires a trio of homing missiles, red, white and blue. Good overall
weapon for long range combat, but in comparison to other specials
Warthog’s doesn’t do too much damage but it’s useful to wear an enemy
down, really quickly. The missiles are fired separately and congregate
only when they’re near their target, so keep this in mind if you’re
going after a single target.
Upgraded – (Charge, 27 damage when charged)
The special is still the same but the missiles do more damage when
charged, equivalent to a fully charged Swarmer missile. All three
missiles also become red (minor graphical difference).
Axel (secret character)
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 6/10 (120, 138)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 4/10
Boundary Damage - 30 points
Special – (Shockwave, 15 points)
Axel releases a burst of energy that crosses the ground, forming a
circle. Anyone hit by the shockwave will bounce into the air, and if
they’re driving they’ll even flip over thus setting them up for further
punishment. Good to hit multiple enemies at once.
Upgraded – (Charge, 27 points)
The same, and a lightning bolt is latched onto an enemy from Axel’s
vehicle although it doesn’t seem to do any extra damage.
Mr Slamm (secret character)
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 8/10 (135, 155)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 2/10
Boundary Damage – 34 points
Special - (Bucket Shake Slam, 22 points + 6-12 ramming damage = 28-34
total)
When selected, all you do is drive your front end into a vehicle and it
will pick them up, slam them a few times and then throw them away. A
change from TMHO (and TM2) is that now the enemy that’s getting slammed
will temporarily have their weapon/energy display disabled. Throw an
enemy into a wall with your special, then rinse and repeat until you’re
out of specials. Fire your machine guns to accelerate the process! An
enemy can only deal with this by putting a shield up after they’re
thrown away by your special and then remote bombing their way out, so
when they’re out of energy they might as well be doomed!!! To be fair,
Slamm’s special will count the opponent ramming him so he’ll take minor
damage from his special.
Upgraded – (Charge, 22-34 points + 12 ramming damage = 46 total)
No longer automatic, you have to manually fire the special (which
causes the crane at the front to go forward, increasing its
range). However, you can get 47 points of damage per freeze (Freeze,
Ram + fully-charged Special) so that’s still a lot. You can’t spam it
in the same manner as when it was normal, though.
Crimson Fury (secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (95, 109)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 24 points
Special – (Reticle Pulse Blast, 16 points)
A red box appears in front of Crimson Fury; any target in the box will
have a crosshair on them (a change from TMHO PSP). Once the crosshair
is shown, it is your cue to hit the fire button to shoot. It launches a
laser ball at an enemy with minor homing ability (though it sounds
pretty cool).
Upgraded – (Charged, 25 points)
The charged special fires up to 5 laser balls for five points each.
You’ll have to aim carefully for all 5 laser balls to hit.
Hammerhead (secret character)
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 6/10 (118, 135)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 2/10
Boundary Damage – 30 points
Special – (Ram Attack, 15 points)
When selected and near an enemy, the ground becomes highlighted in
blue. Press fire, and Hammerhead will do a wheelie (i.e. lift the front
wheels up), jump onto the victim and then bounce off of them. If no
target is present, Hammerhead just does a wheelie. The initial wheelie
leaves you pretty wide open since Hammerhead doesn’t leave the ground
immediately. However once it hits, it disables the enemy’s ability to
fire until Hammerhead lands back onto the ground, but they can still
shield it. Also if no target is present, the special will still be in-
tact until you actually hit an enemy. When you land on an enemy, you
can still turn. If you get behind them during the special, they’ll be
right in front of you and open to some missiles.
Upgraded – (Mash, up to 26 points)
Once Hammerhead is on an enemy, he will accelerate his wheels (by
mashing the fire button) and rub it over his enemy’s paint for further
damage.
Cousin Eddy (secret character)
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 10/10 (100, 115)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 25 points
Special – (Bull’s Rush, not named officially, 25 points)
Cousin Eddy rushes forward and charges straight ahead. Anyone unlucky
enough to cross his path will get pushed aside. The special flings the
enemy into the air depending on your distance from them when you
activate the special. At mid range, it will fling them into the air,
but at close or long range, it will just push them aside. 25 points is
quite a lot and if you throw them into the air it sets them up for
further punishment. You can also use this special as a means of getting
away from danger in an instant.
Upgraded – (Minion Flamethrower, not named officially, 36 points + fire
damage)
Remember Minion’s flamethrower from TMB? Well here is the same. Just
get close to an enemy and fire it off! It does pretty good damage for
such little effort, but beware that an enemy can freeze you to stop it.
Special Note – Cousin Eddy’s machine gun fires white missiles that home
in onto an enemy now. A nice improvement from TMHO PSP, where his
machine gun was lame (it did not home in like boss Cousin Eddy’s and it
was VERY hard to hit with).
ATV (secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 1/10 (50, 57)
Special Weapon: 4/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 13 points
Special – (Bullet, not officially named, 16 points)
Fires a few orange-ball shaped bullets. It has no homing ability, and
it only fires behind ATV so it is a pretty weak weapon overall.
Upgraded – (Dynamite, not officially named, 29 points)
ATV now throws a dynamite at an enemy that follows them and hits for
good damage. It’s an excellent way to strike enemies from above and
below you, since the Dynamite arcs up pretty high.
Dark Tooth (Secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 10/10 (148, 173)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 10/10
Boundary Damage – 33 points
Special – (Grapple, 20 points + 6-12 ramming damage = 26-32 total)
The mechanical jaws at the front grab an enemy, slam them a few times,
and then throws them away. Dark Tooth’s special animation has changed;
at the end, it now lifts an enemy into the air BEFORE tossing them.
Whereas in TMHO PSP after slamming an enemy Dark Tooth just flings them
up after. Also there was an occasion where Dark Tooth’s special failed
to throw an enemy away, it just dropped them right in front of him.
However it loses its sound effects from TMHO PSP. After throwing an
enemy away, you can follow-up by firing your machine guns along with
another weapon for HUGE damage. BTW, the range is HUGE for a close
range weapon, and the special isn’t named Grapple but I based the name
off of the Concept Art manual that came with the game. However, the
special does come with a price; it will count the opponent ramming Dark
Tooth so he takes damage as well.
Upgraded – (None, 30 points + 12 ramming damage = 42 total)
Dark Tooth’s upgraded special is just more powerful, no need to hit
anything!
Special Note – Dark Tooth’s machine gun is Sweet Tooth’s special. His
shield is coated in purple instead of green like the other characters.
Tower Tooth (secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 10/10 (310, 357)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 10/10
Special – (Flamethrower, 15-30 points)
Tower Tooth’s special is essentially Cousin Eddy’s upgraded special,
although it’s not as powerful. It automatically targets the nearest
enemy, no need to aim. In multiplayer, the flamethrower can be a good
threat when you combine it with your machine gun fire.
Alternative – (Tower Lightning, no damage listed)
Now this special sucks, compared to TMHO PSP. It no longer fires about
5-8 extra cones during the special, and it does essentially the same
damage as a fire missile. It’s not as powerful as TMHO PSP. It’s been
colored red instead of blue (minor graphical difference) but at half
health and nearly dead all you can do is fire some lousy lightning
that’s not even powerful?!?! Ah well. He can now be used in
multiplayer, a change from TMHO – though once you select him he still
can only be used in Roman Ruins deathmatch level (why couldn’t they
make him selectable in Tokyo Streets – Dark Tooth? That’s where his
boss battle takes place anyway).
Special Note – Tower Tooth’s machine gun is Sweet Tooth’s special just
like Dark Tooth’s. His shield also covers him with purple energy
instead of green.
Armor/Health points
-------------------
I think it would be easier to show the health here, as well as compare
stats. A lot of them are surprising. I tested out the armor points, and
unfortunately the work is a lot more difficult than I thought. Not only
did I test with infinite weapons, but I also forgot that it gave you
the armor upgrade. Not to mention, some of the data is weird! For
example, Dark Tooth has 148 points as a playable character, with the
upgrade it increases his health to 173 but the upgrade is supposed to
make it 170… How odd. So because of my initial testing (and failure to
take into account the armor upgrade) I will now split up the health
points. The first number is the health WITHOUT the armor upgrade and
the second is with the armor upgrade. It has come to me that the AI
actually has more health than a playable character, but with the armor
upgrade all regular characters have more health than their AI
counterparts. The bosses though, will always have the most health (Dark
Tooth has 200 points as the AI, whereas he only has 148 as a playable
character). These health stats are all for the playable versions of
characters, not the AI.
Format:
Character (armor): normal health, health with armor upgrade
Roadkill (4/10): 100, 115
Shadow (4/10): 110, 127
Mr Grimm (2/10): 85, 97
Sweet Tooth (8/10): 125, 144
Thumper (4/10): 105, 121
Spectre (2/10): 95, 109
Twister (2/10): 93, 103
Outlaw (4/10): 100, 115
Grasshopper (2/10): 94, 108
Warthog (8/10): 130, 149
Axel: (6/10): 120, 138
Mr Slamm (8/10): 135, 155
Crimson Fury (2/10): 95, 109
Hammerhead (6/10): 118, 135
Cousin Eddy (10/10): 100, 115
ATV (1/10): 50, 57
Dark Tooth (10/10): 148, 173
Tower Tooth (10/10): 310, 357 (357 only with the Infinite Weapons code)
The most shocking result of my testing would be Cousin Eddy, whose
armor stat is listed as 10/10 but he actually has 4/10 armor. Warthog
and Mr Slamm’s armors are something more like 9/10 rather than 8/10
especially since outside of Dark Tooth and Tower Tooth, they have the
highest health out of anyone in the game. Grimm, Spectre, Twister, and
Grasshopper all have more like 3/10 armor rather than 2/10. Shadow’s
armor is more like 5/10 rather than 4/10, as 4/10 armored cars
(Roadkill, Outlaw and Thumper) all have around 100 health as their base
stat. Again, as mentioned above, Dark Tooth cheats the system by having
3 more health points with the armor upgrade than intended. The game
rounds some armor stats up, but some other armor stats on other cars
are rounded down. I have no idea why this is the case. I only tested
the armor upgrade for a few characters including Roadkill, Shadow and
Dark Tooth; the rest of the armor stats are all rounded down after
calculating the 15% increase. It seems accurate, for the most part.
Boundary Damage
---------------
Although the boundary damage penalty seems consistent with every
character, there was one case (I think it was on the Tokyo Rooftops
level) where the Boundary Damage was more than what I listed for
Crimson Fury. I’m not sure if there’s a special case, or if there are
any circumstances where going out of bounds in a specific area of the
level will incur more damage as a penalty. So for now I’m listing all
the boundary damages mentioned above, but Crimson Fury will be the only
exception until I can re-confirm this.
Format:
Character: Boundary Damage
Roadkill: 29
Shadow: 28
Mr Grimm: 21
Sweet Tooth: 31
Thumper: 26
Spectre: 24
Twister: 23
Outlaw: 25
Grasshopper: 24
Warthog: 33
Axel: 30
Mr Slamm: 34
Crimson Fury: 24, 32 in Tokyo Rooftops
Hammerhead: 30
Cousin Eddy: 25
ATV: 13
Dark Tooth: 33
C. Upgrades
===========
One thing the TMHO PSP manual screwed up on was the upgrade list, it
did not go in the order specified compared to the game. Thus, in ETE’s
manual it was fixed.
Upgrades are powerups gained after destroying a car, they have varying
effects and are permanent until you are destroyed, in which case you
lose all upgrades and must start over. When you get an upgrade the next
one comes available; after all 6 upgrades the 7th upgrade is random.
Upgrades carry over to the next level giving you a nice advantage. In
ETE the upgrade icons (yellow green triangles) now have the words UP
circling it (minor graphical difference).
1st upgrade: Turbo and Energy upgrade
Speeds up Energy regeneration by 10%, turbo now burns slower by 10%, it
also refills your energy/turbo meters in case you used some of it up.
2nd upgrade: Jump upgrade
Now when you jump, it jumps 2x higher than normal, back to TM2 height.
Very useful IMO, especially since Jump no longer uses any energy!!!
3rd upgrade: Ram upgrade
Adds 10% more damage to a ramming attack. Much more useful in a higher
armored car where the effects are more apparent. Average armored cars
get up to 8 ramming points, higher armored cars get up to 12 ramming
points, and lower armored cars can get up to 6 ramming points (which is
odd, but yes, even Grimm can ram Dark Tooth for 6 points of damage).
4th upgrade: Machine Gun upgrade
Your machine guns now fire red bullets instead of white ones, and will
rapidly whittle down an enemy’s health. Very useful.
5th upgrade: Armor Upgrade
Your armor/health bar increases by 15% so you’ll last longer. Very
useful. BTW, the upgrade also completely refills your health in case
you’re running short.
6th upgrade: Special Weapon upgrade
Your special attacks/weapons can now do more damage based on two
mechanics: charging and mashing. Charging is typically for the
projectile/long range type specials, and mashing is for the melee-type
specials though there are some exceptions (Mr Grimm uses the mash
mechanic even though his special is a projectile, and Mr Slamm uses the
charge mechanic even though his special is a melee-type special). Some
characters’ specials become different, and there are a few who don’t
even need to charge/mash to maximize their damage. Only Tower Tooth
can’t receive a special weapon upgrade, but he makes up by having two
specials based on his current health. Charged specials, when fully
charged, will blink three times warning you to release the special
before wasting it completely. A change here is that charged weapons can
now be switched out even when being charged, though there is a second
delay, and if you hold down the fire button in the process of switching
weapons you’ll fire the next weapon automatically. It seems to me that
some Mashed specials were toned down in damage, a bit (although I may
be a bad button basher).
7th upgrade: Random upgrade
You will either get three extra missiles (Fire, Homing, or Power), a
15% health regeneration, or a Turbo and Energy refill. To maximize your
chances of a Turbo and Energy refill or 15% health regeneration get as
much weapons as possible, or have 30 weapons (the maximum) so that you
can only get 15% health regeneration or the Turbo and Energy refill.
d. Energy Attacks
=================
All Energy Attacks are based off of their TMB-inputs, save for one that
was changed from TMHO PSP/TMB. Unlike TM2/TMB, you cannot use energy
attacks when you fire a weapon (i.e. after firing a homing missile you
cannot immediately fire a freeze missile) so combining weapons is less
fluent and authentic.
Freeze Missile (Up Down Up, uses about 40% of the energy bar)
Fires a freeze missile at an enemy. A hit freezes them and thus lets
you continue with whatever weapon you have in mind. The homing
abilities are still pretty good but they are not as great as in TMHO
PSP. Any weapon above 10 points of damage will break the freeze, thus
to do the most damage, fire your Machine Guns and use a strong weapon –
preferably a special or power missile. For some reason the D-pad input
is rather unresponsive compared to the other Energy Attacks; I
recommend using the left analog stick to input the Freeze (it’s more
responsive than the D-Pad input but it sometimes fails occasionally). A
freeze missile does 1 point of damage to an enemy. When you’re frozen,
rapidly tap a button to break out. Unlike TMB, you can turbo during a
freeze and it will actually use Turbo from your turbo meter.
Shield (Right Right Down Down, uses about 60% of the energy bar)
Causes green energy to envelope your car thus protecting it from
weapons. Use it when low on health, trying to escape, or getting to a
health, but use it wisely since it uses the most energy out of all
energy attacks. It protects you for about 5 seconds.
Mine (Right Left Down, uses about 10% of the energy bar)
Drops a mine onto the ground. Best used after taking a teleport to
ensure that an enemy will take the damage, rarely will you ever need to
drop one into the path of a relentless enemy. A mine hit does 11 points
of damage, compared to 6 from TMHO PSP. It is interesting to note that
one of the trailers for TMHO PSP showed a mine doing 22 points of
damage to Mr Grimm, so perhaps the mine in its previous state was too
powerful… unless they meant a REMOTE BOMB but it clearly said a MINE
hit. It also seems to me that you can’t stack mines on top of each
other (i.e. drop three mines all at once) as opposed to previous TMs.
Cloak (Left Left Down Down, uses about 30% of the energy bar)
Renders your car invisible from sight and even from the radar for about
5 seconds, however it will leave behind a shadow of the car’s wheels as
well as a smoke, so if a human player notices the smoke/shadow and
shoots you it will unveil you so beware. Unlike TMB, ANY weapon fired
(be it Machine Guns, energy attacks such as Freeze Missiles and etc)
will uncloak so it’s better that you use this as a getaway option, not
a surprise attack method. Also, when you use invisibility an enemy
typically drives away from your location and will not notice you at
all. This is VERY useful in the deathmatch versions of levels,
especially since DM maps have fewer healths and most of them have wide
areas thus making you a big target for anything. Unlike TMB’s cloak, if
an enemy bumps into you or you run into something heavy that’s moving
(i.e. traffic cars) you’ll STILL be cloaked. It costs less than a
Shield and you can use at least three per full energy bar. This should
be your primary defensive option with the Shield being a last resort.
Flak (Up Down Left Right, uses about 20% of the energy bar)
Causes a radial explosion to burst out of your car. The explosion can
damage (for 10 points) and knock away enemies BUT it can also destroy
missiles too. This is basically a less expensive Shield, but only for
missiles, and you have to time it carefully so that a missile hits the
explosion before it hits you. If you’re using it offensively, it’s best
used for cars with melee-type specials, including Grasshopper,
Hammerhead, Mr Slamm, and Dark Tooth as a means of knocking them away
so that they can’t corner you and spam their specials.
Rear-Fire (Up Down Down, no energy is consumed)
The only command that’s changed from TMHO PSP. Rear-Fire no longer
needs you to hit the fire button after inputting the command.
Surprisingly, the command is actually one Up button short (contrary to
how it’s shown in the manual), and you can use D-Pad input but it’s
occasionally unresponsive. I recommend pressing each button hard enough
for Rear-Fire. It fires the currently selected weapon out of your car,
however weapons such as Swarmer Missiles can’t be rear-fired. Best used
with Homing weapons, especially the Homing Missile. There’s also a few
random combinations that trigger Rear-Fire (one of them was Down Up
Down I think). Neither seem to be reliable, though.
Napalm (Right Left Up Up+Fire button, uses about 30% of the energy bar)
A Homing Napalm is fired along with your current weapon, it adds 11
more points of damage as well as doing fire damage and disorientating
the enemy. However, it does not work with special weapons. The command
is rather unresponsive, even in TMHO PSP. If you’re going for the kill
use this, otherwise don’t bother with it. For Swarmer Missiles, charge
it up, then input the Right Left Up Up command before releasing the
Fire Button to use Napalm along with it for major damage.
Jump (L1+R1, consumes no energy)
Yay, it doesn’t use energy anymore!!!! Even if it did the difference is
hardly noticeable. When you get the jump upgrade it’s even better. Be
wary of Napalms. You can also use Jump as a means of turning really
fast especially if you’re in a car with poor handling stats.
e. Weapons
==========
The weapons return from TMHO, however three of them received a damage
boost. Otherwise they are largely the same (but the missiles look like
fireballs now so they are cooler :]). Each weapon will always give you
2 per pickup like TM2.
Machine Gun (damage varies, no homing ability, can’t be rear-fired,
can’t be picked up)
The Machine Gun overheats faster compared to TMHO PSP, but it’s still a
nice tactical weapon. With the machine gun upgrade this weapons becomes
more powerful, able to quickly whittle down an enemy’s health. Machine
Guns are best used when combining with other weapons for extra damage.
Fire Missile (12 points of damage, common, limited homing ability, can
be rear-fired)
Basic missile; only slightly more damaging than the homing missile but
typically a “fodder” weapon to waste since there are much better
weapons to stock up on. You start with two of these. Fire missiles are
color coded orange with a missile in them. They’ve been slowed down
from TMHO PSP, equal to TMB’s Fire Missile.
Homing Missile (10 points of damage, common, great homing ability, can
be rear-fired)
Homing Missiles are the best overall missile, they only do half the
damage of a Power Missile but you can fire several of these and cause
some huge damage really fast. Very useful on speedy vehicles such as
Grimm. Homing missiles are color coded purple with a missile in them.
You start with one of these. They’ve been slowed down from TMHO PSP,
equal to TMB’s Homing Missile.
Power Missile (20 points of damage, uncommon, no homing ability, can be
rear-fired)
Power Missiles are exactly what they imply - powerful. However in
TMHOETE they really do feel “powerful” since they produce a knockback
that’s much more noticeable compared to TMHO PSP or even TMB – very
TM2-ish. Freeze into Machine Gun and Power Missile is one of the
easiest damaging combos you can do to an enemy, and if an enemy doesn’t
run for it or use a shield or Flak you got yourself another power
missile for up to 41+ points of damage! Power missiles are color coded
red with a missile in them. They’ve been slowed down from TMHO PSP,
equal to TMB’s Power Missile.
Napalm (20 points of damage, uncommon, no homing ability, can be rear-
fired)
Napalms have gotten an upgrade from TMHO PSP; they will always do 20
points of damage regardless of where you drop it next to an enemy.
However they can now actually hurt you if you drop them too close to
you so Napalms have to be used more carefully. The area of effect is
solely inside the target crosshair so the enemy has to be as close to
the target crosshair as possible in order for the explosion to hurt
them. Fortunately, Napalms are great for “shooting” people behind
walls; the explosion will pass through the wall and hit them if they’re
hugging the wall too much. They’re also great for shooting enemies on
roofs or some higher area, as well as below. Napalms are color coded
yellow with a can in them.
Ricochet Disc (10 points of damage in a straight on hit, 30 points on a
bank shot hit regardless of how many times the disc bounces, rare, no
homing ability, can be rear-fired)
While ricochet discs are fast (actually faster than TMHO PSP) and the
knockback is better compared to TMHO PSP there’s still very little
reason to use them, except in narrow hallways/areas. They only deal as
much damage as a homing missile and are not too powerful without a
bounce hit so you might as well fire these away when you pick them up.
Given that maps are very wide open, it’s hard to get a bank shot.
However the knockback gives you ample opportunity to shoot the enemy
with machine guns for more damage and restrict their movement so that
they’re forced to retaliate instead of getting away. It also sets up
for freeze and other weapons, which actually gives this weapon bigger
damage potential. A bank shot will have the disc colored darker orange
as well as giving an even greater knockback than a dead-on hit. There’s
only a few cases you can Ricochet someone off into a boundary but even
so, that’s very hard to achieve. Ricochet Discs are color coded
lavender with a disc in them.
Remote Bomb (25 points of damage irregardless of distance, rare, no
homing ability, already rear-fire-able)
Remote Bombs received a bit of a boost; they now do 25 points of
damage, whether you detonate the bomb and catch them in the explosion
or an enemy runs into it. They are excellent for teleport traps (i.e.
dropping a remote onto a teleport pad after getting warped over) when
interspersed with mines and a little “surprise” with a freeze missile.
Drive-by bombings are not recommended except on a slower car, and even
then they usually try to run for it before you can detonate the bomb on
them. Make sure not to be within the Remote bomb’s explosion area or
else you get hit too. If you intend to use Remote Bombs offensively,
make sure to use shields before detonating them, but if an enemy’s low
on health you can tank the hit if you have more health, if you prefer.
Remote bombs are color coded green with a dynamite in them.
Swarmer Missile (4-27 when fully charged, uncommon, great homing
ability, cannot be rear-fired)
The Swarmer Missile is essentially Roadkill’s special from TMB, only
not as powerful, but it’s still a powerful weapon on it’s own. You
charge it up with the fire button, and release after 6 missiles appear.
You only need the 6 missiles to appear for the maximum 27 points of
damage; the blinking is only a warning to let you know that you should
release the weapon before it backfires (i.e. wasted). If you’re aiming
for a single enemy, make sure to get closer to him/her since all 6
missiles don’t congregate until they’re about to hit their enemy, thus
causing some of the missiles to target another enemy. A change from
TMHO PSP is that even when charging the weapon, you can switch to
another (though there’s a second delay and if you hold down the fire
button too long you’ll fire the next weapon, possibly wasting it).
Swarmer missiles are color coded yellow with a missile pack in them.
Turbo (pickup)
Not a weapon obviously. This completely refills your turbo meter when
you deplete it. Turbos are color coded light green, so be careful when
trying to distinguish them from Remote bombs. They look like Nitro Gas
tanks.
Health (comes in two flavors; Partial and Full)
Well if you’re nearly dying, pick up some healths! Partial ones are
common and restore 30% of your health, and Full ones are rare (only 1
except in Monaco where there’s two and they appear in MOST levels save
for about two or three) but completely restore your health. Health
regeneration is faster compared to previous TMs, which if anything,
makes TMHO easy. There are no full healths in the deathmatch maps, and
there are also no full healths in even the ones that have them when
playing challenge/endurance mode. Partial ones are white with a red
cross in the center, and the full ones are simply bigger.
f. Bonus Levels
===============
I’m sure one thing you’ll definitely hate are TMHO’s bonus levels. They
are necessary to complete in order to unlock extra levels and cars,
however they can be pretty frustrating and the levels that give them
are anything but easy. This is a quick guide to the bonus levels. Bonus
levels are accessed by entering the Mini-game teleporter (the pink
ones) but some are hidden away in certain levels. After completing a
bonus level, you’ll obtain whatever weapons you picked up from the
level as well as a full health recharge. If you complete the bonus
levels that give you extra levels/cars again then you get a cheat code.
In most of the bonus levels, if you try to reverse and go back, the
game will give you a 5-second warning to turn around and keep going or
else you self-destruct automatically (it’s not really bad since the
countdown only briefly appears 2 seconds after you turn around). A
change from TMHO PSP is that the teleporter becomes darkened out and
still have the white spiral thing, but you can’t replay them. Also, the
bonus levels now play their respective map’s background music. BTW,
some minigames reward you with extra lives but I only put it down for
the ones I remember getting extra lives from.
Big Blue Stadium
Minigame: Demolition Derby
Location: Enter the room with the full health. Look to your right to
find a Swarmer Missile, shoot down the glass to reveal the teleporter
and a Homing missile.
Goal: Ram 5 taxicabs. Turbo is infinite, and Energy Attacks are usable.
Must be completed in under 3 minutes to get the bonus.
Bonus: Extra Life
Strategy: Ram the taxicabs to take them out, using turbo. The taxicabs
will try to ram you sometimes, but they also have an annoying habit of
ramming another taxicab (often the one that is your intended target).
Fortunately the Freeze Missile can be used here, and a taxicab will
stay frozen indefinitely until you ram them which is a nice thing. Try
to aim for the taxicabs’ sides rather than pursue them since they
usually turn at the last minute when you’re about to ram them. A change
from TMHO PSP is that you can actually ram the taxicabs for MORE damage
now (the most you could do to a taxicab in a high armored car was 16),
you can do 24 points with a high armored car, and with a lower armored
car you can even get 23 (I used Mr Grimm) so they go down faster this
time. It’s better to use slower/higher armored cars for this bonus
level, since taxicab rams won’t hurt you much at all.
Los Angeles Woods
Minigame: Freeway Slalom
Location: In the area with the construction workers and Mr Slamm-like
vehicles, go to the building that’s closer to the sewers and shoot down
the brown door (it’s the one that has a door on the left side of the
building) to reveal the teleporter.
Goal: Complete the obstacle course in under 2 minutes to get the bonus.
Turbo is usable but not infinite.
Bonus: Mr Slamm
Strategy: Shoot down the toxic waste cans in the beginning and keep
going. When you reach the part with the wrecking balls, just drive
carefully and stop right before they swing. After you past them, you
will drive into a traffic area. Avoid the cars (they won’t hurt you or
anything, they’ll try to get off your path) so that they don’t slow you
down.
Paris
Minigame: Chopper Shoot
Location: It might be easier if you use a Remote Bomb to blow up the
Eiffel Tower first. The Eiffel Tower drops down its top which is used
to activate the Lightning environment weapon. Just go straight from
where the Eiffel Top Lightning is and shoot down the door in front of
you to reveal the teleporter. Memorize this spot in case of future
trips.
Goal: Shoot the helicopters with Napalm. After destroying them a bridge
to the next building will form, until you reach the end. Complete in
under 2 min to get the bonus.
Bonus: Paris deathmatch level
Strategy: For the helicopters that lay low, fire a Napalm and drop it
on top of them; aim carefully too. For the helicopters that fly high
enough, try to get a direct Napalm hit so that you don’t have to drop
the napalm onto them. A change from TMHO PSP is that you can’t use the
Jump energy attack to cross the buildings. You could bypass shooting
the helicopters on the first few rooftops by jumping onto the next
building without having to cross on the bridges (although the buildings
closer to the end have wider gaps so you can’t turbo and jump to get
through). The gaps between each roof have been spread out so jumping to
get through will only result in your death.
Egypt
Minigame: Balance Beam
Location: In the area with the ENV weapon, on the side where there are
no ramps going to a higher location, there’s a small door (with a small
opening at the top) that can be shot down to reveal an ENV weapon and
the teleporter.
Goal: Finish the obstacle course. Complete under 2 minutes to get the
bonus.
Bonus: Egypt deathmatch level
Strategy: It’s better that you use a fast car for this one. Okay, start
off driving and going around the bonfires. At the end of the bonfires
are the rotating spikes, drive forward and with the spikes while
keeping a small distance between you and the spikes. Afterwards, there
are the crusher doors. Wait, and keep going. After the crusher doors,
and bonfire, more spikes (with a second one right behind the 1st).
Drive carefully again. After the spikes, you get to an area where
lightning moves from left to right. Wait for them to go to the other
end, then move forward. After the lightning, you get to an area with
the slicer blades moving left to right. They don’t swing around the
“non-mat” (i.e. the ground that looks normal along with the rest of the
course) parts of the area so get onto the non-mat area, wait, keep
going, etc. Afterwards, more spikes to deal with. Followed by that, you
get to the hammers (gosh I hate that part). They slam the non-mat areas
but NOT the mat areas. Drive carefully through, stop when necessary,
etc. After the hammers, rush forward to claim your prize.
Roman Ruins
Minigame: Top Down Driver
Location: In the middle of the area (the large circle with the ENV
weapon there), go to the second floor via the ramps and then the third
floor via the ramp leading up to it. Drive towards the temple-like area
with the poles. Afterwards you should find the teleporter at the left.
Goal: Finish the course. The catch is that you will always be
accelerating and cannot use brakes so you’ll have to look ahead in orer
to line up your jumps properly. Turbo is infinite, at least. Complete
in under 1.5 minutes to get the bonus.
Bonus: Roman Ruins deathmatch level, necessary for unlocking Tower
Tooth’s challenge in both Challenge and 2P Death Match mode.
Strategy: A change here from TMHO PSP is that there are a lot more
toxic waste barrels, but you can get rid of them all with machine guns.
I suggest you don’t use Cousin Eddy or Dark Tooth for this bonus level,
their machine guns aren’t rapid enough to shoot down the barrels.
Anyway, just shoot down all toxic waste barrels, collect weapons, and
if necessary try to avoid the ramps, but make sure to hug the left or
right to avoid the pits that follow after the ramps. When you get to
the JUMP part, you must Turbo and use the Jump command to get across,
otherwise you’ll fall short. After the entire JUMP part, watch out for
one more ramp and the finish line ahead will redeem you your prize.
Russia
Minigame: Shooting Rink
Location: Start at the area that has a Health, Turbo and Homing Missile
there. Then from there, go to the area ahead of you that has a Power
Missile. Turn left to notice a bell-like structure with a large
building behind it. Shoot down the end to reveal a tunnel going
underground, and go into it. To your left is the teleporter, and in the
tunnel there is a partial health, Ricochet and Swarmer Missiles (I
think it’s the Swarmer Missile, I’m not sure).
Goal: Survive by shooting 6 tanks while in an ice rink area (thus
there’s more traction). You can only use your machine gun, however you
can also use the Shield energy attack. When you destroy a tank, a new,
bigger, and stronger one respawns. They typically show up at a corner
and will slightly rotate to turn into your direction while constantly
shooting. Complete in under three minutes to get the bonus.
Bonus: Axel
Strategy: At the beginning with the small tank, get behind it and
shoot. Do the same for every other tank, but if you’re out of energy
just wait and keep staying behind a tank. Activate the shield
approximately 2 seconds later after destroying a tank to ensure you
don’t get cheap shotted by the next tank. This is recommended with
faster cars, but Dark Tooth is also a good candidate since his machine
gun is stronger and he has more armor than anyone else. Also I’m not
too sure if it works here, but in TMHO PSP you could actually shoot
cars going into the Underground tunnel with Dark Tooth’s machine gun
and kill them while playing this minigame.
Greece
Minigame: Jump skill
Location: In the area with the ship, go to the back (the front has a
Homing Missile and Health) and go down that roadway that enters the
ship. Go straight ahead, and turn right to find the teleporter.
Goal: Finish the course by jumping from platform to platform. Complete
in under 2.5 minutes to get the bonus.
Bonus: Greece deathmatch level
Strategy: You now actually have to use your Jump command to get you
across platforms now, compared to TMHO PSP. At the beginning, turbo and
jump, then get onto the elevator. Go up, turn left, and either turbo +
jump twice to get by or you can wait for the moving platform to get to
your side, get onto it, then get off at the other side. Go down,
navigate carefully through the moving platforms, then get off at the
other end. Take the jump and aim for the wall of that platform. Take
the next ramp, jump, turn right 90 degrees in midair then hit brake so
that you don’t fall off. Do that again for the next jump, but turn 90
degrees left. Do the same thing for the next platform. When you go
down, you have the option of taking the moving platform or using the
ramp to turbo + jump. Use whatever suits your fancy. After two of
those, take the next elevator up. Now this is the tricky part. Get onto
the moving platforms that are spinning, keep turning so that you face
the other moving platforms, get onto the next one CAREFULLY and hit
brake, then get off at the other end. Drive around, when you get to the
area with the constantly rotating platform (it’s connected to the other
end but they have edges so you can still fall off) get onto the
platform and drive deep so that you don’t get your car stuck on the
edges, and keep turning so that you can face the other end and get off
without rotating and falling off. After this part, you are finally free
to get your bonus.
Monaco
Minigame: Death Race
Location: Take the road that goes into a tunnel that has turbo, keep
going and following the road until you see a green area that has a
Remote Bomb and the teleporter.
Goal: Survive a race going in the opposite direction for two laps.
Destroy 10 racers with your Infinite Fire Missiles (they won’t home in)
for a bonus and 15 for another bonus.
Bonus: (with 10 racers) Crimson Fury, (with 15 racers) Extra Life
Strategy: You will constantly be turboing the whole way and time is not
a big factor here so you just need to watch out for the racers. Hug the
walls of the track to avoid the racers, and shoot any that are in your
path. A change from TMHO PSP is that you no longer have 3 chances to
survive the racers. Instead, during the first lap they only deal minor
damage to you but during the second lap, they will deal double the
damage (although that case was for Medium difficulty, on Hard and with
Twister, two racers killed me – maybe the difficulty and armor counts).
Therefore try your best not to get hit on the first lap so that you
reserve your beatings during the second lap. A racer that runs into you
will still be factored in towards the kill count at the top left
corner. Don’t think you can be saved with a shield as the racers will
bypass the shield and can still hurt you.
Transylvania
Minigame: Platform Puzzle
Location: It’s hard to explain. But keep circling the area outside the
castle until you see another castle to your left. Behind it is a ramp
going to the top with the teleporter and a Napalm pickup. If you want a
better explanation, go into the castle and take one of the two
elevators on the bottom floor up, then take the next elevator around
the side. Then look to your left (where the Homing Missile is), you
should spot the castle outside.
Goal: Finish the course through the moving platforms. The Jump energy
attack is enabled. Complete in under 2 minutes to get the bonus (I
forgot but I completed it in under 2 minutes so it shouldn’t be too un-
obvious).
Bonus: Transylvania deathmatch level
Strategy: Just keep getting onto the moving platforms, brake, and go to
the next one. When you get to the area that has the rotating gears
(which causes the platforms connecting the path to circle) stop, turbo
through, stop, and turbo through (there’s five). At the end you get
your bonus.
Tokyo Streets
Minigame: Subway Gauntlet
Location: Just roam the center of the street (where it’s more
straightforward) to the end that has a tower. You should spot the
teleporter with no problem.
Goal: Shoot all 6 Sweet Tooth heads with a Power Missile and collect
the stars (they only appear after destroying a Sweet Tooth head with a
Power missile, it only takes one). Touching a Sweet Tooth head will
instantly kill you. Avoid all Sweet Tooth Nitro Buggies that are
circling the subway as well (they do minor damage). The Sweet Tooth
heads will constantly fire Ricochet Discs at you, so watch out.
Destroying a Sweet Tooth head will restock your Power Missiles by 2,
and picking up a star will restore a bit of health. Machine Guns and
Energy Attacks are disabled. Complete in under two minutes to get the
bonus.
Bonus: Tokyo deathmatch level
Strategy: Stay off the path of the nitro buggies, collect the Power
Missile at the beginning, and aim carefully at the Sweet Tooth heads.
Try to avoid the Ricochet discs as much as possible, especially if they
are already bouncing around in the subway. The stars are only a few
feet away from the Sweet Tooth heads so after destroying one, turn
towards the star and keep moving. You can turn back and go after a
Sweet Tooth head if you miss one, the 5-second count shouldn’t hinder
you too much as long as you keep turning around.
Tokyo Rooftops
Minigame: Sky Track
Location: In the central roof with the Full Health inside, the
teleporter is to the left (or right in front of you based on where you
enter).
Goal: Complete the race in two laps. Finish first to get the bonus, and
4th or better to keep all weapons.
Bonus: Hammerhead
Strategy: Use a fast car, obviously, and turbo the whole way (it’s
infinite). The racers are actually competent this time compared to TMHO
PSP, and will put up a good fight in the race. The ones ahead of you
will drop mines to try to slow you down, although not as often as they
did in TMHO PSP, so try not to tail them for too long lest a mine
should steer you off track. If you bump into a racer it will slow them
down, if you keep bumping into them it will knock them back thus
letting you claim their position. Try to bump into them from the side,
and avoid touching the walls as they will slow you down.
g. Maps (Story Mode)
====================
With the addition of Transylvania you now have to go through 11 levels
instead of 10. Story mode is necessary to unlock the extra cars/levels
as well as character endings. Once story mode is completed you will be
taken back to the TMHO/TML menu screen.
Here I’ll try to detail the 11 maps as best as I can. Health locations,
teleporters (minigame teleporters not included), boundary damages,
destructible damages and specific areas of the map will be noted, and
then strategies. Changes will also be noted, although they will be
noted separately as opposed to the previous sections. Environment
weapons will only be noted for the maps that have them.
For the maps that are listed with Map # 1/2 are one of the two maps you
can choose to play in when you get that option, Map # 2/2 is the other
(just so that you don’t get confused).
Map 1 - Big Blue Stadium
------------------------
Health Locations:
Full – In the room that has the teleporter (if it’s not obvious just
use the teleporter that is in the area outside).
Partial – Underneath the stadium area where the Power Missile/ENV
weapon is.
Partial – Behind the band Level.
Teleporters:
1 – In the central area of the stadium, there’s one sitting near the
stadium seats. It leads to teleport 2, in the room with the Full Health
and weapons.
2 – In the room with the Full Health. Takes you outside to teleport 1.
Changes:
1. Disaster Proof, the song played by the band Level is not played if
you skip the cutscene of the intro to TMHO.
2. Weapon places have been changed. For example, the trench in the
middle has a Napalm instead of a Power Missile. In front of the band
Level, there’s a Power Missile instead of a Ricochet Disc and to the
right is a Napalm instead of a Remote Bomb. Other weapons/pickups seem
to be in-tact.
Environment Weapon:
Band Attack – From where the band Level is, sparks fly out and then
home in on an enemy in the Racetrack area (its range being equivalent
to that of a missile). It does 7 points of damage. Not a great ENV
weapon but at least you can “snipe” enemies out on the Racetrack.
Areas:
Racetrack – This is where all the ATV racers are; they will drive
around the whole map. You can shoot the ATV racers to get weapons. A
lot of weapons are present here but they’re pretty scattered out.
Stadium Benches – The upper part of the map, you can get here via the
ramps. The benches that are covered with a roof have a lot of weapons
so this place is good for stocking up. Underneath the benches are a
Power Missile, ENV, and 1 of 2 Partial Healths. The benches that are
not covered with a roof is where the band Level is playing. Behind them
is the 2nd partial health, and around them there is Napalm, Power
Missile, Remote Bomb, and an ENV weapon. You can still blow up the band
Level by detonating a Remote Bomb next to them (they will fly out which
looks hilarious).
Backstage Room – This is the room with the Full Health, teleporter,
Ricochet Disc, Swarmer Missile, Homing Missile, and minigame
teleporter. You can get here by Teleporter 1 in the Racetrack area or
look for a glass-like area in the corner (to the left of Level) and
shoot it down to enter it). This is probably the best room to hang out
in, since you can fire away at enemies outside, retreat via the
teleporter, and grab the full health in case you need it. It’s best
that you actually leave some damage for yourself and get the Full
Health; the AI may grab it (unintentionally).
Strategies:
Just grab all weapons from the Stadium Benches and Racetrack area, and
let it rip. There’s only three enemies in this level so taking them out
shouldn’t be too hard. If you want to play it safe, get into the
Backstage Room, drop a Remote Bomb at one of the two entrances, shoot
enemies outside with Fire/Homing Missiles, and when they come, retreat
deeper into the Backstage Room, detonate when they cross the entrance,
and freeze an enemy (if there’s one). You can do lots of damage this
way, in a short period of time, and if you’re taking too much damage
the Full Health is sitting at the corner waiting to be taken.
When there’s more than one enemy that enters the Backstage Room,
retreat via the teleporter. Some may try to take the teleporter or
leave the normal way; whatever the case is, shoot them with missiles
when they leave the Backstage Room and leave a few mines for those who
teleport. If you’re a faster car, grab all the weapons in the Racetrack
area and Stadium Benches since those are the best places to stock up.
In a bigger car, freeze any enemies in the Racetrack area and unload
everything on them. Healths are few and there’s a good chance enemies
may take them so try to leave a little bit of damage in case.
Map 2 – Los Angeles
-------------------
Health Locations:
Full – The ramp in the construction site area.
Partial – By the power plant/ENV weapon.
Partial – Underneath the road area, it’s the road area that has a
support underneath it.
Partial – From the power plant/ENV weapon area, there’s a three door
building. Shoot the brown doors to reveal the health.
Partial – Take teleport 1 to the area with the LA WOOD sign, it’s all
the way in the back.
Partial – In the sewers area (the green watery stuff), there’s a tunnel
going underground that has the health. There’s also a Fire Missile and
a Swarmer Missile.
Teleporters:
1 – Where partial health #2 is listed, go to the square-ish building
that’s closest to the road area and shoot down the brown door (there’s
only one door). Behind it is a Fire missile and the teleporter, it
takes you to the LA WOOD sign area with teleporter 2.
2 – Located in the LA WOOD sign area, returns you to Teleport 1 and the
central battleground areas.
Changes:
None
Environment Weapon:
Powerplant Lightning – Notice the Power plant area where partial health
#1 is listed? Activating the ENV will cause lightning to strike anyone
who’s on the platform. It will not hit anyone that is on the road
around the Power Plant. It hits for 11 points of damage on one enemy.
Areas:
Sewers – The green watery area surrounds the construction site area.
You’ll find some weapons here, as well as a tunnel that goes
underground for Partial Health, Swarmer and Fire missiles.
Construction site – See all those Mr Slamm-like vehicles and
construction workers? Yep, this is the construction site. On one end of
the huge road circling the map, it holds Partial Health #3, a couple of
buildings with weapons, and the minigame teleporter. On the other end,
it has a pretty wide open area and two ramps; one that has a Power
Missile and another that has the Full Health. Since the Full Health is
out in the open you should grab it when you can.
Suburban – On the other side of the sewer, there’s a lot of buildings
you can go into for weapons as well as a teleporter to the LA WOOD sign
and a partial health.
Power Plant – This is where the ENV weapon is located. There’s a
partial health and swarmer missile here, but if you blow up those box-
things it reveals a Power Missile, and 2 Fire missiles. There’s also a
ENV weapon and a Homing Missile on the road around the lightning
generator. The AI triggers the ENV here if you’re hanging around too
much.
Traffic Road – This is where the traffic is. The road is huge and
circles around the map (very remniscent of LA from TM2). The bumpy
roads are close to the Power Plant area, while everything else is
pretty flat. You can find a couple of weapons here as well as
turbos. There’s a break in the road that’s closest to the sewers which
leads to a remote bomb sitting at the edge.
LA WOODS sign – The teleporter from the Suburban area leads you to the
area with the LA WOODS sign. You can blow up the sign by shooting the
black structure thing that connects them, which allows a lot more room
for combat but less cover. There’s a partial health here as well as a
couple of weapons; it’s pretty wide.
Strategies:
The easiest way to deal with this level is to take the teleport in the
Suburban area to the LA WOODS sign area, drop Remote/Mines onto the
teleporter after, then back up and freeze any enemy coming in. This
deals a lot of damage to them in a short time and is safe, since only
one enemy can come in at a time. Run away while shooting missiles at
them to take them out quickly.
The best place to stock up would be the Suburban area with the
buildings and roofs (that you can use to snipe enemies with). Blow up
the doors to get lots of decent weapons. The Construction site area is
the best area for Homing Missiles, and you can pick up Swarmer Missiles
and Power Missiles in the Sewers area.
The ENV weapon can be pretty effective when there’s multiple enemies.
Just lure them onto the Power Plant area, use the ENV weapon (there’s
one around the road) when multiple enemies congregate onto the
platform, and pick them apart while they’re hanging helpless. Even
better, the AI uses the ENV here and if you can get the AI on, they’ll
be sitting ducks for Homing Missiles and the like. The Power
Plant area is also a good place to stock up on weapons; there’s an ENV,
Homing Missile, two Fire Missiles, Swarmer Missile and a Power Missile
along with a health.
While you can use the Traffic Roads to your advantage, it’s very hard
to fight here since missiles will most likely hit the Traffic cars
instead of your enemies. Either stay at the roads near the Construction
site or Suburban area so that you can drop off and get away when
necessary.
After killing all 5 cars in this map you should have all of your
upgrades if you didn’t die yet.
Map 3 1/2 – Paris
=================
Health Locations:
Full – Underneath the bridge that crosses to the Eiffel Tower.
Partial – In the museum on the side that does not have the Eiffel
Tower. Blow up the door in the middle to get it. There’s also a Power
Missile here.
Partial – Once the Eiffel Tower is blown up, in the area where Partial
Health #1 is, there should be a ramp going up and around the roofs,
there’s another ramp that has a Partial Health floating in the air.
Partial – On the other side of the Eiffel Tower, there’s one sitting
right out in the open.
Partial – After the Eiffel Tower is blown up, there’s another one
sitting on the roofs (take the ramp going down to the left side).
Teleporters:
1 – Right underneath the Eiffel Tower. Takes you to the top of the
Eiffel Tower.
2 – At the top of the Eiffel Tower, takes you back down.
Changes
None
Environment Weapon:
Eiffel Top Lightning – After the Eiffel Tower is blown up the top will
fall down in the middle of the other side near two ramps. It effects
everyone that’s within the green-ish area, close to the ramps formed by
the Eiffel Tower, and extends a bit outward to the streets in the Park.
It hits for 10 points of damage on one enemy.
Destructible Damage:
If you blow up the Eiffel Tower and land on the spot a little away from
the Power Missile in the Park area, it will damage you.
Areas:
Museum Side – This side does not have the Eiffel Tower in it. There’s a
pool area in the center with a Swarmer Missile and Turbo, a museum you
can access by blowing up the doors in the middle (you can torch the
paintings with Napalm), and eventually after the Eiffel Tower is blown
up, you can access the roof of the Museum to get a Napalm, Swarmer
Missile, and Partial Health. The roof is also a good sniping spot; the
ramps can be used to protect you from homing weapons. A few weapons are
on each side of the pool. Above the Museum is some sort of skate-ish
area.
Waterfront – This is the area underneath the bridge that leads to the
Eiffel Tower. There’s a Full Health, Napalm, and Turbo down here. Get
under the bridge to avoid getting shot when trying to get to the other
side with the Eiffel Tower.
Eiffel Tower – Anyone who played TM2 will definitely feel reminiscences
of Paris from TM2 with this lovely tower, which can be blown up. Use a
remote at the top; drop one onto teleporter 2 and hug the sides of the
Eiffel Tower so that unsuspecting victims will taste a nice little
surprise. Blowing up the Tower does lots of things. One, it lets you
access the roofs of the Museum area, two, it lets you access the roofs
of the buildings in the City area (that loops around from the Eiffel
Tower, to the ground next to the building with the minigame teleporter,
and back to the Eiffel Tower), and three, the top can be used to
trigger the ENV weapon for this map. I definitely recommend doing this
early on, because the roofs in the City area is packed with weapons and
you can snipe at enemies below with missiles. If you can’t reach them,
Jump (L1+R1 if you forgot) and fire. There’s also a partial health
here, which is probably the safest one to get overall since you can’t
get shot with anything except Napalms.
City – Sounds a bit boring for an area, but eh I couldn’t think of
anything better. This area extends from the Eiffel Tower all the way to
the back with buildings. It’s also heavy with traffic (they loop in a
square), which is good in case you need cover from heavy fire. There
are a couple of weapons here.
Park – This is the center of the City/Eiffel Tower areas. It’s very
wide open and good for combat. In a straight line, there’s a Swarmer
Missile, Power Missile, Partial health, and a Remote Bomb. Once you
blown up the Eiffel Tower, the Eiffel Top will land here so you’ll have
to be extra careful, especially if getting the Partial health.
Strategies:
Your first priority should be blowing up the Eiffel Tower. There’s a
Remote Bomb and Homing Missile at the top when you take the teleport.
Plant one near the teleporter, wait for someone to come up, and then
detonate. Now you have access to the roofs of the buildings in the City
and the Museum. If you go down the right side you’ll pick up plenty of
missiles; on the left there’s a Partial Health. It might be better that
you go down the left so that your enemy doesn’t get the Partial
Health. You can take shots at anyone going down from the Eiffel Tower
via Jump + missiles. When they reach the roof, freeze and pummel them
with Power Missiles/Specials/etc., then get away. The building with the
minigame teleporter is a safe area to retreat to since enemies rarely
occupy the area there. You can also jump above it from the roofs and
snipe enemies with missiles.
While the Museum area has a nice sniping spot and two healths (only if
you blown up the Eiffel Tower), there’s not much weapons compared to
the City area. However there is a Full Health nearby in the Waterfront
area and the bridge is a nice cover from enemy fire.
The AI typically wages war in the Park area or the pool in the Museum;
they usually don’t fire too much when roaming the roofs of the
buildings/museum. That opens up a nice opportunity to use the ENV
weapon and hit several enemies at once when too much gather around.
Leave mines/remotes when using the ramps instead of the Eiffel Tower to
get to the roofs, and shoot the enemies from above to take them out
easily.
Map 3 2/2 – Egypt
=================
Health Locations:
Full – Shoot the butt of the Sphinx. Go down and the Full Health is at
the middle of an intersection. If an AI goes down here, they may pick
up the Full health.
Partial – There’s one above the ENV weapon area, with ramps leading to
it. The AI tends to activate the ENV weapon only after you crossed the
jump so it’s safe to get.
Partial – Shoot one of the four entrances of the main pyramid (the
darker parts of the wall) to get this. It sits in the middle.
Partial – On an island near the Pyramid C (the one in the corner). An
AI will likely pick this health up.
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – In Pyramid A, the one with partial health. Takes you to
Pyramid B.
Teleporter 2 – In Pyramid B, the pyramid on the side and a little
further away from the Partial Health. Takes you to Pyramid C.
Teleporter 3 – In Pyramid C, the one in the corner and closest to the
Partial Health. Takes you to Pyramid A.
Environment Weapon:
Tornado – In the area with Partial Health 1, there’s a huge gap and two
ramps in the side. Activating the environment weapon will cause a
tornado to form and swirl around, becoming bigger until it reaches the
top (where it can affect anyone on the ramps). It hits for 10 points of
damage, and at the end it will throw away any cars in the tornado. The
helpless cars can be pummeled with weapons of your choice. It affects
anyone closest to the center of the gap, and eventually reaches
outwards to the end of the slope in the gap when the tornado grows.
Changes:
1. Already noted the music change.
Areas:
Burial Grounds – This is the area with the ENV weapon (if you don’t
know it’s the large pit in the middle). On the sides, there are four
ramps going up to the top that you can use to shoot at anyone below.
You can also get behind the ramps on the ground for cover. Behind the
ramp with the Partial Health is the room with the minigame teleporter
and ENV weapon pickup. To the left of the ENV weapon pit is a trench
with a ramp leading to a Power Missile.
Pyramid A – The only pyramid that has all four sides to it in tact.
There’s a few weapons hanging in mid-air at the sides of the pyramid as
well as some giant poles. You can enter the pyramid by shooting the
darker areas of the wall; there are four entrances in all. Inside the
pyramid is a partial health, and Teleporter 1. The entrance closest to
the Nile River area has a Sphinx with its rear end towards the pyramid,
which can be blown up to reveal one of three entrances to the
Underground area.
Nile River – This area contains an island with a Partial Health.
Pyramid B is to the side, and Pyramid C is to the corner straight from
the Partial health (shoot down the spots outlined in black to enter
them). You can use the statues on either side (the ones when you pass
the Sphinx) as cover, but they can be blown up.
Pyramid B – The Pyramid on the side, it has teleporter 2 as well as the
second of three entrances to the Underground area. There’s a Ricochet
Disc and Remote Bomb in this pyramid.
Pyramid C – The Pyramid straight ahead from the Partial health on the
island, it contains a Fire Missile, Napalm, teleporter 3 and the third
entrance to the Underground area.
Underground – The Underground area can be accessed from the Sphinx,
Pyramid B and Pyramid C. Here you’ll find a few weapons (from the
Sphinx, you get a Swarmer Missile, from Pyramid B you’ll find a Napalm,
and Pyramid C a Ricochet Disc. In the center of the Underground is the
Full Health. Enemies who are in the Underground may take the Full
Health.
Strategies:
Weapons are scattered pretty well in this map so there’s no convenient
place to stock up. I tend to hang around Pyramid A since there are
quite a bit of weapons including Homing, Power and Swarmer missiles.
Also when you need health you can blow an entrance up as well as escape
via Teleporter 1.
With the abundance of teleporters in this map, teleport traps are the
best way to safely take out enemies without taking too much damage.
Since you warp to Pyramid B, you can use the Remote Bomb there. There’s
also a Ricochet Disc which is useful in case you should enter the
Underground area, though in Pyramid B (as well as C) there’s plenty of
room to pick apart your enemies one by one when they invade the
Pyramids.
Out in the open, there’s plenty of room to shoot enemies with missiles,
as well as freeze combos. You should fight by Pyramid A or the Sphinx
so that you’re less open to enemy fire and you’ll have no problem
escaping.
The Burial Grounds area only has one good place to go, and that is at
the top. You can shoot enemies down below with missiles, as well as
freeze any that reach the top since this area is flat and straight. You
can also try leaving Remotes/Mines at the entrance to the minigame
teleporter and then take on any enemy that comes in, although this area
is pretty small so there’s a lot more risk involved.
Watch out as the AI can take at least two of the healths in this map so
beware.
Map 4 – LA – Cousin Eddy
========================
Health Locations:
Full – Take the ruined street to the broken roads (where the Remote
bomb used to be in LA Woods)
Partial – At the corner of the sewers.
Partial – In the middle of the sewers (the one closest to the weapons
on the platform next to it).
Partial – At the side of the sewers that has the remote bomb, go to the
first ruined building that has a small entrance to get this.
Teleporters:
None
Changes:
1. Cousin Eddy (after the ATV part) no longer says “EEEEEEEEEEE! Come
on boys, let’s get him!” for some odd reason.
2. The music now only plays the Main Menu music from TMHO PSP. It will
not play the “Fight to survive” music, which LA has.
3. The ruined buildings have more walls between them now. Specifically,
the ruined building that holds the Partial Health now has a small
entrance. Whereas in TMHO PSP getting to the Partial Health was pretty
easy since there was a bigger opening.
4. The hillbillies now have more health and thus require more hits to
kill (i.e. the top hillbilly has about 40 points of health as opposed
to 20 in TMHO PSP).
Areas:
Ruined Construction Site – This is the only area you can access, every
other area from LA Woods is blocked off. There are no construction
workers or Mr Slamm-like vehicles, just you and the boss. It’s
surrounded by the sewers.
Strategy:
The ATV part is relatively easy. Each ATV only has a health meter of 50
points so it takes only five homing missiles to kill them. At the
beginning they will always charge at you, so fire homing missiles and
some machine gun fire. If you’re in need of Homing Missiles, there’s
one at the corner from the broken roads, and one underneath the broken
roads. Grab the Napalm at the sewers as well as the one at the side
closest to the Partial Health and other weapons. Once all 5 ATVs are
destroyed, Cousin Eddy fights you.
Initially, Cousin Eddy starts with 6 hillbillies. They will fire at you
constantly (the sides of the left, right and back fire bullets at you
while the top fires a flamethrower), while Cousin Eddy shoots his
machine gun (which fires white missiles that home in on you) and
occasionally freezes you. Take out the top hillbilly first by freezing
Cousin Eddy, and using a Napalm. Even with Napalms at 20 points of
damage, it still takes two Napalms to destroy the top hillbilly. To
destroy the side ones, freeze Cousin Eddy then use your machine gun and
Power Missile. Since Cousin Eddy is not taking damage at this point,
the ice won’t thaw. Two Power Missiles plus several rounds of Machine
Gun fire (hopefully upgraded) will kill the hillbillies on the sides
and back. If you’re low on health, run around the sewers picking up the
healths, and turbo all the way through. Cousin Eddy will not pursue you
on the sewers; instead he’ll just hang around on the Construction Site
and will try get to you by cutting you off (but it takes a while for
him to do that). After all hillbillies are destroyed you can finally
take down Cousin Eddy.
Cousin Eddy now resorts to a ramming special that will fling you into
the air really high, but he is not terribly accurate. He will of
course, continue firing his machine gun and the occasional freeze, but
they’re only dangerous when he’s facing you. If you get to his sides or
back, you’ll be much safer especially with a low armored car. Since
Cousin Eddy is a big target, and his health bar is rather low, employ
Power Missiles and Machine Guns on him to deplete his health. He should
go down quickly. Freeze him if he’s not staying still and give him the
beating he deserves.
I suggest that you stock up on as much weapons as possible,
particularly Homing Missiles and Swarmer Missiles so that the next
level is easier.
After you beat Cousin Eddy, the map LA – Cousin Eddy is unlocked, as
well as ATV and Cousin Eddy as playable characters.
Map 5 – Roman Ruins
===================
Health Locations:
Full – Take teleporter 1 in the Agricultural Fields area. The Full
Health is behind one of the poles.
Partial – It is to the left of the Homing Missile in the Agricultural
Fields area (or right if you took Teleporter 1 and then Teleporter 2
back to the Agricultural Fields area).
Partial – There’s one above the bonfire ENV weapon. Use the middle ramp
to get it.
Partial – Take Teleporter 3 to the highest tier of the Coliseum area.
Go ahead a bit and below to your right, the health is there.
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – In the Agricultural Fields area, it’s next to a Fire
Missile. Goes into the Sacred Ruins area.
Teleporter 2 – In the Sacred Ruins area, takes you back to the
Agricultural Fields area.
Teleporter 3 – In the Temple Ruins area, takes you to the highest tier
of the Central Ruins area.
Teleporter 4 – In the Coliseum – Fourth Tier area, takes you back down
to the Temple Ruins area.
Environment Weapon
Fireball – In the Central Ruins area, there’s a bonfire in the middle
of the ramps with the Partial Health. It shoots a fireball out of it at
an enemy for 5 points of damage. A hit is only guaranteed if an enemy
is near it; the range is long, equivalent to any missile.
Changes:
1. It looks better (graphically).
Areas:
Agricultural Fields – This side has a lot of trees at the side, plus a
Partial Health at the left. In the middle is a green-ish area that has
a Homing Missile and Remote Bomb, and ahead is a Fire Missile and
Teleporter 1.
Sacred Ruins – Accessed by taking Teleporter 1. Here, there are four
pole-type objects you can use as cover, as well as a Full Health. There
are two exits. One takes you back to the Agricultural Fields area, the
other takes you to the Temple Ruins area. If you turn around after
leaving both exits, you enter the Coliseum area.
Coliseum – This is the main area of the map, a large circle. It has
several tiers. The bottom tier has three ramps, one leading to a Power
Missile, the middle one leading to a Health (it also has the bonfire
ENV weapon), and the third with a Swarmer Missile. If you take the
ramps going up, you enter the second tier, and there’s another ramp
going to the third tier that’s completely flat and circles around the
area. The third tier has a side covered by a temple which leads to the
minigame teleporter on the right as well as a Fire Missile and a
Swarmer Missile on the left. Jumping off the edge from the minigame
teleporter takes you to the Temple Ruins and jumping off the edge from
the Swarmer Missile takes you to the Agricultural Fields area. Both are
good sniping points for the respective areas mentioned. The fourth and
final tier can only be accessed by taking Teleporter 3 in the Temple
Ruins area. The fourth tier contains a Partial Health as well as a nice
sniping spot, and you can jump off to any of the three main areas at
once.
Temple Ruins – On the other side of Coliseum is the Temple Ruins. All
three standard missiles are here as well as a Ricochet Disc and
teleporter 3. The ruined temples can be used for cover.
Strategies:
The teleport traps (drop Remote/Mine after teleport, freeze and power
missile enemy) is very effective. Another effective tactic is to fire
Homing Missiles from the third tier down on enemies in the Central
Ruins. They rarely, if ever, try to get up and come after you. Only
Homing Missiles will hit you on the third tier; fortunately the healths
aren’t too hard to get and you can use the jumps to the Agricultural
Fields/Temple Ruins to get away from the opposition without having to
expose yourself. You shouldn’t have too much of a problem destroying
your enemies with ease.
Map 6 1/2 – Russia
==================
Health Locations:
Full – Take the hill ramp in the area with the ENV weapon to the long
bridge and go to your left. The Full Health should be there.
Partial – By the ENV weapon.
Partial – From the ENV weapon, shoot the door in the middle to reveal a
room with a ENV weapon pickup and the Partial Health.
Partial – Shoot the bell structure in the Soviet Union area, and go
into the underground area to find it, as well as the minigame
teleporter.
Partial – In the area of the ENV weapon, there’s a building and stairs
on the right side. The health sits at the top of the stairs.
Partial – There’s one out in the open next to a turbo and homing
missile.
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – Where the Full Health is (mentioned above). Takes you to
an area with Teleporter 2 and a Napalm. To get out this area without
using Teleporter 2, shoot the wall that has a two-door like structure
and shoot the other wall ahead to reach the Soviet Union area.
Teleporter 2 – In the confined area with the Napalm. Without using
Teleporter 1, go to the Soviet Union area. From the Partial
Health/Homing Missile/Turbo, look for a two-door structure on the
building to the left. Blow up the following door at the end of the
hallway and you’ll access the teleporter to the bridge with the full
health.
Teleporter 3 – In the area with the ENV weapon, shoot the two-door
structure of the building to the left. The teleport is to the right.
Takes you to the third tier of the Abandoned Building.
Teleporter 4 – Located on the third tier of the Abandoned Building.
Takes you back to tier 1.
Environment Weapon
Nuke Shockwave – Notice the huge missile pointing up with the Power
Missile and Health to the side of it? This is the ENV weapon.
Activating the ENV weapon causes the missile to quickly explode causing
a huge explosion. It does 10 points of damage on one enemy. It has a
wide circular area of effect, extending from the circle on the ground
(highlighted with spotlights) to the hills of the Bridge.
Changes
1. There is now a new building in front of the bell structure in the
Soviet Union area. I don’t understand the purpose of this included
building, it can’t be blown up and you can’t enter it.
2. The ends of the bridge with the Power Missile and Homing Missile
seem to have extended so there’s more room to move around when you get
to those ends of the bridge.
3. In the Abandoned Building area, the third tier now has a few areas
darkened out.
Areas:
Soviet Union – Russia is split up into two main areas; this is one of
them. The Soviet Union area is the one with the multiple buildings. In
the area with the Partial Health and Homing Missile, shoot down the
double-doors to reveal a room with a Ricochet Disc and two stairs that
give a Swarmer Missile and Remote Bomb. Shoot the wall at both ends to
leave, as well as make a good sniping spot. Use the hill next to the
newly included building (mentioned above to jump into the building.
Shoot down all the light colored/rectangle-outlined walls to reveal
secret paths. The right has a Napalm, the left has a Power Missile. To
the left from the Partial Health/Homing Missile area, shoot the double-
doors of the leftmost building and then the wall ahead to get to
Teleporter 2. To the right from the Partial Health/Homing Missile, is a
bell structure. Shoot the structure to open up the Underground entrance
(which is very similar to Amazonia from TM2). The right has a snowy
area that has a few weapons.
Nuclear Site – This is the area with the ENV weapon. From the ENV
weapon, shoot the double doors to reveal an ENV and Partial Health
pickup. In this area, there are four missile launchers. Shoot the
control panels attached to them to release the missiles, which will
shoot down the roof structures on top of the only building in this
place. The square-ish building closest to the ENV weapon has a dark
wall that can be shot down to access the Underground area that can get
you to the Soviet Union area. The only building in this area has stairs
leading to a Partial Health; to the left is a circular room that you
can drop into. There’s a Ricochet Disc in this place. Shoot the double-
doors to get out; there are four.
Abandoned Building – In the Nuclear Site area, shoot the double-doors
from both sides to get into the Abandoned Building. You are currently
at the 1st tier; Teleporter 3 is at the bottom as well as a Ricochet
Disc and Fire Missile. There is a staircase leading to the second tier,
which has a Homing Missile and Napalm. Shoot the double-doors to open
up nice sniping spots from the second tier. The third tier is accessed
via Teleporter 3. Up here, you can get a Swarmer Missile at the end. If
you destroyed the missile control panels as mentioned above, you can
get onto the bridge.
Bridge – This is the center of the map. It has Teleporter 1 with Full
Health next to it. At one end, you can pick up a Homing Missile, at the
other, a Power Missile. When you destroyed the missile control panels,
the roof structures from the building in the Nuclear Site will connect
to the roof with a Power Missile and an entrance into the third tier of
the Abandoned Building (closest to Teleporter 4) and to the building
with the aforementioned roof structures that leads to the other end of
the Abandoned Building. You can snipe at enemies from anywhere on the
bridge.
Rooftops – You can access the Rooftops of the buildings in the Soviet
Union area from the Bridge. Here, you can shoot at enemies below, or
drop into the pit (of the triangle shaped building) with Teleporter 2
as well as a quick escape into the Soviet Union area. You can jump onto
the other building (the one with multiple destroy-able entrances) as
well and escape into the pits within the building to avoid enemy fire.
Underground – When you shoot the bell structure in the Soviet Union
area or the black wall of the building (the side with those weird red
letters on it) you can access the Underground area to go to the other
area. A Partial Health, Swarmer Missile, Ricochet Disc, and minigame
teleporter is here.
Strategies:
The best way to take out enemies is to access the Abandoned Building,
take Teleporter 3, then drop Remote/Mine and back up into the narrow
hallways on the left/right. Once an enemy warps up, freeze them and do
as you will. They can’t hit you if you’re hiding behind the wall, so
it’s pretty safe. If any enemies enter the first tier of the Abandoned
Building, you can shoot at them with Homing Missiles in the second tier
(beware of Napalms and Homing Missiles) or the third tier (safer
overall). The second tier also gives you a nice sniping spot for anyone
in the Nuclear Site area as well as a view of the ENV weapon (in case
you have any). The first tier, while not as safe, is flatter and
completely covered so you can duke it down here in case of 1v1 battles.
The Underground area (if you ever want to access it) is great to unload
Ricochets in, especially since the hallway going down and up is narrow
thus increasing the chances of a Bank Shot. If you haven’t shot down
the missile control panels, you’re pretty safe in the third tier since
the only way up for the AI is Teleporter 3. If you’re in need of
weapons though, shooting the missile control panels lets you access the
Bridge for a Homing and two Power Missile pickups, and Full Health.
Again, the Abandoned Building is probably the best place to hang by
since you can shoot at enemies below and hammer on them once they come
up.
Map 6 2/2 – Greece
==================
Health Locations:
Full – Enter the Hub area of the ship from the back (it has a roadway
going down into it). Keep going and in the first opening you see the
Full Health is there.
Partial – In the Greek City area. It’s all the way at the top.
Partial – It sits at the front of the boat (parallel to a Homing
Missile).
Partial – In front of the ENV weapon. Take Teleporter 1 (mentioned
below to get there), or use the bridge of the left side of the ship
(specifically from the Partial Health) to get there.
Partial – From the ship side (the side with the Partial Health),
there’s a long narrow white bridge with a Partial Health on it.
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – In the Temple area. From the side of the ship that has
the Partial Health, go up and turn left. Look for a area that has
several poles and a Homing Missile, the Teleporter is there.
Teleporter 2 – It’s closest to the Zeus statue. Takes you to Teleporter
1 in the Temple area from the side of the ship with the Partial Health.
Boundary:
The Boundary is primarily the water around the Docked Ship and the
outsides of the Greek City and Sacred Temples.
Environment Weapon:
Zeus Thunder – Notice the huge statue behind Partial Health #3 as well
as Teleporter 2? This is the ENV weapon. It functions similarly to
every other lightning ENV weapon. It hits for 11 points of damage on
one car, and the AI uses it quite a bit so be sure to use shields if
you’re grabbing the health. It extends from the statue to the entire
opening (i.e. the area in front of the Zeus Statue) and has a pretty
long range, but it will never catch you if you’re circling behind the
walls in the Zeus Almighty area.
Changes:
None
Areas:
Docked Ship – The main area of the map, it connects both of the other
areas in this map. The Docked Ship has three areas in it. The Central
Deck is the main area. At the front of the Central Deck is a Homing
Missile and Partial Health, on the other side it has a roadway going
down into the Hub. The next area is the Hull; this is accessed by going
to the back and entering the roadway into the Hull. Here is a Power
Missile, a Full Health in the middle, and a Ricochet Disc as well as
the minigame teleporter. You can take one of the two elevators on the
left and right, which will take you back to the front of the Docked
Ship. The third area is the Top Deck; this is accessed by taking one of
two ramps to the top. The ramp by the front (with the Homing Missile
and Partial Health) takes you to a Napalm pickup. On the other end is
an ENV weapon, and turbo on the right. If you turbo and jump off of the
ramps to the Top Deck, you can access the highest point of the Docked
Ship as well as the map. Here, you can snipe enemies from below; they
can’t hit you with anything except for Napalms and Homing Missiles, so
this is a safe area to retreat to when you’re waiting for health to
recharge. However, if you’re in a slower car it’s harder to reach this
place, so if you miss you’ll be a sitting duck for the enemy.
Greenery Plains – This is the largest area of the map. It extends from
the Greek City area all the way to the Bridge and to the Sacred Temples
area. To your left of the Greek City area is a temple, which I have no
idea what it’s used for but I guess you can use it as cover. There are
a couple of weapons here. It’s also the best combat area for this map;
it’s not flat but it gives you the most room.
Greek City – To the right of the Docked Ship (specifically the side
with the Homing Missile) is a Temple-ish area that has a bridge
connecting to the Zeus Almighty area with the ENV weapon. Ahead is a
city-like area with multiple entrances into it. The side entrances take
you to the main road; the back entrance will always put you to the
second tier of the main road. It slopes up until you reach the highest
point of this area with the Partial Health. Here you can shoot at
anyone coming up as well as within the Greenery Plains. To the left of
the Greek City is a huge rectangle-ish structure, from which you can go
behind to conceal yourself from the enemy. You can jump onto of the
houses, but make sure not to fall out of bounds. A neat trick can be
used here which will be covered in the strategy section.
Stone Bridge – To the left of the Docked Ship (specifically the side
with the Partial Health) there’s a hill-like ramp that connects to the
Bridge. Here you’ll find another Partial Health and Napalm. You can
shoot at anyone in the Greenery Plains area from both sides, but you’re
an open target to homing weapons and Napalms. You should only go here
if you need the Partial Health; it’s pretty short, thin and the area is
pretty restricted to fight on. You can lay some mines or a Remote Bomb,
but that’s about it.
Sacred Temple – This is to the left of the Bridge described above.
Here, a bridge connected to a Temple with a Ricochet Disc and Homing
Missile as well as Teleporter 1. If you keep taking the bridge, you’ll
take a ramp into a Swarmer Missile in the air and land back onto the
front of the Docked Ship. You can circle around the walls to your right
when you’re just about to enter the Sacred Temple; you have pretty good
cover and will only get hit by Napalms, and specials from Shadow,
Spectre, Outlaw and Twister (whose specials pass through walls).
Zeus Almighty – This is the place of the Zeus statue which is the ENV
weapon for this map. Teleporter 2, a Partial Health, Fire and Homing
Missile are here. You can access this area by taking the bridge from
the Temple on the right of the Docked Ship (see above if you’re
confused), taking Teleporter 1, or turbo jumping from the Docked Ship
(the side with the Homing Missile) onto it (preferably with the Jump
upgrade). The AI will assuredly use the ENV weapon when you get too
close to the Partial Health and the range is pretty long so use your
Shield if necessary. If you get the reference of this area, I’ll give
you a cookie.
Strategy:
There’s a pretty neat trick you can use for this map. Go to the Greek
City area, and head down the small slope into a shallow shore area.
Wait for enemies to come, then shoot them and retreat back into the
shallow pond. The AI will NEVER enter this part of the map so you can
be assured that you won’t take damage. If you go up (but not too far up
that you go out of bounds) and stay there, you’re safe because no enemy
can shoot at you and they won’t come after you. This is the first
safespot of the map.
The second safespot is at the very top of the Top Deck in the Docked
Ship area. Turbo and jump to get there (easier if you’re in a faster
car). From here, you can shoot at enemies below, and the most they can
do to you is shoot you with a Napalm or Homing Missile. The enemies
will never chase you up into this area (I’ve only seen one get close),
so this is another safe place to retreat to. Homing and Swarmer
Missiles are the best bet when you’re up here, but you can also drop
Napalms on them when the AI ventures around the sides.
I mostly collect weapons in the Greenery Plains area, return to the
Docked Ship and fight there. The Docked Ship provides a flat surface
and serves as an excellent combat ground. When too many enemies gather,
retreat to the Top Deck and shoot them, then when they come up, jump
down and speed off.
With the exception of the Partial Health in the front of the Docked
Ship, and perhaps the one at the top of the Greek City area, every
other health is well-placed for the taking when you’re in desperate
need of them.
Map 7 – Monaco
==============
Health Locations:
Full – Blow up the building next to the minigame teleporter on the
Sidetrack area with a Remote Bomb. At the top of the Rooftops, jump to
the other building with the Full Health.
Full – In the middle of the tunnel in the Speedway from the Resorts
area. Turn left after going up the road from the Swarmer Missile into
the tunnel, or you can take Teleporter 2 from the Casino to get this.
Partial – In the Resorts area, it’s floating on top of three ramps
leading into each other. Drive into it, but don’t turbo unless you’re a
slower car.
Partial – If you keep following the Speedway from the Resorts area
(specifically starting from the Swarmer Missile on the track) and turn
right, it’s on a ledge behind the pole-building-ish structure. This
ledge also allows you to shoot anyone on the Speedway as well as in the
Resorts area.
Partial – Take Teleporter 3 (listed below), then turn around to find it
sitting on a bridge-ledge.
Partial – In the Casino area. Either take Teleporter 1 (in the Full
Health tunnel) or follow the Speedway up until you reach a circle-like
road; to your right is the Casino with the Partial Health. It also has
a Swarmer Missile.
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – In the Full Health tunnel. Takes you to the Casino.
Teleporter 2 – In the Casino. Takes you to the Full Health tunnel.
Teleporter 3 – In the Resorts area, there’s a bridge that leads to a
docking bay with ships. The teleporter is there, as well as a Homing
Missile and Remote Bomb on each side of the bridge. Takes you to the
Rooftops (the one with the Partial Health).
Teleporter 4 – From the Rooftops (with the Partial Health), takes you
back down to the docking bay in the Resorts area.
Boundary:
The Boundary is mostly the water in the Resorts area.
Destructible Damage:
If you’re right behind the building when you blow it up via Remote
Bomb, it will damage you.
Changes:
1. The tunnel with the Full Health is darker now (minor graphical
change).
Areas:
Speedway – The main area of the map. It loops from the Resorts to the
Circular Speedway (the circular part of the track next to the Casino),
all the way around from the Sidetrack back to the Resorts. The Casino
next to the Circular Speedway has a Swarmer Missile, Partial Health,
and Teleporter 2. The racers on the track can be blown up for weapons.
Resorts – The largest area of the map. This area consists of a Beach at
one end (with a roadway going to it that has a Power Missile), the
Spectator’s Benches which has a Partial health and weapons around it, a
docking bay to Teleporter 3 and a Homing Missile and Remote Bomb on
each side. There are two roads; the bottom takes you to a tunnel with
Turbo, and the top leads you to the Circular Speedway as well as the
Full Health tunnel. There’s a ramp to the left of the Spectator’s
Benches (straight from the structure that has a Power Missile). Use the
ramp to shoot open a light outlined spot in the wall to get a Napalm.
You can also jump to the top of the building to your left (it’s the
flat roof).
Sidetrack – The lower road of the Speedway (the one with the racers
accelerating forward) loops up in an S shaped pattern that leads you to
a green-ish area with the minigame teleporter, and a Remote Bomb in a
corner (not the area with a Power Missile and Swarmer Missile at the
ledge). Grab the Remote Bomb and detonate it next to the building to
blow it up, which leads you to the Rooftops. The first building in the
Rooftop has a Swarmer Missile, and the other building has Full Health
and a Power Missile. You can go jump to the other buildings in the
Rooftops, or you can fall back down into the Speedway.
Rooftops – There are five buildings you can go to in the Rooftops area.
Building 1 can be accessed with Teleporter 3. This is the largest
building; it has two missiles (Homing and Power), a Napalm and a
Partial Health. The ledge with the Partial Health can be used to snipe
at anyone in the Resorts. The Building 2 can be accessed by jumping
from this building onto the one with a flat roof and Homing Missile.
Building 3 can be accessed by jumping from Building 1 onto the building
with a green roof. Here, you can jump around the sides for safespots;
the AI will never jump into there, though they will jump to the part of
the roof with less cover. The fourth and fifth buildings are accessed
by blowing up the building in the Sidetrack area (mentioned above. From
here you can jump to the other buildings in the Rooftops.
Strategy:
The Rooftop area is the best way to dominate in this map. Use
Teleporter 3 in the Resorts, drop mines/Remotes, freeze enemies that
pop up, shoot them, etc. You can stock up on a lot of Power Missiles in
the Resorts, Homing Missiles in the Rooftops, and shoot racers to get
weapons. Because there are so many healths in this level (two full ones
too) you should rarely die; you should also be well-stocked on weapons.
Map 8 – Transylvania Castle
===========================
Health Locations:
Partial – In the center of the Castle between two ramps.
Partial – At the side of the Mini-Castle that has the minigame
teleporter.
Partial – In the Haunted Site to the left of the building with
Teleporter 1 on it in the corner.
Partial – At the sides around the Castle (will come back and specify
location).
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – Take one of two exits from the Twilight Condemned area
outside of the Castle to the Spooky Woods which then takes you to the
Haunted Site that has a building with a teleporter in it. It takes you
to the fifth/highest floor of the Castle.
Teleporter 2 – At the fifth/highest floor of the Castle. Takes you back
down to the Haunted Site.
Boundary:
The Boundary is anywhere into the trees outside of the Castle, as well
as falling off the bridges looping around from the Twilight Condemned
area to the Spooky Woods and Haunted Site (you have to be stupid enough
to fall off since there are low walls).
Areas:
Castle – The main area of this map, it’s humongous and consists of
several floors as well as exits and entrances into and out of the
Castle. The first floor is the one with the multiple exits/entrances;
there’s a couple of weapons including a Swarmer Missile, Ricochet Disc,
Power Missile, and Homing Missile and two ramps with a Partial Health
in between them (on the ground). There’s an entrance with a Horizontal
Crusher that will instantly kill anyone caught in it; there’s a Remote
Bomb pickup in the center. The other entrance (without ramps) is a long
hallway out to the Twilight Condemned area. The ramps on either end
takes you to the second floor of the Castle; it consists of a narrow
hallway looping around, which is perfect for using Ricochet Discs in.
On the second floor, you can take the exits up to the third floor where
you can shoot at enemies in the Twilight Condemned area (if they’re
nearby of course). The fourth floor is accessed by taking one of the
two elevators on the first floor. It consists of several hallways and
ledges around the Castle; there’s a weapon on each corner. In the
middle is an elevator that takes you to the fifth and highest floor of
the Castle. Make sure not to dangle on the edges of the elevators when
they move up, otherwise touching the ceiling will kill you instantly.
Twilight Condemned – This is the area outside the Castle; it loops
around it in a circle and there’s a waterway on the bottom. Here you’ll
find lots of weapons, and a Partial Health next to the Mini-Castle
which has a Napalm and minigame teleporter at the top as well as
several passageways through it for escaping.
Spooky Woods – There are two entrances from the Twilight Condemned that
take you to the Spooky Woods. The one further to the left takes you to
a part of the Spooky Woods with lots of trees and then a bumpy bridge
that then takes you to the Haunted Site. The one further on the right
consists of a large green slope angling downwards, and is closest to
the Haunted Site.
Haunted Site – This is the area following the Spooky Woods. It leads to
a pretty wide area with a building that has Teleporter 1, as well as a
Partial Health in the corner. A convenient place to escape to since the
Teleporter takes you to the top of the Castle.
Strategy:
Shoot at enemies at the higher floors of the Castle area. If you need
weapons, take a trip around in the Twilight Condemned area to pick up
lots of missiles. If you’re on the lower floors of the Castle, Ricochet
Discs are a great source of damage. The second floor is especially the
best area; there’s a ramp leading to the second floor next to a
Ricochet Disc. You can also use Elevators to set up Remote Bomb traps.
Drop a Remote Bomb on your way up, detonate when the enemy reaches up,
freeze, shoot, etc. You can do at least 50 points of damage without
even exposing yourself this way, and more once the enemy shows up. Of
course, if you want to go for it, the Crusher trap is the most
efficient way of killing enemies without wasting weapons on them. Hang
by the trap, wait for an enemy to come zooming by, freeze them, and let
the Crusher do the work. Otherwise the Castle area is recommended. For
healths, I always drop down and grab the one in the first floor of the
Castle because that’s the place I remember getting healths the best.
However, you can also grab the one next to the Mini-Castle in the
Twilight Condemned area, jump back into the Castle and carry on killing
enemies. The one in the Haunted Site is the only health enemies will
never get, but it’s too far if you’re currently in the Castle and you
may have to use turbo in order to get there and retreat via Teleporter
1. Other than that, this is the best new map for TMHO and I hope they
include similar ones in the future TM.
Map 9 – Tokyo Streets
======================
Health Locations:
Full – At the corner of Building A (see below).
Partial – In the middle of the streets in the Tokyo Buildings area. To
get this, start from the turbo (which is away from the minigame
teleporter) and turn towards the middle street slanting downward with
several black buildings on one side and light up buildings on the
other. You should see a Homing Missile pickup; the health is straight
ahead from it.
Partial – Behind the Tokyo Tower in the Tokyo Tower area (woo for
reptition!).
Partial – In the Tokyo Tunnel (take the entrance on the left; it’s
closer).
Partial – In the Tokyo Skyline area (there’s a Swarmer Missile behind
it).
Partial – In the Tokyo Dojo (at the top).
Teleporter:
Teleporter 1 – On the other end of the street from the minigame
teleporter. A Swarmer Missile is in front of it. It takes you to the
Tokyo Skyline area.
Teleporter 2 – In the Tokyo Skyline, takes you back down to the
streets.
Changes:
None
Areas:
Tokyo Buildings – This area consists of several dark buildings
comprised of a rectangular shaped figure. It has weapons on every part
of the street, including a Partial health. Accessed by taking the
middle street (the ones that slope down). The middle street from the
turbo closest to the side of the minigame teleporter does not have the
Partial health.
Expressway – The area where all the streets and traffic are. It
composes of a huge square (or rectangle) in the map. There’s a middle
street going from the Tokyo Tower to the Dojo and Expressway Loop
that’s flat; it has a Turbo, minigame teleporter (closest to the Tokyo
Tower), a Swarmer Missile and Teleporter 1 (closest to the
Dojo/Expressway Loop). The streets slanting downward take you to the
Tokyo Buildings on each side.
Street Buildings – These are the main four buildings you can go into in
Tokyo Streets. I’ll describe each one below (in order of personal
importance).
Building A – This building is the one with the Full Health, Homing and
Power Missile as well as a pole-like structure you can use for cover.
There are ramps on each side taking you down to the Tokyo Buildings
(with a Turbo in the middle).
Building B – This building is parallel to Building A and is closest to
the minigame teleporter. It has a Swarmer Missile and a Homing Missile
and three walls you can use for cover. There are also three ramps going
up to this building; a side ramp parallel to Building A, a ramp going
up to the back of the building, and another side ramp closest to the
Tokyo Tower.
Building C – The building away from the minigame teleporter, it
consists of a huge dark building, as well as a Fire Missile on one side
and a Remote Bomb on the other. The side with the Remote Bomb has a
slightly deeper building that you can use to conceal your view. Shoot
an enemy that drives by and they’ll probably drive off the building and
come back up.
Building D – This building has several buildings, but has no weapons
whatsoever.
Tokyo Tower – The Tokyo Tower area lies on the side with the minigame
teleporter. It has a Remote Bomb, Partial health, Turbo and Fire
Missile around it. From the Tokyo Tower are two ramps leading to train
tracks with a Swarmer Missile in the middle, a Homing Missile at the
left and Ricochet Disc on the right. Enemies do go up here but
sometimes they overshoot so you can fire at them when they soar. You
can blow up the Tokyo Tower by detonating a Remote Bomb on any of the
sides of the Tower; this will unlock a path to the Tokyo Dojo on the
other end of the map (closest to the teleporter). A Power Missile also
lies under the train tracks.
Expressway Loop – This area consists entirely of traffic looping the
Tokyo Dojo in a tunnel. There are two entrances; the one on the left is
closest to the Partial Health and has a Turbo in it. The one on the
right has a Napalm in it but is closer to the weapons in the tunnel,
which are a Homing and Power Missile and a Ricochet Disc. There are a
lot of walls you can use for cover.
Tokyo Dojo – This area can only be accessed after blowing up the Tokyo
Tower. You get here by taking the ramp formed behind the teleporter in
the main street of the Expressway. After taking the ramp initially, you
come across an intersection with a Ricochet Disc. The top ramp goes to
the top of the Dojo with a Remote Bomb, and the bottom with a Partial
Health as well as a better combat area. You can use the top area of the
Dojo to shoot at enemies traveling up the ramp, and drop Napalms on
anyone at the bottom floor of the Dojo.
Tokyo Skyline – This area consists of bridges connecting the four main
buildings (mentioned above). It has a Swarmer Missile, Partial Health,
and Napalm. You can use the walls as cover as well as drop down to any
part of map. This also lets you shoot at anyone in the middle of the
Expressway for a sniping point.
Strategy:
Take a trip at the Tokyo Buildings (both sides) to stock up on weapons.
There’s one of every weapon as well as a Partial Health. Once you’re
loaded on weapons, you can go on your killing spree.
Again, remote/mine traps work well when you go to the Tokyo Skyline.
Hide behind a wall to avoid getting shot by an enemy, and return fire,
preferably with a freeze. You can drop back down to the streets or go
around to the other buildings when enemies chase you.
If you’re in the Expressway Loop, make sure to grab the health first.
Use the traffic cars as shields and the walls to cover you. Shadow,
Axel and Outlaw are pretty good cars in this area (especially with
their special upgraded).
Map 10 – Tokyo Rooftops
=======================
Health Locations:
Full – In the Central Roof area; in the middle with the minigame
teleporter.
Partial – In the Side Roofs with the glass. Shoot down the glass and
then go the left to find it.
Partial – Shoot down the glass on the right (with the Ricochet Disc,
preferably with a Napalm) and a bridge-ramp will form connecting to
Roof A. The health is there straight from the teleporter.
Teleporters:
Teleporter 1 – In Roof A, takes you to the top of the Side Roofs.
Teleporter 2 – At the top of the Side Roofs, takes you back down to
Roof A.
Changes:
1. The structures that can be knocked down to form ramps to another
roof must now be shot down with weapons (in TMHO PSP you could ram them
to knock them down).
Areas:
Central Roof – This is the main roof. It has a tunnel in the middle
with a Full Health and minigame teleporter as well as a Ricochet Disc.
Around the tunnel, you can find weapons including a Swarmer Missile and
Homing Missile. The entrance out from the minigame teleporter is the
widest part of the Central Roof, with a turbo pickup. There also two
ramps to the top of the tunnel. The one closest to the bridge that goes
to the Side Roof takes you to one of the bridge-structures that can be
knocked down to access Roof B. The one closest to the low walls (i.e.
the darker part of the roof) takes you to a bridge-structure that can
be knocked down to access Roof A as well as a Power Missile.
Side Roof – This part of the Central Roof is accessed by taking the
bridge to the building with glass. Once you shoot down the glass, it
will reveal a Homing Missile, Partial Health, Swarmer Missile, and
Ricochet Disc. Shoot the glass at the side with the Ricochet Disc to
form another bridge-ramp to Roof A. The top of the Side Roof can be
accessed by taking the teleporter on Roof A, which has a Power Missile,
Fire Missile, Swarmer Missile, and Turbo at the top. Breaking the glass
will cause you to fall back down to the bottom of the Side Roof
parallel to the Central Roof.
Roof A – This is the Roof that has the teleporter as well as three
bridge-ramps/structures. The first structure connects from Roof A to
the top of the tunnel in the Central Roof, the second structure
connects from Roof A to the Central Roof (next to the bridge to the
Side Roof) and the third structure connects from Roof A to the Side
Roof. A Partial health is here, as well as a Remote Bomb, Ricochet
Disc, Homing and Fire Missiles.
Roof B – This is the Roof that has a lot of objects you can blow up on
it, as well as a few weapons. There are two bridge-ramps; one connects
the top of the Central Roof to Roof B and the other connects the bottom
of the Central Roof from Roof B to the darker side of the Central Roof.
Strategy:
Again, utilize Teleport Traps. There’s a Remote Bomb in Roof A, as well
as Power Missiles at the top of the Side Roof. Never fight anywhere
else, if you want to be safe.
Make sure to stock up on Power Missiles, Homing Missiles and Swarmer
Missiles. You will need it for the final map of Story Mode.
Map 11 – Tokyo Streets – Dark Tooth/Tower Tooth
===============================================
Health Locations:
Full – At the corner of Building A (see below).
Partial – At the side of Building B (see below).
Partial – At the corner of Building D (see below).
Changes:
1. The game now plays the minigame/bonus level music from TMHO PSP for
both Dark and Tower Tooth.
2. After killing Dark Tooth it automatically transitions to Tower
Tooth’s battle without having to wait for the game to load it. Thus,
you still have the same health, weapons and lives and will be at the
place where you were after killing Dark Tooth.
Areas:
Expressway – The streets basically. There’s no traffic here, and there
are walls blocking off access to the Tokyo Buildings on each side.
Building A – This building is the one with the Full Health. It now has
a Homing Missile and Ricochet Disc from where the Homing and Power
Missile used to be in Tokyo Streets, as well as a Power Missile in the
corner. It also has a pole-like structure you can use for cover. There
are ramps on each side.
Building B – This building is parallel to Building A. It has a Swarmer
Missile and a Homing Missile and three walls you can use for cover.
There are also three ramps going up to this building; a side ramp
parallel to Building A, a ramp going up to the back of the building,
and another side ramp on the left.
Building C – Consists of a huge dark building, as well as a Fire
Missile on one side and a Remote Bomb on the other. The side with the
Remote Bomb has a slightly deeper building that you can use to conceal
your view.
Building D – This building has several buildings, but has no weapons
whatsoever.
Strategy:
Dark Tooth – Dark Tooth now starts off at one place of the map and will
sit there until you’re closer to his location (whereas in TMHO PSP he
would hunt you down). He sometimes does try to come after you but he
fails sometimes. The best place to get onto is Building B. He’s usually
next to the ramp behind Building B; use Homing Missiles, Swarmer
Missiles, and/or Napalms (which Building B has) to shoot him. He makes
attempts to go up Building B but he usually drives back down into the
Expressway. If you’re facing him on the Expressway, shoot him, get
behind him, and keep firing Machine Guns and a weapon or two to take
him down quickly (he can’t rear-fire). Drop Mines behind you so that
when he turns around and goes straight, he’ll hit them. Either method
works fine, but method 2 conserves your weapons, which would be good
for the following fight. Note that you cannot freeze him.
Tower Tooth – Get ONTO Building A. If you’re in the Expressway (you can
still go on other buildings but Building A is the safest) you may get
cheapshotted by Tower Tooth if he appears next to you. Fortunately he
never spontaneously fires his lightning special (and it doesn’t fire 10
cones anymore) so he’s a lot weaker in TMHOETE. HOWEVER, he can still
fire his lightning special if you’re closer to his head. He also makes
attempts to get health when he’s getting weaker so you should be more
aggressive for this fight (than in TMHO PSP). If you’re on Building A,
this is the best place to start. Fire Swarmer Missiles and machine guns
to take down Tower Tooth’s health until the next stage. He only uses a
flamethrower and occasionally fires an ice cream cone (his machine
gun), but if you back up he won’t hit you. Just before he’s about to
arrive at less than half of his health (i.e. he’s almost going to
yellow), shoot a homing missile while backing up behind the pole
structure. Tower Tooth will now fire his lightning special exclusively,
which has a longer range compared to TMHO PSP (colored red instead of
blue) and will repeatedly disorientate you. He will continue to spam
this special. If you back up behind the pole he’ll never hit you, but
he may try to get right next to the building so that his special can
reach you. In either case, be alert in case he tries to go for health
(you’ll know when he’s running for the corner behind Building B). Keep
shooting him (with homing missiles, as you must now target his head);
he may shield himself so that he can safely recharge, but if you
unloaded enough homing missiles on him (or swarmer missiles) his health
recharge means he’s only about 75-100 points more before being taken
down completely. He occasionally goes up Building B and jumps off from
the ramp; use this opportunity for free shots. If he runs to the other
side (with Building C and D) follow him and keep shooting. Rarely will
he ever fire his lightning special.
After beating both battles, you’ll unlock Dark Tooth, Tokyo Streets –
Dark Tooth and your character’s ending. Some people reported problems
of not being able to get Dark Tooth after beating story mode once.
Thankfully, one of the members on the board confirmed that beating the
game with Shadow FIRST will prevent Dark Tooth from being unlocked,
even if you complete Story Mode with other characters after that. With
plenty of other characters to play as, this shouldn’t be a problem.
h. Deathmatch Maps (Challenge/Endurance Mode)
=============================================
These are compressed, compact and/or confined versions of some maps. I
hate these maps for single-player overall but they do make great 1v1
maps since there’s less health and it’s easier to memorize the best
sniping points, health, weapons, etc.. There are fewer healths in these
maps though, and there are no teleports so I prioritize killing the
lowest armored car first, use invisibility a lot, and try not to get
into fights when too many cars are present. You’ll die very easily;
this is the only time I’ll ever say that Hard mode is actually HARD.
While I have some strategies covered for the maps, I won’t go into too
much detail. In single-player, Cloak/Invisibility is your best friend,
especially when trying to get Partial Health without being blown into
smithereens.
All Deathmatch maps now play a new universal background music, whereas
in TMHO PSP they would play music from their complete versions of the
map. The only exception is Translyvania Castle.
Paris Deathmatch
----------------
Health Locations:
Partial – Above the entrance into the Museum room (that has the
pictures in it).
Partial – Inside the Museum room (it now sits in the middle instead of
on the right).
Partial – On the roof of the Museum, the ramps from the Eiffel Tower
going into the health is still in-tact.
Area:
Museum – Everything up to the pool is in-tact from Paris, and the
Eiffel Tower ramps are already connected by default.
Strategy:
Run up to the roofs and shoot at anyone from down below. Escape to the
Museum room and try to take out a car before getting health. Do not
chase anyone on the roofs, especially since they may very well take the
health sitting in between the ramps.
Egypt Deathmatch
----------------
Health Locations:
Partial – In Pyramid A blow up the darkened parts of the wall to get
it.
Area:
Pyramid A – You only have Pyramid A as well as a limited area around
it.
Strategy:
By god, this is the hardest map to play in due to it containing only
one Partial Health. However, you still have a chance. First, try to
kill the lowest armored car with less damage taken, use only ONE shield
if necessary, and grab the Energy upgrade to refill your energy and
turbo meters. Shoot down ALL four entrances into Pyramid A, and then go
in (using Shield if necessary). Grab the health and weapons, and wait.
Depending on what the AI does, they may either get in or make botched
attempts to. If you’re lucky, they tend to occasionally hit the walls
of the entrances into the pyramid and have their sides to you, thus
making them good target practice. Some may even climb the Pyramid for
no apparent reason. In either case, shoot the enemies that fail to get
in, and fire Napalms at the walls where the enemies are trying to climb
the Pyramid so that the explosion hits them. If you’re low on health,
you should have plenty of energy to do Invisibility at least three
times courtesy of the Turbo and Energy Upgrade. Go to the side of the
Pyramid not occupied by the enemies, and turn around so that you face
them and watch for what they do outside the Pyramid. The Invisibility
stall should hopefully be enough that the Partial Health regenerates
and you can grab it; this is possible even if you’re nearly dying.
Enemies to watch out for are Shadow, Twister, Outlaw, and Spectre since
their specials can go through walls.
LA – Cousin Eddy
----------------
Health Locations:
Partial – At the corner of the sewers.
Partial – In the middle of the sewers on the other side (closest to the
area with weapons).
Partial – Inside a ruined building; it has a small opening from the
side.
Area:
Ruined Construction Site – Already mentioned in Story Mode’s LA –
Cousin Eddy info.
Strategy:
I play this level like I play LA in TM2. Run around the whole level
while shooting cars along the way. Run along the Construction Site to
pick up missiles and turbo while retreating into the sewers to keep on
moving. Keep some damage to grab the Partial Health in the corner
because that’s the health the AI will go for most of the time. However
if you’re on the bumpy roads while the AI is in the sewers (at the
corner with the Partial Health) they may fight each other and won’t
take you into account, so let them have it.
Roman Ruins Deathmatch
----------------------
Health Locations:
Partial – In the middle ramp on the bottom tier.
Partial – In the center of the second tier.
Partial – In the center of the third tier (where the temple cover used
to be).
Area:
Coliseum – With the lack of a teleporter, the fourth tier was removed
so you can’t go there anymore. The temple on the third tier was
removed, as well as the side-exits that went into the Agricultural
Fields and Temple Ruins areas.
Strategy:
Always run to the upper tiers while grabbing weapons and shooting at
anyone below. The third tier is best for the space you need in one-on-
one fights since it’s flatter than the other two tiers. Swarmer and
Homing Missiles are your best weapons here. You can also pick Tower
Tooth as an enemy in this level, and he will have the red lightning
special by default, but he can be frozen AND you no longer need to
target his head when he’s half-dead so that compensates. Run to the
third tier and let him take care of enemies for you, while wearing him
down slowly with Homing Missiles and Swarmer Missiles. He will try to
go for you all the time, so just turbo around the third tier, freeze
him when he comes, and let him have it. If he tries to get to the third
tier, turbo back down to the first tier and go to the other side.
Greece Deathmatch
-------------------
Health Locations:
Partial – In the opening of the Central Deck of the ship, where the
Remote Bomb used to be.
Partial – In the Lower Deck of the ship, where the minigame teleporter
used to be.
Area:
Docked Ship – I liken this map to Prison Ship from TMB. You’re on the
Ship only, and there are now barriers around the ship preventing you
from falling off. However, you can still jump over it from the Top
Deck.
Boundary:
The water around the ship is the boundary. You can only get thrown out
into here via Dark Tooth or Slamm’s special, or jump off from the Upper
Deck.
Strategy:
The cheesiest way to dominate in this map is to kill two cars for the
Jump upgrade, take the ramp (closest to the side of the ship where
there’s a roadway going into the lower deck) going to the Upper Deck,
turbo, and turbo+jump at the edge so that you reach the highest place
of the Ship. Except for Napalms and Homing Missiles, enemies will NEVER
be able to shoot you at the top. When you need Health make a dash for
the Lower Deck and then return to the top to be safe. Keep an eye on
Homing Missiles and Swarmer Missiles at the back of the Central Deck
that goes into the Lower Deck. There are very few pickups here and only
two of them are great for this strategy (I don’t use Napalms especially
if you’re shooting them close). A change from TMHO PSP is that there
are now two healths, whereas in TMHO PSP there was only one.
Tokyo Deathmatch
----------------
Health Locations:
Partial – In the tunnel next to the subway on one side.
Partial – In the tunnel next to the subway on the other side.
Area:
Subway – Remember Tokyo Streets’s bonus level? This is the level you
fight in, and it was expanded a bit to include two Exit/Entrance areas
on each side for health and weapons.
Strategy:
Since there’s only one area to go, and that is the loop in the Subway
area, you should always keep moving. Fire weapons at enemies in the
Subway, but make sure you pull back and retreat if you’re entering an
enemy-infested territory. Make sure to grab the healths on each side
immediately when you take damage.
Tokyo Streets – Dark Tooth
--------------------------
Health Locations:
Partial – In the corner on one end.
Partial – In the middle of a street on one of the slanting roads at the
sides.
Areas:
Expressway – The streets, basically. There’s no traffic here, and there
are walls blocking off access to the Tokyo Buildings on each side.
Building A – This building is the one with the Full Health. It now has
a Homing Missile and Ricochet Disc from where the Homing and Power
Missile used to be in Tokyo Streets, as well as a Power Missile in the
corner. It also has a pole-like structure you can use for cover. There
are ramps on each side.
Building B – This building is parallel to Building A. It has a Swarmer
Missile and a Homing Missile and three walls you can use for cover.
There are also three ramps going up to this building; a side ramp
parallel to Building A, a ramp going up to the back of the building,
and another side ramp on the left.
Building C – Consists of a huge dark building, as well as a Fire
Missile on one side and a Remote Bomb on the other. The side with the
Remote Bomb has a slightly deeper building that you can use to conceal
your view.
Building D – This building has several buildings, but has no weapons
whatsoever.
Strategy:
Grab weapons around the streets and use the buildings to shoot at
enemies roaming the streets. Take the building with the big ramp going
up to it and shoot any enemy that goes up, hopefully causing them to
fall forth back into the street. With only two healths in this level,
try not fight around in the Expressway too much since the AI may very
well grab them.
Transylvania Deathmatch
-----------------------
Health Locations:
Partial – Take the ramp on the first floor into the health that floats
in mid-air.
Partial – In the middle of the second floor, take one of the two ramps
up and head for the part of the second floor that has a large cover in
it.
Partial – In the fourth floor (take the elevator going to the highest
part of the Castle).
Area:
Castle – With the exceptions of openings into and out of the castle
sealed off (and the third floor being cut off thus the fourth floor is
now the third floor and the fifth floor is now the fourth floor), every
other part of the Castle is in-tact. This makes it the largest DM map
in the game.
Strategy: Always take the elevator going from the first floor to the
third and take the elevator to the fourth floor. Wait for enemies to
take the elevator. They’ll drive off too early, causing them to touch
the ceiling and killing them instantly. This will save your weapons. Do
not fight on the second floor, especially since enemies will very
likely grab the health in this floor. Also, don’t fight on the third
floor; the fourth floor is where you want to be.
***********************************************************************
2. Twisted Metal: Lost
Relive your TMB moments in this short-termed sequel to TMB. Yes, it’s a
sequel (as demonstrated by the character stories that expand the
background of each character’s future from TMB except for Minion, as
well as an interesting link between the colorful and dark universe).
Two games in one! Only except for the fact that TML is not as complete
as TMHO is. Fortunately, with only four levels, ESP put plenty of work
into them to make them just as enjoyable as if it were a complete game.
Many of the modes from TMHO are present here. TML ultimately gives you
the better multiplayer experience (with its well thought out maps and
weapon placement) while TMHO gives you a more complete single player
and multiplayer experience. Both are still enjoyable and worth playing.
Besides, you have a few important things to do here.
a. Menus
========
Single Player – Play the game solo, with three different modes of play.
Story – Play through the game in 3 levels, this is necessary to unlock
one extra level and two characters. You can play through the game with
every car.
Challenge – Choose a car, a level and 7 opponents.
Endurance – Choose a car, a level, and then battle it out until you die
or leave.
Multiplayer – 2-player only.
Deathmatch – Battle with a friend.
2P Coop Splitscreen – Play through Story mode with a friend.
Options
Audio – Adjust the music and sound effects volume.
Controls – Choose from three control options: Classic, Hit n Run, and
Run n Gun.
Difficulty – Choose from four difficulties – Super Easy, Easy, Medium
and Hard.
Save Game – Save your game as well as your settings.
Load Game – Load a previously saved game.
Restore Default Settings – Restore everything back to where it was
before.
Movie Clips – See the intro to the game as well as *spoilers* the note
sent by the supposed deceased team members once you complete Story
mode.
b. Characters/Vehicles
======================
I finally put both the bios and specials. In TMLost, cars do not have
any stats listed for them, though you can assume that everyone (except
for 12-Pak and Gold Tooth) has the same stats from TMB. I’ll only
mention the health points (below). The specials are not officially
named, I just made them up. All characters can only hold up to 3
specials, instead of 5.
Roadkill
Story – An undercover cop trying to bring down the Twisted Metal
contest. The original John Doe was killed by Calypso at the end of
Twisted Metal: Black. Rumor is Midtown P.D. has a whole team of John
Does, all with the same mission: take down Calypso.
Special – (Swarmer Missile, 27-37 points fully charged)
Selecting the special causes a rack with 6 missiles to appear. Hold the
fire button and one by one the missiles will light up. Once all 6
missiles are lit up, they will blink up to five times to warn you to
release the missiles before it backfires (i.e. wasted). If you achieve
the five blinking light delay, a Max Charge message will display once
you fire the missiles. All 6 missiles alone without the blinking delays
does 27 damage, exactly the same as a Swarmer Missile from TMHO. The
missiles do not congregate when fired unlike TMB; they only pack
themselves together when they are about to hit their enemy, thus some
of the missiles may fly to a different target. To ensure all 6 missiles
hit, get closer to an enemy. It is much better for one on one fights
rather than group fights. You can no longer rear-fire the special.
Crazy 8
Story – No Face is obsessed with rebuilding his mutilated mug. Tracking
and killing those he deems evil, he steals the eyes and tongues of his
victims. He struggles to create a new face for himself, one that will
allow him to smile at his baby daughter without making her burst into
tears. After 8 years, still no luck.
Special – (Static Field, 42 points)
Crazy 8 zaps the living hell out of a poor sap near him. Mashing the
fire button results in an extended period of shocking. If your mashing
is good enough, the special does 39 points at the least making it quite
powerful. You’ll have to use your speed and control if you’re going to
pursue the enemy you’re shocking, when they run away. While you can
still tap a d-pad direction 3 times, it does not modify the damage
anymore. Rather, it only specifically attacks enemies in that
direction. Crazy 8’s special goes through walls and even ceilings, so
you can use it to catch enemies up or below. The range is also much
better than TMB.
Mr Grimm
Story – Grimm’s taste for human flesh has not abated. Grimm’s sanity
has not returned. He now spends his nights racing through the streets
of Midtown, searching for his next meal while speaking to the rotting
skull of his dead friend that he wears as a helmet. In recent years he
has begun to think he may actually be the Grim Reaper.
Special – (Scythe, 34 points)
Mr Grimm throws a scythe at an enemy. Like all of his other specials,
it only goes straight ahead, but when it hits it does great damage. It
also causes them to bounce up a bit. Freezing your target is always the
best way to ensure a guaranteed hit. After the special you can follow
up with another one or a power missile to do 54-68 points of damage, or
zip underneath them and shoot them in the back since there’s not much
they can do to you.
Shadow
Story – Raven drives a haunted hearse filled with the vengeful souls of
the dead that it once carried. Using her powerful voodoo dolls, she has
become a hero to the people of Midtown; an urban legend who protects
the innocent from the freaks and killers who roam the streets of this
cursed city.
Special – (Soul Shadow, 23 points)
Shadow fires TMHO’s version of the Soul Shadow. Pressing L2 again
detonates it. It was slowed down to TM2 speed, but it has a bigger area
of effect and it also does better damage than TMHO’s Soul Shadow. A hit
will cause an enemy to bounce and if they were driving prior that, they
will get flipped. You can hurt yourself with the special, like TM2.
Alternate Special – (Human Turret, 27 points)
To activate the Alternate Special, tap Up three times. Shadow pops up
from the roof of the vehicle, and fires a machine gun at an enemy
(similar to Outlaw’s). It was slowed down from TMB, but fires more
machine gun bullets and is more powerful. You can no longer use both
specials at once compared to TMB.
Brimstone
Story – This rejected evangelist took his own life at the end of
Twisted Metal: Black. Rejected by Heaven and Hell, Jebidiah’s spirit
now roams the Earth, searching for those who wronged him. Locals say if
you see Jebidiah’s ghost, you will be dead from a car accident within
the year.
Special – (Hell’s Sinner, 23 points)
Brimstone fires a human follower attached to the front of the vehicle.
It zooms in on its target, lands on their roof, shouts “REPENT!” then
blows itself up. If an enemy turns too much, the follower may miss. If
no target is present, the human follower will prematurely blow up after
hitting a ground or wall. The follower occasionally yells out “Repent!”
in the same voice as TMB but in all the other cases it yells “Repent!”
in a very lighter tone. The special arcs up now, giving you a chance
of catching enemies at higher areas.
Axel
Story – Axel is still aching over the murder of his wife. Feeling her
death was his fault, he chooses to stay strapped to the wheels, his
feet dragging against hot asphalt, ripped apart, bleeding, and causing
him tremendous pain. One day he hopes he will have done his penance and
the spirit of his wife will forgive him.
Special – (Shockwave, 23 points)
Same as TMHO’s Shockwave, but more damaging. It’s also more TM2-like
compared to TMB’s; he can finally again, be dangerous upclose. Axel
loses his second special, but it was never useful anyway.
Darkside
Story – Choosing to stay locked in her dollmask, this once young girl
has become a young woman. While her body and skull grow bigger, the
mask does not yield. The crushing pressure on her brain has begun to
take its toll.
Special – (Blaring Horn, 35 points + 16 turbo ram damage = 51 points
total, T-Slide = 40 points + 16 ram damage = 56 points)
Darkside charges full speed ahead (with the blurring screen effect, to
boot). An enemy unlucky enough to get in her way will get pushed aside
as well as lose a chunk of health. If you turbo ram before hand, you
can get 51 points of damage, which easily makes this one of the
easiest, more powerful specials to use. And actually, you can still get
T-Slide bonus, it’s just that it’s VERY hard and the extra damage is
not that much more damaging than a straight-on hit. Darkside’s special
can no longer be rear-fired, but it has a longer duration giving you
more chances to hit an enemy. When you hit an enemy, the special stops
prematurely; if you do this on a frozen enemy you’ll be surprised by
how much damage you can rack up by repeatedly ramming them (because the
ice won’t thaw after connecting).
Outlaw
Story – Caught in a time loop at the end of Twisted Metal: Black, Agent
Stone is forever forced to relive the night he won the Twisted Metal
contest. Each night he stands before Calypso, prepared to be redeemed…
and each night ends with a bullet straight through the brain. For Agent
Stone, there is no escape…
Special – (Turret + Siren Missiles, up to 42 points so far)
Agent Stone pops out from the roof of the vehicle with a machine gun
turret and fires it at a nearby enemy (they home in with great
accuracy). If an enemy enters his sight, a red laser will lock onto
their car. At this point, mashing the fire button showers them with
bullets and homing missiles (colored blue). Whereas the machine gun is
omnidirectional, the missiles only fire out from the front of the
vehicle so you’ll have to adjust your position in order to get the full
damage from both the turret and homing missiles.
Sweet Tooth
Story – A serial killer on the streets of midtown, looking for his next
victim. His brother, the driver of Yellow Jacket, is trying to kill him
before the deranged clown can kill another innocent.
Special – (Mecha Assault, 30 points, 10 missiles total, 3 points per
missile)
Sweet Tooth transforms into a mech when you initially “fire” the
special. Firing the special again will shoot a barrage of ten missiles
with limited homing ability, each doing 3 points of damage. While it
looks cool, it’s less damaging compared to TMB and you no longer get a
bonus on your tenth hit (the bonus would make the 10th missile that hit
do a little more damage as well as bounce an enemy). It’s also not as
rapid-fire as in TMB; it’s more like a slower Zoomy weapon of some
sort. You can skip the transformation part by hitting the fire button
again.
Yellow Jacket
Story – The brother of Sweet Tooth controls his dead father via remote
control. The macabre duo have decided to track and kill Sweet Tooth and
then kill themselves. Doing so will destroy the family bloodline,
putting an end to generations of murderers and psychopaths.
Special – (Iron Spikes, 9 points per spike fired, 10-35 points + 11
points turbo ram = 21-46 points overall when ramming)
8 spikes protrude around Yellow Jacket’s vehicle. You can fire them
manually, however they don’t home in this time (the three spikes at the
front don’t home in at all) unlike TMB. However, a ram with the spikes
is much more powerful, able to do almost Power Missile damage to the
high 30s; it seems to be based on the distance you are in relation to
the enemy when you ram them with the spikes. Because of the removal of
homing ability, Yellow Jacket is much better as a melee-type character
rather than a long-range character. If you leave the spikes out, you
can discourage anyone trying to ram you (especially Darkside).
Junkyard Dog
Story – At the end of Twisted Metal: Black, Billy rembarked on his
life’s ambition: to outdo Sweet Tooth as Midtown’s most notorious
serial killer. It’s been almost 10 years since that vow, and he has yet
to kill another soul. Until tonight…
Special – (Spikeball, 21 points)
Junkyard Dog’s special is essentially a slightly stronger gas can, but
without the fire damage added on. He can hurt himself like the gas can,
unlike TMB. You can use it to shoot enemies behind walls or at the
ceilings.
Spectre
Story – In the years since Twisted Metal: Black, Bloody Mary has lost
all hold on reality. She is not sure what she wants anymore. She simply
does what comes naturally to her: driving and killing. Secretly, she
hopes to be killed in the contest, and have her suffering come to and
end.
Special – (Ghost Missile, 13 points)
Spectre’s special is essentially the same as TMHO Spectre. It is not as
powerful as TMB’s. A hit also doesn’t bounce the enemy anymore. It’s
still good for long distance shots when you know an enemy can’t out run
them or block them with Shields.
Manslaughter
Story – No one knows where Black comes from, but he seems incapable of
dying, and he has only one goal: to kill Calypso. The latest rumor is
that Black actually comes from a parallel universe where a different,
more colorful Calypso wants to use Black to murder his darker twin.
Special – (Rolling Stones, 50 points total, 5 per rock, 10 rocks in
all)
Manslaughter lets loose a bunch of stones that slide straight ahead.
The further they go, the wider they get, which increases chances of
hitting an enemy but also decreases the overall damage you can get.
Unlike TMB, the stones no longer knock an enemy back. However, you can
supplement the damage by turbo ramming an enemy for upwards of 66 (50 +
16 turbo ram damage) points of damage, and add machine gun fire to it.
Rear-firing the special will still lay the stones onto the floor, and
they do the same amount of damage; they won’t lay in a pile though, but
only in a straight line. They explode after a while, but they won’t
hurt you.
12-Pak (secret character)
Story – Sam Boomer was a rising star on the racing circuit until a
spectacular crash took his life. His car was totaled, his body
decapitated. Now he searches Midtown for the crazed fan who leapt from
the stands on that tragic day and stole his severed head.
Special – (Reticle, 50 points total, 5 points per missile, 10 missiles
total)
12-Pak is a rather… interesting car to say the least. Since Lost
doesn’t have the Reticle weapon, you can enjoy using the weapon made
specifically for this one car alone. Instead of a 5-second timer,
there’s a 10-second timer, and the box is also much bigger thus giving
you a LOT more time to prepare shooting it. When an enemy is in the
box, a crosshair appears on them; hit fire to begin the countdown. The
target will go from green, to yellow, to red, and when it’s red it will
eventually blink signaling your cue to fire. Up to 10 homing missiles
can be fired, and they all congregate so there’s less chance of some of
them flying towards a different enemy. The damage is nowhere near the
damage potential of Reticles in TMB (two fully-charged Reticles can
kill you, with one taking about 2/3 of your healthbar) but compared to
other specials, 50 damage is quite a lot and can take half or more on
low-average armored cars or about half on higher armored cars. In
multiplayer, the 10-second count is outside of the box at the side, and
you only need to have the count at 0 to fire all 10 missiles (it will
not blink).
Warthog
Story – The fool assumed he could go head to head with Sweet Tooth and
become Midtown’s greatest killer. Sweet Tooth made quick work of him
but kept him alive to serve as a lesson to others. Now simply a torso
and head, no one is sure how Cage is controlling his vehicle.
Special – (Flamethrower, 24 points + fire damage)
Warthog has taken quite a hit. His special is no longer as powerful as
it was in TMB for two reasons. One, his special is now HIGHLY dependent
on your distance from the enemy as well as the side that you’re flaming
them at. If you’re close to the enemy as well as next to their sides,
the flamethrower will incur the 24 points of damage (should all hit).
If you’re at the front or back, the flamethrower will do less damage.
This was different in TMB, where all that mattered was that you needed
to be close to the enemy so that the flamethrower would chomp down
their health. And two, you can no longer switch weapons during the
special (a combo I remembered doing in TMB was Freeze, special, Power
missile, machine gun, turbo ram for about half a healthbar. The power
missile disorientates the enemy so that they couldn’t escape from the
rest of the flamethrower) so now you have to chase down the enemy to
ensure they are within your flames all the time. Also, a change is that
when you use the special on a frozen enemy, it actually takes a while
before the flames break the ice (it shows the flames melting the ice
rather than instantly breaking it like TMB). Other than that, the two
hits to the special easily makes Warthog one of the worst vehicles
(VERY low damage compared to TMB).
Gold Tooth (secret character)
Story – A solid gold ice cream truck provided to Sweet Tooth by a
mysterious benefactor; stronger and more deadly than any other vehicle
in the Twisted metal competition.
Special – (Mecha Assault Gamma, 60 points total, 10 missiles, 6 points
per missile)
Gold Tooth’s special is essentially Sweet Tooth’s 2x the power. If all
missiles hit, you’ve already done more than half damage on low armored
cars and about half or a little more on higher armored cars. Very
powerful and cheesy. Not to mention, Gold Tooth’s armor is comparable
to TM2’s Dark Tooth; he has the highest amount of hit points as a
playable non-boss character compared to anyone else!
Health Points
-------------
Since there’s no armor stat listed, I’m only listing down the health
points.
Roadkill: 100
Crazy 8: 100
Mr Grimm: 85
Shadow: 108
Brimstone: 100
Axel: 108
Darkside: 137
Outlaw: 120
Sweet Tooth: 125
Yellow Jacket: 110
Junkyard Dog: 120
Spectre: 95
Manslaughter: 145
12-Pak: 110
Warthog: 138
Gold Tooth: 220
c. Energy Attacks
=================
Energy Attacks have been changed from TMB’s inputs. Instead, you have a
universal button (Triangle) and all you do is input a single d-pad
button to use them. Everything except for Cloak/Invisibility had their
inputs changed. Energy Attacks are a lot more responsive in TML than
TMHO, and I hope they keep the simplified command in the future TM(s).
For more info, read the TMHO EA section.
Freeze (Triangle+Up, uses about 60% of the energy bar)
Essentially TMHO’s Freeze, only more responsive and easier to input but
uses up more energy, similar to TMB.
Shield (Triangle+Right, uses about 60% of the energy bar)
It coats your car with green energy instead of blue, unlike TMB.
Mine (Triangle+Left, uses about 10% of the energy bar)
At least you’ll never accidentally input this.
Cloak (Left Left Down Down, uses about 30% of the energy bar)
The Cloak is a great EA in Lost compared to TMHO due to the maps
lacking teleports (except for two). Since there are more enemies to
deal with you should use this to get away when you’re in danger, or
going for health.
Rear-Fire (Triangle+Down, consumes no energy)
To use Rear-Fire properly, I suggest you hold the Square button to
accelerate and cross your thumbs over to Triangle so that you’re
holding both, allowing you to accelerate and use energy attacks without
having to stop (specifically for this attack). Much more responsive
than TMHO’s rear-fire.
Jump (L1+R1, consumes no energy)
Jump has been made TM2-style – that is, you jump HIGHER whereas in TMHO
you needed the jump upgrade. A welcome change from TMB!
d. Weapons
==========
Since TML has the same weapons as TMHO (with the exception of the
Swarmer Missile and ENV weapon), I’ll only note the changes and cover
the weapons in less detail. Every weapon is pretty uncommon so I won’t
mention that. Also for some reason, the manual has the Machine Gun
Upgrade pickup listed but unless anyone tells me where to find it in
the maps there is NO such pickup.
Machine Gun (damage varies, no homing ability, can’t be rear-fire-able,
can’t be picked up)
Machine Guns overheat slower than TMHO’s giving them a nice tactical
advantage.
Fire Missile (10 points, limited homing ability, rear-fire-able, 2 per
pickup)
The Fire Missile does Homing Missile damage from TMHO, which makes it a
bit more valuable as a weapon.
Homing Missile (7 points, great homing ability, rear-fire-able, 2 per
pickup)
The Homing Missile now does less damage, but that doesn’t make it any
less of a great weapon.
Power Missile (20 points, no homing ability, rear-fire-able, 1 per
pickup)
Essentially = TMHO’s Power Missile.
Gas Can (20 points, no homing ability, rear-fire-able, 1 per pickup)
Gas Cans are essentially TMHO’s Napalms. They are considerably less
powerful than TMB’s Gas Cans without the Bullseye bonus and they can
hurt you but still, a great weapon. Due to the return of Remote Bombs,
the Gas Can no longer can be dropped by pressing down up down+fire
button.
Ricochet Bomb (15 points, 30 on a bank shot, no homing ability, rear-
fire-able, 2 per pickup)
Woohoo! TM2 Ricochet Bombs! Slower, but stronger than Ricochet Discs on
a regular hit though the damage is same for a bank shot. However, it
does knock an enemy back which briefly locks their mobility so you can
capitalize on that with machine guns, turbo rams or any offensive
assault you can think of.
Remote Bomb (25 points, no homing ability, already rear-fire-able, 2
per pickup)
With the lack of teleports, Remote Bombs are best for “kamikaze”-ing
with your shield on or controlling your space by placing a remote in a
confined area to discourage an opponent from coming after you.
Turbo
The turbo pickup was color coded light-violet-ish so distinguishing it
from the remote bomb is a lot more easier now.
Partial Health/Repair Station
Partial Health is the same as from TMHO (restores 30% of your health),
as opposed to TMB where there were more pickups but the game was stingy
about how much it restored your health. Repair stations are the Full
Health-equivalent but unlike TMB, they can only be used once (hence why
there’s only one in every level except Death Port).
e. Maps (Story/Challenge/Endurance mode)
========================================
There are only four maps in TML and one of them has to be unlocked and
can only be played in every other mode aside from Story. Other than
that, since there’s fewer maps compared to TMHO I might as well cover
them all. In order, I cover Health Locations, areas, teleporters (for
two maps) and then strategies (on hard mode).
Map 1 – Suburban Terror
-----------------------
Health Locations:
Repair Station – In the Alleyway (behind the Movie Theater, see below)
Partial – At the second floor of the Movie Theater, next to a ramp that
takes you to the Pizza Man with the pizzas on each of his hands.
Partial – At the street in the back of the Civilian Territory area
(which is behind the Church).
Partial – On the Highway Loop, in the center with a Turbo and Ricochet
Bomb pickup.
Areas:
Suburbs – This is the main area of the map. There are a lot of areas
here, which I’ll cover below:
1. Pizza Plaza – There’s a Pizza Man statue at the top of a rectangular
building. You can access the roof of the building by taking the ramp
next to it. Next to the statue is a Turbo, Homing and Power Missile. If
you take the ramp from this area, you can access the second floor of
the Movie Theater or the Roof, as well as use the ramp on the second
floor of the Movie Theater to jump up to the pizzas (one of which has a
homing missile) to get a nice view of the whole level. At the side of
the building of the Pizza Plaza, you can shoot down the glass to access
a square-figured room with a Homing Missile and shoot the glass on the
other side to get to the Alley. The roof with the pizza man statue is
great for shooting enemies below with Homing Missiles and Gas Cans;
rarely will the enemies be able to shoot at you. They occasionally get
onto the roof, but you can retreat to the second floor of the Movie
Theater. They will never get onto the pizzas either.
2. Buster’s Lanes – Another rectangular-shaped building; it has glass
at the front and can be shot down to access a bowling area with a
Remote Bomb pickup. You can run around the building for cover, but
there’s no pickups lying around.
3. Schoolhouse – This lies a few feet away from Gino’s Pizza Plaza
(it’s the only non-rectangular building of the Suburbs). You can run
around for a few pickups, but there’s also a ramp on the other side of
the Schoolhouse taking you to the Civilian Territory.
Civilian Territory – This area is accessed by taking the ramp behind
the Church at one corner. Here, it consists of an almost H-like figure.
There’s a Power Missile on the first street, the street at the back has
a Partial Health, and the street at the right has a Turbo. You can jump
out of here using the ramp on the street with the Turbo, taking you
back to the Schoolhouse.
Movie Theater – This area is accessed by taking the ramp or breaking
the glass next to the Pizza Plaza, going up through the Alley, and
turning right. You’ll find the Movie Theater ahead; shoot the glass to
enter. There are two theaters. The hallway on the left takes you to the
First Theater with a Power Missile and Remote Bomb on each corner. The
hallway on the right takes you to the Second Theater with a Homing
Missile. Shoot the rectangular-outlined walls at the top to get out. If
you took the ramp from the top of Gino’s Pizza Parlor and reached the
Roof (by turbo jumping, which also gets you a Power Missile) you can
break the Roof of the Movie Theater thus letting you shoot at anyone
inside (watch out for Gas Cans though).
Alley – This area is right next to Gino’s Pizza Parlor. You can use the
ramp or break the walls of Gino’s Pizza Parlor to get here. This area
is pretty wide and is a good combat area, but it’s frequently occupied
with enemies.
Back Alley – If you go around the Movie Theater, you’ll come across an
alleyway at the rear. Here, there is a Repair Station and a few
pickups, as well as a ramp taking you back to the Alley.
Highway Loop – This is the area that takes you out of the Suburbs; it
consists of one long road that loops around and back to the Suburbs.
There are two entrances; there’s one by Buster’s Lanes (at the right of
it) and one by the Pizza Plaza (at the left of it). The one by Buster’s
Lanes has a Fire Missile and the one by the Pizza Plaza has a Turbo.
When you go up and around through this area, you’ll find a Turbo,
Ricochet Bomb, Remote Bomb and Partial Health at the middle. I like to
chase enemies in this area, since they’re usually low on health by
then, but they’ll always keep running away from you leaving them open
to missiles. Also, not many enemies will come after you. Make sure to
use Turbo in case they’re about to grab the Partial Health so that you
can catch up to them and kill them before they can get it.
Strategy:
Hang around the top of the Pizza Plaza, grab Homing Missiles, and shoot
at your enemies below. You’re safe most of the time. Enemies rarely
come up and when they do, you can freeze+power missile+machine gun for
some good damage. There’s a health at the second floor of the Movie
Theater when you need it. You can also get on top of the pizza man
statue (specifically the pizzas) to catch your breath. Enemies will
never jump up here so you can use it as a special weapon recharge point
or a resting spot while weapons and health regenerate.
Map 2 - Stadium Slaughter
-------------------------
Health Locations:
Repair Station – In the Stadium Entrance area (take the first tunnel-
like area to exit the Stadium).
Partial – On the ramp in the middle of the Stadium area. Either jump or
turbo into it depending on how you take the ramp up.
Partial – In the middle of the Crisscross Road area.
Partial – At the end of the Crisscross Road area, to your right is a
cracked wall. Shoot it down, the Partial Health is there along with a
Power Missile.
Areas:
Stadium – The main area of Stadium Slaughter (obviously), it consists
of a huge circle. In the inside is a wide area you can do combat in,
there’s a ramp in the middle for a Partial Health, Power Missile and
Homing Missile (use jump for the missiles). The outside of the central
area consists of several walls. There’s lots of turbo and ricochet bomb
pickups here as well as a Remote Bomb.
Stadium Entrance – To get here, take the tunnel-like exit at the back
of the Stadium (the easiest way is to take the ramp going out of the
central circle that’s placed in between two walls). Here, it is
rectangle-ish and very wide so this is the best place for combat.
There’s a Repair Station, turbo, Gas Can, Fire Missile, and Ricochet
Bomb. Use Ricochet Bombs in the tunnel coming into the Stadium Entrance
area; you can also fire a Gas Can at the Tunnel so that the explosion
hits them when they’re about to come out of the Tunnel. Parallel to the
tunnel coming into the Stadium Entrance is another tunnel that is a
ramp; taking it shoots you back into the Stadium area. In the air is a
Homing and Power Missile pickup, and you can snipe at anyone in the
central circle of the Stadium. In the Stadium Entrance area, the AI
occasionally rams the walls leaving them a sitting duck; perfect for
Power Missiles and Gas Cans.
Crisscross Roads – In the Stadium Entrance area, there’s a ramp going
into a flat platform that leads to a road that consists of one big turn
to the right (in a circle basically) with a Partial Health and turbo.
At the end is a ramp that takes you back to the Stadium Entrance area,
but if you turn right before the ramp, there is a cracked wall that you
can shoot down to find a Partial Health and Power Missile. The garage
door will open up when you get close, allowing you to exit this hidden
area. However, you can also use this hidden area as a safeguard by
popping open the exit and shooting enemies, then backing up and closing
the exit to avoid retaliation. Beware that Gas Cans can hit you here.
You can keep this entrance open by killing a car and leaving it sitting
at the entrance.
Strategy:
The best area to fight enemies is in the Stadium Entrance area.
Typically, you begin in the Stadium area so run around the outskirts
collecting Ricochet Bombs. The walls here cover you pretty well if you
keep moving and you can always shoot enemies on the other sides of the
walls with gas cans. Once you reach the tunnel entrance taking you to
the Stadium area, turn around and wait for enemies to take the tunnel.
Shoot your ricochets into the tunnel and hopefully you score some bank
shots. The moment an enemy that sticks their head out, freeze them and
follow up. When too many enemies gather, retreat into the Crisscrossing
Roads area (hopefully with damage so that you can grab the Partial
Health there), jump back out and make a run for the Tunnel that leads
you back to the Stadium. Rinse and repeat. Missiles are pretty rare; I
suggest the central area of the Stadium area as well as the tunnel ramp
from the Stadium Entrance area to pick up Homing/Power Missiles. Make
sure to make good use of your Jump command.
Map 3 – Carnival of Darkness
----------------------------
Health Locations:
Repair Station – In the Funhouse area, there’s a huge circular coaster
track. Take it to the highest point of the level, and you’ll find the
Repair Station sitting at the top.
Partial - In the Carnival area, there’s a head of Sweet Tooth with a
waterfall going down. Use the waterfall ramp to get to the back of
Sweet Tooth’s head, then go up the ramp to the Partial Health sitting
at the eye.
Partial – In the Twisty Roads area, there’s one sitting in the middle.
The AI will likely grab this.
Partial – Underneath the tent in the Funhouse area; it sits in the
middle.
Teleporter:
Teleporter 1 – If you follow the directions to get to the Repair
Station above, the coaster tracks actually end at a tunnel with the
teleporter. The teleporter takes you to the top of the Sweet Tooth head
with a Homing Missile. This is the perfect sniping point of the area
and fortunately the AI rarely takes this teleporter.
Teleporter 2 – On top of the Sweet Tooth head. Takes you back to the
end of the Roller Coaster tracks with Teleporter 2.
Areas:
Carnival – The largest area; it’s broken down into three parts. First,
it has the amusement park (the large rectangle area) with the swings
and that spinning thing I can’t remember the name of. It has a Gas Can
and Remote Bomb here. The next area is the Haunted Pit; it’s in the
side by the Sweet Tooth head. You can get here in many ways; the most
obvious is to go down through the trap-door. The other way is to go
around the ship (that has a Power Missile on top of it) and turn left
into it. The third way is to jump from the waterfall leading up the
inside of the Sweet Tooth head into a small ramp that is the ceiling
entrance into the Haunted Pit. There’s a skeleton hanging from the
ceiling above a firey…thing (perhaps burned to death). There is a
Ricochet Bomb and a Homing Missile here. There’s a glitch where the AI
sinks into the ground sometimes, so you can’t see them but they’re
definitely shooting at you (which is why I always avoid this area
unless the AI is present there). The last part of the area is the Sweet
Tooth head. There’s a waterfall coming down from it. If you go up,
you’ll find a Power Missile of the map at the top. When you turn
around, you’ll find a Fire Missile. There’s a ramp going up into and
out of the eye socket of the head with a Partial Health. The top of the
head can only be accessed by taking the teleporter, and you have the
best sniping spot in the level (a Homing Missile pickup is here so you
can keep waiting, grabbing, and shoot at enemies below). To exit the
Carnival area, you can use the exit on the left which takes you to the
Twisty Roads area, or the one on the right which takes you to the
Funhouse area. The AI tends to fight in this area a lot but they also
fight each other too.
Twisty Roads – This area extends from the Carnival area all the way to
the side of the Funhouse area. Take the left exit in the Carnival area
or the only side entrance in the Funhouse area to enter the Twisty
Roads. The Twisty Roads is pretty wide and has a lot of twists and
turns in addition to a Partial Health. If you chase down any AI in this
area be sure that there’s no one approaching from behind; again make
sure to reserve some damage so that you can grab the Partial Health
without the AI taking it for themselves.
Funhouse – Accessed by the right exit in the Carnival area or from the
Twisty Roads. This area is the shortest of the map, consisting of a
circular area with a tent that has Partial Health and a Homing Missile
at the top of it (jump from the Roller Coaster track with turbo+jump to
get here, the tent also lets you shoot at enemies in the Twisty Roads
area), and Funhouses ahead.
Roller Coaster – Ahead from the Funhouse in the Funhouse area is the
entrance to the Roller Coaster tracks. It starts from the bottom in the
left side from the Tent, and loops all the way up. At the mid most part
of the Roller Coaster is the Tunnel; there is a Remote Bomb and Homing
Missile. When you exit the Tunnel, the Roller Coaster slopes down and
has two intersections. One takes you back to the Tent of the Funhouse
area, the other slopes all the way up (with a Turbo and Ricochet Bomb)
and stops at a tunnel with Teleporter 1 on the right, and a Repair
Station, Gas Can and Power Missile on the left at the Cliff. You can
use the Cliff with the Repair Station to snipe at enemies from below,
or you can use the teleporter and catch your breath at the top of the
Sweet Tooth head in the Carnival area. The AI rarely takes the
teleporter.
Strategy:
For this map, I tend to stock up in the Roller Coaster area and
Funhouse area (specifically for Homing Missiles), go to the Sweet Tooth
head in the Carnival area and grab Power Missiles there, and the
amusement park for Gas Cans. For the most part I tend to shoot the AI
with machine guns. They wage war in the Carnival area a lot, but they
do fight each other so you can witness some damage being dealt to them.
If you need a breather, charge for the Roller Coaster tracks and take
the teleporter. At the top of the Sweet Tooth head you’re pretty safe
since no enemies will follow you there (or at least it never seems like
they do). A homing missile pickup is at the top, so you can keep
grabbing it and sniping enemies from the top. If you need health, the
Sweet Tooth head and the tent in the Funhouse area are the best places
to pick up health; the AI will only get the health in the Sweet Tooth
head if you’re chasing them, and they usually miss the Partial Health
under the Tent even though they make a couple of passes. I suggest you
stay away from the Twisty Roads area since the AI will surely gang up
on you and also grab the health in this area. Other than that, you’re
always safe if you retreat to the teleporter and Roller Coaster tracks.
This is the last level for story mode in TML. Completing it on medium
earns you 12-Pak and Death Port as well as a sample of the note from
the supposedly deceased developers, and completing it on hard earns you
Gold Tooth as well as the full note from the supposedly deceased
developers.
Map 4 – Death Port/Port of Death (secret map)
---------------------------------------------
Health Locations:
Partial Health – On top of the box thing in the Docking Ship area, use
Jump and turbo when approaching it from the Central Deck area with the
ramp.
Partial Health – In the Central Hub area, it’s inside the tunnel formed
by two pipes.
Partial Health – In the Cabin area, shoot the double-door at the back
of the structure with the Partial Health, Homing Missile and Power
Missile on top. The Partial Health sits at the left corner.
Partial Health – In the aforementioned structure. To get to it, access
the Upper Deck area from the Central Hub via the ramp. Turn right, you
should see the structure ahead. Get as close to the edge as possible.
Use turbo, and jump just when you’re about to charge off of the edge
and hopefully you’ll make it. It’s much easier if you’re using a faster
car. Make sure to hit the brakes to prevent overshooting the platform.
Teleporter:
Teleporter 1 – I can’t believe I overlooked this. This teleporter sits
at the side of the Docking Ship. To get to it, drive slowly over the
edge (with the Power Missile and Gas Can) to land on a roadway. The
teleporter is at the bottom ahead of the road when you keep following
it. It takes you to the top of the Cabin (where the Power Missile,
Homing Missile and Partial Health are).
Boundary:
Falling off into the waters outside does 25 points of damage to you,
equivalent to a Remote Bomb. It does not do varied boundary damage like
in TMHO. Oddly enough, the AI is actually dumb enough to keep jumping
into the water usually through mis-timed jumps.
Areas:
Central Deck – This is where you start off most of the time. This area
is occupied frequently by the AI so getting into a battle with them is
a risky idea in this area. The Central Deck contains a Power Missile,
Ricochet Bomb, Turbo and a Homing Missile. It also has a fairly tall
structure with a Power Missile, Partial Health and Homing Missile on
it, as well as two doors that you shoot down to access the Cabin area.
Watch out for Gas Cans from enemies in the Cabin area.
Cabin – As mentioned above, you can access the Cabin area by shooting
down the double-doors from behind the structure in the Central Deck. In
here is a very large rectangle area as well as a Homing Missile, Power
Missile, and Partial Health; it’s excellent for combat. There’s a ramp
going down into it, which is perfect to lay Remote Bombs or fire
Ricochets into. You can also shoot anyone in the Central Deck area with
a Gas Can (the explosion will hit them from below), but you may hit
yourself (since the can immediately hits the ceiling a short distance
from you) thus a shield is recommended in case.
Central Hub – From the Central Deck area, you can access the inside of
ship via three ramps going into it. There’s a Fire Missile and Partial
Health, as well as a ramp going into the Upper Deck area. You can shoot
enemies at the Upper Deck with Gas Cans (again, use a shield in case).
Upper Deck – Accessed by going up the ramp from the Central Hub
room/area, this is the largest area and is perfectly flat for nice
combat. Up here is a Gas Can inside a tunnel connected by pipes, a
Power Missile at the edge, a Remote Bomb, and Turbo. If you turn right
after you entered the Upper Deck, you’ll find the structure from the
Central Deck with a Homing Missile, Power Missile and Partial Health.
This is the only place you can use to get on top of that structure. The
Upper Deck is infrequently visited by the AI and you can retreat here
to safety. You can shoot at anyone in the Central Deck area, unload
Ricochets into the ramp at enemies coming up from the Central Hub area,
and take off when too many enemies gather. Watch out for Gas Cans from
enemies in the Central Hub area, though.
Docking Ship – You can access the Docking Ship area via a ramp from the
Central Deck. Here, weapons (Homing Missile, Power Missile, Gas Can)
are hanging on the edges of the ramp-like surfaces, but they’re pretty
risky to get since you might go out of bounds. A Partial Health is
sitting on top of the structure here; use Jump to get onto the
structure to get it. A ramp on the other side takes you back to the
Central Deck area, and there’s also a Homing Missile here. If anyone is
at the Upper Deck, you can shoot them by using the ramp edges closest
to the ramp from the Central Deck, jump, and firing a weapon (hopefully
a homing one). The AI makes a lot of botched jumps to get to the
Docking Ship area, so if you hang around on the Upper Deck and let them
go about their business, they might even eventually kill themselves.
There’s also an area here that I overlooked; if you drive slowly and
carefully over the edge with the Gas Can and Power Missile, you’ll land
on a roadway that takes you to a Teleporter. By golly, I thought
Carnival of Darkness was the only map with a teleporter… still shows
that Dave put some sneaky areas and hid them well.
Strategy:
The Upper Deck is your best bet. You can play a game of cat and mouse
with your enemies by retreating into the Central Deck, rushing back
into the Central Hub, and taking the ramp back to the Upper Deck.
Ricochets are a great space controlling weapon, especially when you’re
in the Upper Deck and enemies are approaching from the Central Hub.
From the Upper Deck, you can shoot at enemies in the Central Deck and
Docking Ship with missiles; the most they’ll do to you is a Gas Can.
Fortunately, the Partial Healths are well protected, except for one, so
you can get them when you need it. Overall, not too hard of a map; its
my favorite TMLost level.
***********************************************************************
4. Strategies
a. Character Specific Strategies
================================
This section deals with HUMAN opponents, not AI. Most of the strategies
deal specifically with character specials.
(Universal)
180-Reverse Fire – Use your Jump and Tight Turn button to make a 180
turn, and fire back at your enemy when they are chasing you.
Application: In TMHO, given how unreliable the Rear-Fire button is,
this is a much better alternative. This technique is good for fully
charged Swarmers or freezing your enemy by surprise. Try to be on the
sides of an enemy rather than directly in front of them when they’re
chasing you to increase its effectiveness. In TML you can use this
technique to a much greater extent given that you jump higher and
everyone (except for Spectre) has deadlier specials.
Aerial Dive – Charge past an opening, jump and turn 90 degrees to the
direction of your enemy and fire. The result is that you land behind a
wall and avoid return fire while your enemy gets hit.
Application: If you’re confused, picture this. In Tokyo Streets,
imagine you’re on a different street, and you’re arriving at an
intersection. Your enemy happens to arriving on the same intersection
from a different street, and you both have yet to meet. What you do, is
that you speed and jump so that you’re popping out from the corner, and
turning to face your enemy. You fire a weapon, and you land right
behind a wall so they can’t retaliate after that. This is effective if
you use a freeze during the Dive so that when you land behind the wall,
you don’t have to take time to turn before pummeling your frozen enemy.
(TMHO)
Roadkill
--------
To get return shots without freezing, fire it at the side of the enemy
and back up before returning it. You can save your specials if you
return them as well. Though the special has limited homing abilities,
it’s too weak to be used for a straight on hit.
Shadow
------
Detonate the special specifically on intersections, or around corners.
The special can also be used to shoot enemies below and you’re on a
higher elevation. If your enemy is moving around, the special will
cause them to flip. Either bounce them around with your specials if you
have any left, or follow it up with freeze -> combo of choice. The
special also goes through walls, so if your enemy is hiding behind it
then they’re no good. Other uses for the special includes a panic
button for when you’re frozen and an enemy is near you when they combo
you and knocking them off boundaries, although the latter is hard to
do. The special has a medium AoE (area of effect) but you need the
target to be near the center to ensure full damage.
Mr Grimm
--------
Since the special is only good for when you have someone frozen, make
sure to use Ricochet Discs or Napalms as a set up. If you’re shooting
someone not frozen with it, make sure to throw it at the path they’re
going at, not directly at them. Once the special hits use Napalms as a
follow-up for when they’re running away, or freeze them and follow with
another one. Note that you can cancel the special by switching before
Mr Grimm fires it. If you nail someone that’s frozen with it, combo it
into a Gas Can then Power Missile for huge damage. You can fire
practically *anything* after the special is fired, giving Mr Grimm a
nice offense to complement his low health.
Sweet Tooth
-----------
Sweet Tooth’s special is practically a stronger Homing Missile. Use it
as a last resort weapon when you’re out of homing weapons. Don’t use it
to shoot enemies behind walls a la Ricos. You can snipe with it also.
Thumper
-------
Given that each fireball is 5 pts of damage, a frozen enemy will not
break out until the second fireball hits. Use a ram and Machine Gun
fire to follow up. The homing ability is better if you’re facing your
enemy and they’re not turning too much. Since each fireball comes out
rather slowly and it doesn’t do much damage, it’s best used as a bait
weapon rather than offensively – i.e. force your enemy to use their
turbos to get away rather than Shields. If your enemy runs away from
the fireballs, they’re usually vulnerable to missiles.
Spectre
-------
Spectre is practically the game’s best sniper, given his useful
special. Hang around the sniping points mentioned in the map strategies
above. Your enemy may be tempted to Flak or Shield – use the special to
force them to empty their energy so that they’ll be victim to Freezes
and Missiles. If they decide to tank the special instead of waste
energy, make sure you have your five specials stocked so that they take
56 points of damage. Always try to grab all the homing missiles and
swarmer missiles to increase your annoyance factor.
Twister
-------
Twister is perfect as a counter to melee-special users. If they attempt
to spam their specials (especially after they have you pinned into a
corner) use your special to keep them from doing so. A fun thing to do
is to drag enemies out of bounds with your special – although you’ll
take damage, they’ll take more provided that they’ve been spinning long
enough in your tornado. You can even kill them in one go if you have
more specials since they’ll most likely respawn at a point close enough
to you. If you want combos, you must throw your enemy into a wall. You
can also use the special immediately after being frozen and back away
from your enemy so that the tornado catches them by surprise.
Outlaw
------
Your special is best used when an enemy is behind cover or underground.
If it hits, they’ll probably run for it. Follow them carefully to
ensure that your special connects completely. If they still refuse to
leave from their hiding place, use Napalms or Ricochets to flush them
out. Although you can shock someone at a higher elevation (i.e. they’re
on rooftops in Paris or LA) you’ll probably get Napalms in return, so
that’s not a good trade off. If they’re underground, watch out for
Napalms and/or Remotes.
Grasshopper
-----------
Use the special as a decoy. The green circle around the enemy may cause
them to put their shields up, at which you can fire it off just when
their shields end. If you fire it off beforehand, they won’t be going
anywhere much since they’ll spend a lot of time in midair, so this is a
perfect setup for a freeze. If it hits, follow with homing missiles.
Turbo AFTER your enemy if it hits since they can turn around in midair
and fire back. Should the special send the enemy straight up, drop a
Remote and detonate. The extra damage from the Remote and the
disorientation from the explosion will greatly power up your combos.
Always start this special at the side of your enemy so that they can’t
nail you with missiles, but beware of Remotes.
Warthog
-------
Play him like Sweet Tooth but with better armor and speed. The
difference here is that the special congregates only when it’s gaining
on its enemy, so you’ll need to fire it into a wide open area without
any obstructions for full damage.
Axel
----
If you land a special, get in a ram, machine guns, freeze, and another
special. If you trap your enemy in a corner or wall, chances are
they’ll die fast, especially if you have five specials. If your enemy
is a melee-special user, the Shockwave can also be used to repel them.
Always shoot your enemy on the sides after landing a special so that
they can’t retaliate (it’ll also increase the chance that they’ll flip
over, thus letting you land some high damage combos).
Mr Slamm
--------
Chain throw his special. Throw an enemy into a wall, follow with more,
repeat, etc.. Use a jump to throw your enemy further up a wall so that
they’ll hang on longer. Don’t get too close because they’ll Flak or
Remote Bomb+Shield spam. If they shield, put on yours too before
slamming them. Should they have no energy for Flak or Shields, “hug”
them by continuously accelerating into their car (to prevent them from
moving) and pound them with Machine Guns and other weapons. If you’re
not throwing an enemy into a wall, the toss sets up for a freeze and/or
missiles after, but you can also use it to keep them away so that you
can runaway. The special also does obligatory ram damage (to you and to
the enemy) so expect your enemy to go down fast.
Crimson Fury
------------
The special is fast and weak, so try shooting it from a corner rather
than straight on. If your enemy is moving it may miss, but you can
scare them with the special or force them to expend some turbos.
Hammerhead
----------
Land the special from the side of your enemy. When you land on the
enemy with your special, you can STILL turn. Try to position Hammerhead
right behind the enemy during the special so that when he lands,
they’ll be right in front of him. This leaves them vulnerable to your
weapons since they’ll have to drive away from you ahead. Though you
don’t really get any combos from the special, it does set up for
missiles and other weaponry.
Cousin Eddy
-----------
Spam your Machine Guns and fire along some missiles with it. The
special has a few uses, but the best one is to escape after getting
caught in a freeze combo. Therefore I don’t really recommend using it
offensively. It DOES do great damage for a special and sets your enemy
up for punishment, but you should not blindly use it since the
launching effect only happens if you connect from mid range. If you ram
an enemy into a wall with it, leave a Remote and back up while firing
Machine Guns. Throw in a Napalm afterwards for huge damage. Make sure
you’re not moving away from the wall during the special if you want
combos afterwards.
ATV
---
Take advantage of all the sniping points in the map and try to grab
homing missiles, napalms and swarmer missiles. You do NOT want to be at
a point where an enemy can shoot you from a distance and kill you very
quickly with homing missiles. Prioritize Flak-ing and Shielding. Always
head up to a higher area if possible.
Dark Tooth
----------
Easy, just spam your machine guns and use your special when they’re
nearby. Throw an enemy into a wall and fire Napalms, Homing Missiles or
any other weapon along with your machine guns for massive damage. Even
if they shield during the special, they won’t be able to shield your
machine gun.
Tower Tooth
-----------
Spam Machine Guns and special. If you’re at a higher area, it’s even
better since they’ll be forced to go to a higher area to avoid your
machine gun. With your health you shouldn’t worry too much from getting
frozen or Machine Gunned too much. The lightning special repeatedly
disorientates your enemy which will greatly slow them down for your
machine guns to eat away at their health.
(TML)
Roadkill
--------
Use the special during sniping points or when chasing an enemy. If
you’re chasing your enemy, you can fire other missiles or Napalms after
launching the special to add more damage. Remember that you can switch
weapons to cancel the charge. If you rear-fire the special, the special
will charge up by itself and you’ll have to press the Fire button again
to launch it, but it’ll keep your fingers handy. You can also buffer in
any energy attack besides Rear-Fire during the charge for a huge
assault of weaponry.
Crazy 8
-------
Use his special as you would with Outlaw’s from TMHO. Given its power,
it’s an excellent way to discourage enemies from hiding.
Mr Grimm
--------
The damage of the special is even better than TMHO’s AND you can still
mount a crazy offensive after firing the special. Prioritize on Gas
Cans so that you can set up your Freeze and deal massive damage to any
enemy. Freeze -> Special -> Power Missile -> Napalm does 74 points of
damage and with Machine Guns it bumps the combo up to 80+ which means
that everyone except for Gold Tooth will die in 2 combos. You can
cancel the special by switching it before Mr Grimm throws out the
weapon.
Shadow
------
Though you have a stronger overall special than in TMHO, it has slower
speed and it hurts you so it must be used more strategically. A safe
use for it is to spam it when your enemy is behind cover so that you’ll
deal huge damage without exposing yourself. Never use the secondary
special since you have no follow-ups after and it’s much slower than in
TMB.
Brimstone
---------
The special should be used as a follow-up to freeze combos. It is 100%
UNBLOCKABLE AND CANNOT BE SHIELDED, so if your enemy tries to shield
after eating a freeze combo, the special will damage them AND waste
their energy. Don’t use it offensively by itself since its homing
ability is okay at best.
Axel
----
Axel is practically the same as TMHO but with ramming damage and a
stronger special. If you have 3 specials stocked, you are guaranteed to
kill anyone. After landing a special, throw in another weapon, switch
back to the special and repeat. It will destroy their health in seconds
and they have no chance of escaping as long as you turbo after them.
Darkside
--------
The special can either be used offensively or defensively, but if you
corner an enemy, the special will rapidly destroy their health since it
does huge damage with turbo rams factored in. It also puts you right
next to an enemy for machine guns and close-up missile or Gas Can shots
for huge damage (since the special stops immediately after you run into
an enemy). On a frozen enemy, the special will NOT break the ice
immediately, so 2 specials on a frozen enemy + a lot of machine gun
rounds = an EASY 80+ point combo with a 51 point Special+Turbo ram for
when they run away, talk about massive damage with little effort. A
neat trick is to ram the FRONT of your enemy’s car with the special so
that their car is sitting on top of yours. From there, you can assault
them with missiles and machine guns since they can only drive backward
to get off of your car. It’ll also kill them really fast if you have 3
specials stocked. This only works for big cars. For smaller cars,
they’ll fly after getting hit; use this opportunity for follow-up
weaponry such as drive-by remote bombings or retreating with
missiles/Gas Cans.
Outlaw
------
The special needs you to be at mid to close range for it to deal high
damage, so you need to chase an enemy down. You can mount a long range
offensive however, since the special has more range than Crazy 8’s. Use
it to force your enemy to shield, and turbo after them when they run
away with missiles and/or Gas Cans.
Sweet Tooth
-----------
Given the slower speed and minor homing ability, Sweet Tooth’s special
is better used when chasing an enemy in a straight path for the
missiles to hit, or when backing away from an enemy chasing him down
instead. Its power has taken a nosedive from TMB, so use the special as
a last resort. If your enemy runs circles around you, expect the
missiles to miss. However, a good use for the special is to stay in
mech form to decrease your car’s frame and greatly lower the knockback
from Remotes, Gas Cans and Power Missiles, giving you a chance to get
away from machine guns and follow up missiles.
Yellow Jacket
-------------
Yellow Jacket’s special is practically designed for ramming, so that’s
where you’ll deal the most damage. After a freeze combo, charge after
your enemy by their sides and cut them off. Use Gas Cans or Ricos as a
setup, if you’re not freezing. If your enemy tries to ram you, have the
special out so that they’ll take more damage from it instead.
Junkyard Dog
------------
You have a slightly stronger Gas Can, and it can be used in the same
manner as one. It’ll help deal a little more damage in freeze combos or
catch enemies from behind cover or above.
Manslaughter
------------
Corner your enemy before using the special to get the most damage from
it. Ideally you want to land the special at the side of your enemy AND
be close since the rocks spread out after being thrown; getting close
to your enemy will ensure that most of the rocks will hit. The special
is also useful for when you’re getting chased, since all the rocks pile
up and chances are your enemy will run over all of the rocks for a nice
50 points of damage. You can take advantage of openings with the
special to narrow the area a bit, so this special has some strategical
value too.
12-Pak
------
12-Pak’s special does NOT need to be charged up via having your enemy
within the target box, so it is actually more powerful in multiplayer
than single player. When you charge it up, make sure you’re hanging in
a higher area so that your enemy can’t nail you while your special
charges. Like Roadkill, fire missiles or Napalms after the special to
unleash a long range assault for more damage.
Warthog
-------
To get the most damage with your special, turbo ram and use the
special, then chase your enemy down. It’s a pity that you can’t switch
weapons during the special, which decreases the overall damage dealt.
Should your enemy NOT break out of the freeze during the special,
they’ll still be frozen and can be hit with other weapons. Make sure
you flame your opponent’s side to get maximum damage from the special.
Gold Tooth
----------
Use him as you would with Sweet Tooth. The special can be a good threat
since it rapidly whittles down your enemy’s health and even if not all
the missiles hit, it’ll usually do Remote Bomb-level damage with a few
missiles so that’s decent.
c. Combos
=========
Special -> Freeze setups (These chars can use their specials to land a
freeze for huge damage)
Grasshopper: Make sure the special knocks them into the wall to prevent
retaliation. Add 18 points to any freeze combo mentioned below.
Mr Slamm: Do a jump before the special finishes and throw them into the
wall. You'll get more height to decrease the possibility of escape. Add
22 points to any freeze combo mentioned below.
Twister: This one's hard, but it can be done. The tornado angles in the
opposite direction of where you're going, so if you drive backward
it'll throw the enemy forward. Drive backward a bit and then jump to
throw your enemy into a wall so that you get more height and more time
to input the freeze. Add 18 points to any freeze combo below.
Dark Tooth: Throw your enemy into a wall, using a jump to increase
height. Add 20 points to any freeze combo below.
Axel: Freeze only if your enemy flips over. Add 15 (23 in TML) points
to any freeze combo below.
Shadow: Same as above. Add 8-16 points (23 in TML) to any freeze combo
below.
Cousin Eddy: Ram them into a wall, but try to stay mid distance so that
you're not moving away from the enemy. Add 25 points to any freeze
combo below.
General Combos:
Freeze -> Gas Can/Napalm -> Power Missile (41 pts)
Drop the Gas Can/Napalm at the side of your enemy so that it partially
lifts them off the ground for the power missile. Start your machine gun
AFTER you fire the Gas Can/Napalm, to increase the combo to 50 points
or more. You can add more damage with a turbo ram. This is the BEST
overall combo for any car as you’ll only need to land it 2-3 times
(with Machine Guns) before a car is killed (except in TML vs Gold
Tooth).
Freeze -> Remote -> Gas Can/Napalm/Power Missile (46 pts)
Detonate the remote on the side of an enemy, or wait for them to break
out and detonate the remote to flip them over when they move. If you
get the flip over, you can extend the combo by adding in a Fire/Homing
Missile for an extra 7-10 points in TML and 10-12 points in TMHO if you
turn really fast before they have a chance to flip back on. You can
also throw in a Rico to keep them incapacitated before firing a Power
Missile/Gas Can/Napalm. Add another Gas Can/Napalm when they try to
escape for 20 more points of damage. Probably the strongest overall
combo you can do, using one freeze.
Freeze -> Rico -> Special/Power/Napalm/Remote (?/31/31/36)
Because the Rico only does 10 pts of dmg, a frozen enemy wont break out
of it right away. Thus you can land a special or any of the other
weapons above. If you get a Power or Napalm, land another Napalm for an
extra 20 points. If you get the Remote, you can go for the combo listed
above (if your enemy flips over, of course). If your special nets you a
freeze like the ones mentioned above, you can go for another freeze
combo. TMHO specific for the Rico combo.
Freeze -> Rico -> Gas Can -> Special/Power Missile -> Gas Can (?/76)
Fire the rico at mid distance just before the freeze reaches the enemy.
Drop the Gas Can at the side of the enemy to make them incapacitated
(before they have a chance of breaking out). Fire the special/power
just before the rico hits. You can increase damage by adding in a turbo
ram to take advantage of their knockback time. TML only.
Character Special Combos:
Roadkill
--------
Freeze -> Rico bank shot -> Special return shot (61)
Try to fire the rico at a mid distance into a wall for the bank shot,
then fire the special and run behind your enemy before doing the return
shot. A hard combo and not very likely to land, but it's the only
unique one I could come up with Roadkill in TMHO.
Charged Special -> Napalm/Fire/Homing Missile (47-57/37-47/34-44)
Do this combo when your enemy is running away. You can fire more
Fire/Homing Missiles at a longer distance.
Shadow
------
Freeze -> Remote -> quick detonate special -> detonate remote (damage
varies, 49 in TML)
Needs some timing, but if your special doesnt flip the enemy over then
the remote will once you detonate it when they run for it. You can then
add in another weapon or another freeze to extend the combo. In TML,
back up quickly before detonating the special so that you don't hurt
yourself. The remote won't flip them over since the special already
does that. Finish with Power -> Gas Can since you can’t do 2 freezes.
Mr Grimm
--------
Freeze -> Special -> Napalm/Gas Can -> Power Missile (66, 75 in TML)
Again, drop the Gas Can/Napalm on the side of your enemy so that the
Power Missile hits. Do NOT switch to the Napalm/Gas Can immediately
after firing the special, or else you'll cancel the special from being
fired. I recommend this combo, it’s easy and does excellent damage with
Machine Guns thrown in.
Freeze -> Special -> Napalm -> Freeze -> Special -> Power Missile
-> Napalm (112)
As usual, fire the Napalm at the side of the enemy. Can only be done in
TMHO.
Twister
-------
Freeze -> Special -> Remote -> Napalm (64)
Plant a Remote by the wall before using the special to throw them into
the wall. Detonate the remote and fire a Napalm at the wall before they
escape (you don't need to drop it).
Freeze -> Special -> Napalm -> Freeze -> Power Missile -> Napalm (80)
Turn towards the direction your enemy moves after the Napalm hits
before freezing. Throw the last Napalm directly at the wall unless they
get too far; drop it otherwise.
Grasshopper
-----------
Freeze -> Special -> charged Swarmer (46)
If you're at a higher elevation, the enemy will have even more air time
after the special for you to unleash a fully charged Swarmer at them.
The special needs to get them into a wall to let the Swarmer charge up.
Freeze -> Special -> Remote (44)
Get right next to the enemy before using the special. It will knock
them straight up. Drop a remote and quickly detonate it just when
they're about to run away to flip them over. Turn VERY quickly so that
you can follow it up with another weapon, or a freeze combo.
Axel
----
Freeze -> Napalm/Gas Can -> Special -> Remote -> quick detonate Remote
-> Power Missile -> Napalm/Gas Can (104, 109 in TML)
Needs timing. After the special, quickly drop a remote and turbo
underneath your enemy. Detonate after they flip back up and then fire a
power -> Napalm/Gas Can. If it doesn’t flip them over, turn quickly to
fire the Power Missile to Napalm/Gas Can.
Freeze -> turbo ram -> Special -> turbo ram -> Special -> turbo ram ->
Special -> Freeze -> Power Missile -> Gas Can (143)
This only works if your enemy moves after each turbo ram. Track your
enemy down and ram them before firing the special. For the last
special, if your enemy doesn't flip from it, make sure to get close
before firing the freeze. This combo will kill everyone except for
Manslaughter and Gold Tooth, but for MS you can fire your Machine Gun
to finish him off. This combo can be messed up in the Death Port level
if your enemy falls off the stage. Each turbo ram must also do 11 pts
to get the 143 pts of dmg. If you don't get the next two turbo rams,
the combo reduces to 121 points. TML specific combo.
Mr Slamm
--------
Freeze -> Special -> Power Missile -> Napalm (63 pts)
The special must throw the enemy into a wall first. The Napalm does not
need to be dropped.
Freeze -> Specialx5 (111 pts)
Your enemy must NOT have any energy to Flak or Shield or Remote/Napalm
their way out from the wall. If your enemy still has health remaining,
use Napalms or a couple of missiles to finish them off.
Hammerhead
----------
Freeze -> Special -> Power Missile (36 pts)
When you land on your enemy, try to turn around to position Hammerhead
behind the enemy so that he jumps off and they're right in front of
him. You can then land a Power here.
Dark Tooth
----------
Freeze -> Special -> charged Swarmer (48)
Like Grasshopper, throw an enemy into a wall from a higher elevation to
get in a charged Swarmer. Use Machine Guns for more damage.
Freeze -> Specialx5 (101)
Same deal as Mr Slamm.
Cousin Eddy
-----------
Freeze -> Special -> Napalmx2 (66)
The enemy must be thrown into a wall first.
Darkside
--------
Freeze -> Rico/Power Missile/Gas Can -> Special+Turbo Ram (67/71)
Easy, high damaging combo with machine guns thrown in.
Freeze -> Special+Turbo Ram -> Special (87)
Ram the enemy’s front with the Special+Turbo Ram. This will put their
car right on top of yours, where they can’t escape the second special
for sure.
***********************************************************************
5. Bonus Material/Extras
Here you can view content including a 30-minute documentary, Sweet Tour
(which has factoids for the process of making TM straight from the
developers) and TM1 movies that never made it into TM1 (though you can
view them on youtube). At the start of the menu screen when you arrive
to choose between TMHO or TML, hitting Square will let you view these.
a. Sweet Tour
-------------
Here, I’m only going to post the 29 factoids rather than explaining how
to get them.
Factoid 1 – The Black That Never Was
“An entire on foot section was planned for the never released TWISTED
METAL: BLACK PART II. In those sections, players would have selected
both Sweet Tooth and the Preacher and gone on foot to perform a variety
of character based missions. What you see here is all that remains of
those foot missions. The animation is crude, the art is not final, and
there is little gameplay. Still, we thought you would enjoy this behind
the scenes look at what might have been.
See if you can locate all of the glowing Sweet Tooth heads in the
level. Each head will reveal more about the past of the Twisted Metal
series.
Thanks for playing our game and exploring the twisted path with us!
Yours truly,
The Twisted Metal Team”
Factoid 2 – Birth of a Level
Twisted Metal levels begin life in one of two ways: someone has an idea
for a cool setting and then the team comes up with gameplay for that
setting, or someone has an idea for a cool battleground shape that
would lead to fun gameplay. As you can see from these images, many
levels start as very simple shape sketches and then expand out to
highly detailed maps. Most of these maps are from Twisted Metal 1 and
2.
Factoid 3 – The Need for Concept Art
Concept art is used to aid the game’s modelers, showing them what the
world they are building should look like. Concept art is also used to
sell the core ideas of the level, helping everyone involved get the
emotional feel the level should evoke. Sometimes, as you can see from
these images concept art reaches a finished, polished state. Other
times the art is just a rough sketch meant to indicate layout,
perspective, or mood.
Factoid 4 – The Origins of Sweet Tooth
This is concept art from Twisted Metal 2. As you can see, the city
rooftops level originally included flying Sweet Tooth helicopters as
bosses, an idea that would not be implemented until Twisted Metal:
Black. The Darkside vs. Sweet Tooth image marks the first time an
artist gave the ice cream truck head a living personality, seeing the
clown with such an evil personality inspired the team to flesh out the
driver of the truck itself, applying the vibe of the head on the truck
to the driver inside.
Factoid 5 – Battle in your Own Backyard
This is concept art from Twisted Metal: Head On. It builds on the theme
established back in Twisted Metal 1: destroying the familiar. The team
always felt that car combat battles would be more fun and satisfying if
they took place in your own backyard. This is why the suburbs has been
a staple of the series: the team assumed most players would be suburban
dwellers and would enjoy destroying the very place in which they lived.
The fairgrounds is another variation on the destroy what is familiar
theme.
Factoid 6 – Crazy Cars
These are cars that were too far removed from reality to exist in the
Twisted Metal universe. In the same way the team wanted players to
fight on battlegrounds they could relate to, they also felt it
necessary to create cars that people would see driving around in real
life. Without these reality grounding elements, the game would never
have resonated with such a large audience. These images did not fit
into that vision and were therefore cut from the game.
Factoid 7 – Dark Tooth Design
These are rough designs for Dark Tooth and Tower Tooth from Twisted
Metal: Head On. These are a long way off from the original Dark Tooth
in Twisted Metal 2, which was basically the Sweet Tooth ice cream truck
scaled up to a giant size and given a huge number of hit points. With
each title it gets harder and harder to design a Sweet Tooth boss that
is unique and special enough to be a boss character while still
retaining the core elements of the very simple ice cream truck design.
Factoid 8 – Hover Cars
Focus test reception was so poor for Twisted Metal 1 that the team
explored the option of turning the vehicles into hover cars for the
sequel. It was believed that the focus test results were poor because
control of the Twisted Metal 1 vehicles was too confusing and
frustrating. The team felt hover vehicles would be easier to control
and more user friendly. However, once the positive reviews and fan
reaction from Twisted Metal 1 came in, the team decided to stick with
standard vehicles.
Factoid 9 – Selling the Vision
While a development team may be excited about making a game, other
folks need to be just as excited in order for the game to get the
support it needs from various departments (marketing, sales, PR, etc).
The following images were created to sell the vision of Twisted metal
to other departments within Sony.
Factoid 10 – The Evolution of Sweet Tooth
As you can see from the photograph taken during filing of the Twisted
Metal 1 end movies, Sweet Tooth was at the start simply a circus clown.
He did not even have his trademarked flaming hair. But by Twisted
Metal: Black, the classic look of Sweet Tooth had emerged. From chicken
scratch sketches to full blown CG character models, no expense was
spared in bringing this mascot character to his current incarnation.
Factoid 11 – The Beginning of an Idea
These are sketches of various play ideas, drawn over the course of
Twisted Metal’s 10 year history. Hundreds of pages of game design notes
were created with various members of the team contributing to the
game’s design. Many elements of the Twisted Metal series arose from
these sorts of rapidly sketched, spur of the moment bursts of
inspiration.
Factoid 12 – The Prison Ship
From rough sketch to finished level, these images show the progress a
level goes through as it grows from an idea to a fully functioning
battleground. Often times as shown in the double image a simple 3D
level is handed over to a concept artist who will draw on top of the 3D
art, creating the details that transform a level from a dull world of
grey shaded blocks to a believable 3D battleground.
Factoid 13 – Going Wacky
Designing a new Twisted Metal game, there always seems to be a desire
to go wacky with the car designs. It’s a temptation the team has always
resisted, feeling that going wacky while generating a laugh or two
would hurt the thematic integrity of the title. Here are some fun but
wacky vehicle designs that felt too silly to include in the Twisted
Metal universe.
Factoid 14 – Shud 3D Model
These are 3d models of Sony Computer Entertainment America’s vice
President Shu’nei Yoshida and Sony Santa Monica Studio’s head Allan
Becker. The team placed the characters in the game as homage to the
executives responsible for some of Sony’s biggest hit games.
Factoid 15 – Twisted Metal: Rejects
For every vehicle that makes it into a Twisted Metal game, there are
twenty or more that end up in the reject pile. Sometimes a vehicle gets
cut because it’s two similar to another vehicle already chosen for the
game. Other times a vehicle is rejected because it looks bad from the
game’s behind the car view. Here are some vehicles that over the years
found there way onto the YES list several times, only to be cut from
the game at the last moment.
Factoid 16 – The Evolution of Axel
Axel was inspired by a game tester on Twisted Metal 1. The tester
suggested a vehicle with a cage sandwiched between two giant wheels. A
man would sit inside the cage and control the vehicle. The idea of a
man strapped between the two massive tires grew from this core idea.
This concept art shows how Axel evolved from that initial concept to
the staple Twisted Metal character he has since become.
Factoid 17 – Vehicle Concept Art
Attempts are always made to give Twisted Metal vehicles a flourish that
will elevate them from simple cars into full blown characters. But
balance is necessary. Too much flourish and the fantasy of car combat
is lost; too little and the vehicles feel generic and bland. In these
images, notice the drooping headlights on the taxi, meant to suggest a
tired, worn out character. Even the smiley race on the tow truck’s
greeting ball is an attempt to spice up what would otherwise be a
generic and thus dull vehicle.
Factoid 18 – Traps
The ‘on foot’ levels of Twisted Metal: Black 2 were slated to contain
various platforming gameplay challenges, like the one you see before
you. Collision on the traps, as well as the careful timing needed for
any platforming play challenge, was never completed. This is why you
can walk through any of the traps and platform challenges in this level
and not get hurt. Enjoy! We won’t go so easy on you next time!
Factoid 19 – What would Sweet Tooth do?
Notice the trash cans on the front of the truck. These images from
Twisted Metal: Black show an attempt to create a world where
contestants used what they had around them in order to fortify and
defend their vehicles. Stepping away from the fantasy based Twisted
Metal 1 and 2 where cars battled with no armor at all Black attempted
to create a more realistic version of what a Twisted Metal contest
would be like in the real world.
Factoid 20 – Recurring Themes
These images show concept art for a shopping mall, a freeway, and city
rooftops; three locales that come up for discussion each time the team
makes a new Twisted Metal game. Rooftop and freeway levels seem to make
it into every title. But the shopping mall discussed as far back as
Twisted Metal 1 has never made it into a Twisted game. The challenge
has always been having enough texture space so the shop fronts inside
the mall would look different from one another. With limited texture
space, the game would have to repeat the same hobby shop store front
for example over and over. In a game where split screen is a huge
factor, not being able to glance at your opponent’s screen and know
which of the 10 hobby store shop fronts he is racing past makes for
really bad gameplay.
Factoid 21 – Pitfalls of Concept Artists
One of the pitfalls of having amazing concept artists on the team is
that people get swept up in the drama of an image and forget that the
actual game, no matter how good the graphics, will never look like the
art. It is not a graphics issue, it’s a camera perspective issue. The
game could not be played from the dramatic cameras shown in these
images. Because of this the finished levels, some having graphics that
look very close to the concept art, lack the same punch that the
concept art delivered.
Factoid 22 – Same Body, Different Skin
Often times a car will be chosen to go into the game, but the debate
over the skin that covers that car’s body will go on for months after.
In Twisted Metal: Black, the black & white police car became Crazy 8,
the rusted red, old time stock car. The other image is Severed Sam’s
modern day race car, seen in the bonus Twisted Metal: Black levels.
This car went through many color variations before the team settled on
the final color choice.
Factoid 23 – Game design
Game design concepts are usually sketched out or paper designed to
determine if they will be worth putting into the game. Here are some
gameplay specific images, including interactive billboards that never
made it into Twisted Metal: Black, the much hated hover cops from
Twisted Metal 1, and a whole slew of gameplay concepts from a
designer’s sketch book. If you look closely at the sketches you can see
initial concept for the ejector seat play mechanic that found its way
into Twisted Metal: Black.
Factoid 24 – The Evolution of Mr. Grimm
Grimm began life as a mysterious badass on a motorbike. From there as
these images show the team flirted with giving Grimm an animated
skeleton riding shotgun in the side car. There was also the concept of
a decaying department store mannequin sidekick. One version of Grimm
showed him as a man wearing the head of a slaughtered bull on his head.
Fresh spins on old characters is one of the trademarks of the Twisted
metal series, keeping the characters and stories fresh from game to
game.
Factoid 25 – The Ice Cream Truck
The ice cream truck for Twisted Metal: Black took six months to design,
with over three hundred concept sketches done before the team locked on
the final version. In the following images you can see the attention to
detail that went into everything from choosing the right clown head to
figuring out what was inside the back of the truck itself. You can also
see the original art of the ice cream truck labeled DEMONIC ICE CREAM
TRUCK that was designed well before the character of Sweet Tooth was
even conceived.
Factoid 26 – In Game Art
These are two posters designed to go into the game world of Twisted
Metal 1. The image of Calypso can be found in the arena level of the
first Twisted Metal. The image of the hover cop admonishing players of
Urban Assault (the game’s title when it was in production) did not make
it into the game.
Factoid 27 – TM2 Master Maps
Once a level is laid out, concept artists create a high level map of
the entire battlefield. The image helps team members get a good sense
of the level as a whole, as well as capturing the visual mood and feel
that the level should have. The following images are high level master
maps from Twisted Metal: 2.
Factoid 28 – Moody Characters
The world of Twisted Metal has inspired a great deal of moody concept
art. Often times the art is designed solely to convey the mood of the
game, never intended to be used for game production. The following
images show some of the moodier art created for the series. The last
image is a storyboard from the evangelist’s sequence in Brimstone’s end
movie from Twisted Metal: Black.
Factoid 29 – The Lost Toys
Over the years, toy companies have routinely approached Sony, hoping to
get the go ahead to create a line of Twisted Metal toys. From action
figures to collectible cars, many companies have expressed interest in
bringing the Twisted Metal universe into the world of toys. While there
are currently no plans for a Twisted metal toyline, the following
images show some of the prototype toys made in hopes of bringing the
final toys to the market.
Afterwards, going up to Sweet Tooth’s ice cream truck gives you a
“CONGRATULATIONS! You have achieved all of the objectives!” message.
b. Documentary
--------------
Here, you view a 30-minute documentary on the TM series. I’m not going
to put down a transcript, but I’ll put down some interesting points…
TM1 – One thing that Dave goes into is the live TM1 ending movies. He
goes into how depressed he was when they didn’t want those movies in
the game (saying it would sell better without them). He says they were
sexist and stuff, and then is glad that the audience in the gaming
world can finally look at the ending movies (believing that in today’s
standards they are humorous and stuff). For TM1, they apparently aimed
the game to hardcore fighting gamers, labeling TM1 as a “fighting game
in cars”. The hardcore gamers didn’t see how it was a fighting game in
cars. Just when Scott and Dave thought they were doomed… a guy comes up
to Dave one day and tells him that his game received a lot of gaming
awards. Boy, was Dave sure shocked. Scott shows amazement that his name
was used for one of the characters in TM1. One of the guys behind the
game said that Mr Grimm was always his favorite car.
TM2 – Here, Dave talks about increasing the depth of TM2, improving
upon what TM1 lacked and what they otherwise couldn’t put in TM1 (they
had such a huge list… O_o). They also gave a nice insight on the level
design, most notably Paris, which apparently received some controversy
after a French designer took a look at the levels and was offended by
the destruction of the Eiffel Tower. And of course gave them new ideas;
Scott got into talking about destroying bigger things in wacky ways…
aside from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, shots of the Statue of Liberty in
New York and windmills in Holland being destroyed were shown.
They then show a group photo of the original team, until eventually…
TM3 – Dave had no plans for a TM3, although he seemed quite shocked to
hear that they announced it. He says that he would help the creators if
possible, but he didn’t get involved in the process making. He’s pretty
nice here actually – the most he ever said TM3 was (and TM4) was that
they were good games, just not great Twisted Metals. He flipped out
when he mentioned that he looked at the ending for Sweet Tooth, and he
says “What the f!ck did you do to Sweet Tooth, you turned him into
Barney the clown” (or whatever the original quote was, I forgot). He
says he met some of the people at 989 and says they went on making
great games, but for now TM3 is nothing to be proud of.
TM4 – Dave only briefly talked about TM4. However, the other two guys
(sorry for forgetting your names >_>) criticize it, saying it’s not
Twisted Metal and the art designer even said that Sweet Tooth is just
horrible in TM4. Personally, I think Dave’s just being nice here for
Sony.
TMB – Wa la, the return to Twisted Metal glory… starting with a game
darker than any of its predecessors. The transition from the “colorful”
to “dark” universe was Dave’s idea, hence the more graphic and
disturbing content placed into each of the character’s stories. They
went into levels; the art designer talked about Suburbs being his
favorite level. I can’t remember much here.
Then Dave goes back and makes TM comparisons. He says TM2 is his
favorite, and he believes that TMB is just a good game but not a great
game. In order, he puts them with TM2 first, TM1 second, and then TMB.
They begin wrapping up with gameplay shots of each Twisted Metal
(including Small Brawl which was never discussed in the documentary),
with Scott and Dave being grateful for the fans being faithful to their
series.
They finally end with a credits screen, with videos of the fans for the
game (all from TMA), Scott and Dave giving their two cents, and a shot
of each TM game (including 3 and 4) as well as ending with a thanks to
Mortimer from TMA.
c. The Lost Movies
------------------
I’m not really going to bother with this. Perhaps I’ll post links for
them in the future.
d. Cheats/Unlockables
----------------------
I honestly don’t cheat; I only use cheats to explore levels as well as
learn characters better. The cheats work for both TMHO and Lost; only
one cheat was changed for TMHOETE. And one person at gamefaqs confirmed
the God Mode code but has yet to discover it so perhaps some curious
people may want to try it out. And since you may not want to read the
respective sections for all of the unlockables, I’ve gathered them all
here.
Cheats:
Hold L1+R1 and then input the following quickly (NOT ALL FOUR shoulder
buttons):
Infinite Weapons – Triangle Triangle Down Down
Gives you Infinite Weapons. However, specials no longer go up to 99 (as
opposed to TMHO PSP). Instead, when you input the code when you have a
special it will be unlimited. What I’m saying here is that if you have
NO specials when you input the command, then you’ll have to wait for
your special to recharge before it becomes infinite. A plus is that you
automatically receive all 6 upgrades in TMHO.
Invincibility – Right Left Down Up
It’s not Up Down Left Right Right Left Down Up, btw. And Invincibility
does not protect you from boundary damage, unlike TMHO PSP, but at
least you’re pretty much god.
Killer Weapons – X X Up Up
Your weapons both regular, special and machine gun, will kill an enemy
in one hit as long as their shields are not up.
Mega Guns – X Triangle X Triangle
Your machine gun not only becomes upgraded, it also homes in on an
enemy and will do uber-tastic damage.
Trade Weapons for Health – Triangle X Square Circle
You lose all your weapons, energy, and turbo to rejuvenate your health.
The more weapons you have, the more health is restored. I have not
checked this with Infinite Weapons, but I’m pretty sure you’ll still
lose all of your turbo and energy.
God Mode - ??
Someone on the gamefaqs message boards confirmed this, and this was
only tested in TMLost. Apparently the commands are only d-pad; the
original TM2 and TMB commands do not work. If someone’s curious enough
to test I think everyone would be grateful.
TMHO unlockables
----------------
Extra Characters:
Mr Slamm – Beat LA Woods’ minigame.
ATV – Beat Cousin Eddy.
Cousin Eddy – Beat Cousin Eddy.
Axel – Beat Russia’s minigame.
Crimson Fury – Beat Monaco’s minigame as well as shoot 10 racers.
Hammerhead – Beat Tokyo Rooftops’s minigame.
Dark Tooth – Complete story mode once.
Tower Tooth challenge – Complete story mode with five different
characters to unlock Tower Tooth for Roman Ruins deathmatch in
challenge mode only as well as 2P deathmatch mode.
Extra Levels:
Paris DM – Beat Paris’ minigame.
Egypt DM – Beat Egypt’s minigame.
LA – Cousin Eddy – Beat Cousin Eddy.
Roman Ruins DM – Beat Roman Ruins’ minigame.
Greece DM – Beat Greece’ minigame.
Transylvania DM – Beat Translyvania’s minigame.
Tokyo Streets DM – Beat Tokyo Street’s minigame.
Tokyo Streets – Dark Tooth – Complete Story mode.
TML unlockables
---------------
Extra Characters:
12-Pak – Complete story mode on medium difficulty (default difficulty).
Gold Tooth – Complete story mode on hard difficulty.
Extra Level:
Death Port – Complete story mode on medium difficulty.
Note:
Completing medium difficulty lets you see the regular note, the full
note is read after completing the game on hard mode. I’ll put it up
here, but everyone knows the magical words… “TWISTED METAL IS COMING TO
PSTHREE”.
***********************************************************************
5. Suggestions for the next TM
These suggestions are specifically made with gameplay in mind. It does
not cover suggestions on features (i.e. create a car) that should be
implemented. The next TM will surely be created with the intent of
crossing over TM2 and TMB ideas together while adding new ones that
(hopefully) improve gameplay. First off, I want to go over the gameplay
and depth of the previous TMs (specifically, TM1/2/B) as well as TMHO.
It’s something to be considered before we should really make
suggestions for the next TM. I’ll break it down with the three
important aspects of TM gameplay – cars, levels, and weapons/energy
attacks.
TM1
---
Cars – Car armor was an incredibly important statistic in TM1. Higher
armored cars emphasized ramming and smashing an enemy to bits, while
lower armored cars were encouraged to hit and run. Specials were
divided into two categories – namely, melee and long range (which would
be a case in the rest of the TMs). Here, specials had few properties;
for example, Spectre’s special had “ghost” properties and passed
through walls, thus making him perfect for long range combat. Other
such characters included Thumper and Outlaw. However, that was mostly
it.
Levels – Levels were mostly flat-surfaces; there was little depth (you
could only fight on the same ground). However it did introduce a
“Rooftop” style level that boasted an element not found in the other
levels – instant death. It was also the level with the greatest depth;
namely, being able to shoot at enemies from below or above. Until TM2,
interactivity was practically non-existant.
Weapons – Until TM2, weapons served as long range/close range combat.
There were more defensive weapons in TM1, but the advent of energy
attacks in TM2 was a far better alternative. All weapons in TM1 were
very 2D; they were not made to attack enemies except on flat ground and
in level with the enemy. There were only two really worthwhile ones –
the Homing and Power Missile. TM2 would eventually improve on the
weapons category.
TM2
---
Cars – Cars became much more diverse in TM2 than TM1, especially with
the introduction of energy attacks. All cars excelled in areas and were
truly unique. The specials were greatly improved from TM1. TM2
introduced over-time specials that trapped enemies and could set them
up for further punishment (Twister and Mr Slamm), launching specials
(Axel and Shadow), melee-specials that could hit and run as well as
allowing damage opportunities, and specials where hitting the enemy at
the right time makes the special much more powerful (Roadkill). It is
also the energy attacks that boosted the depth in each car and allowed
them to offer the player gameplay in different ways.
Levels – Level interactivity was added, and gave the levels more depth.
You were encouraged to blow up stuff in order to find weapons and other
stuff. It also added a shooter-aspect to the game – that is, you could
hide behind something, shoot an enemy, and quickly retreat to avoid
retaliation. Also, levels were more complex and improved; they no
longer consisted of flat surfaces. You could fight at different tiers
and points (such as Paris) and these points improved the effectiveness
of certain weapons. The levels were also given hazardous elements –
Amazonia for example, had lava which slowly drained your energy, and
Antarctica had terrain which would melt away. The Rooftops were
improved, having a hazardous element (Antarctica) and multiple tiers to
fight on (New York) which greatly increased their depth. An element
introduced in TM2 was teleporters, which increased the depth of levels
even more. Now you could control certain areas/territory, adding
another element in strategy, both offensive and defensive. TM2
undoubtedly pushed for the most innovative elements ever, in all three
areas of gameplay.
Weapons – TM2 introduced an overhead/arc-ing weapon (Napalm) allowing a
player to shoot enemies from above as well as below. It also introduced
a weapon for shooting enemies around corners (Ricochet Bomb) that had
its effectiveness increased on Rooftop levels by knocking people off,
and a defensive but strategic weapon (Remote Bomb) that could be
powerful when used correctly. TM2 also introduced fire damage (i.e.
fire burning your car), which was another form of hazard that was
deadly if not nullified. It also remains to be the only TM with
air/slope damage for explosive type weapons (i.e. detonating a Remote
Bomb with someone in the air or on a slope does 3x the damage), which
further added another element to the weapons. Health replaced the
Repair Stations, and was varied; there was much more health compared to
TM1 which countered the fact that cars could easily lose huge chunks of
energy. Machine Guns were also improved – they no longer overheated so
they could be used to supplement your damage potential.
TM2 implemented the energy attacks, which boosted the depth greatly.
Freeze blasts improved on TM1’s freeze missile by homing in on a
target, jump had defensive/offensive purposes, mines were effective on
pursuing enemies and controlling territory (via teleports) along with
Rear-Fire being defensive attack options, Napalm gave a last resort
weapon, and invisibility and shield gave TM the equivalent of a block
button in fighting games. Minion’s special was a desperation attack –
powerful but costly in terms of energy.
Another element introduced was weapon effects. Weapons like Ricochets
and Power Missiles knocked their target back, Napalms and Homing
Missiles disorientated an enemy, and Remote Bombs bounced enemies into
the air. These effects allowed you to make the enemy vulnerable and set
them for whatever assault you had in mind.
An element that only TM2 remains to have is fluent combination of
weapons and energy attacks. For example, Twister could use her special
to drag an enemy around, drop mines so that it hits them during the
special, while shooting the enemy with missiles/napalm, which improved
the amount of damage it could do. The follow-up TMs have either toned
down or removed this element completely – only Warthog in TMB has such
an element.
Suggestions
-----------
It is without a doubt that the next TM will be taking ideas from the
previous TMs (TM2, TMB, TMHO and TML too), so here’s some of the
following ideas from TM2, TMHO, TML and TMB that I hope they’ll
probably use for TM PS3.
TM2
-Fluent weapon switching and combining. This increased the depth of
each character and offense abilities.
-Double damage of explosions via aerial enemies/slopes. While Remote
Bombs are still powerful, if they bring back aerial damage then they
become even better.
-Jump. TMLost uses TM2’s jump height; it should be the same for the
next TM.
-Minion’s special/some other desperation energy attack.
-Not really too important but I wish they brought back the domes for
the shields. It would greatly make cars more diverse (i.e. bigger cars
have a wider shield, smaller cars have a smaller shield).
-Instant death when falling “out of bounds”.
-Weapon Lists and Helicopter View.
-The small window Rear-View mirror (along with the Fullscreen Rear-View
mirror from TMHOETE).
-Return of Dark Tooth.
TMB
-Two specials for each car; I think they can make one for long range,
and one for close range. The close range should be powerful but harder
to use, and the long range one should be less powerful but easier to
use to ensure balance.
-Skill weapons. Or make a new skill-type weapon that does massive
damage.
-Being able to use Machine Guns/energy attacks during Invisibility,
while firing weapons will uncloak yourself.
-Health regeneration speed. TMB’s healths recharged slower.
-Hard mode AI. The AI on hard mode gangs up on the player all the time
and they do that to some extent in TML but they were more threatening
in TMB where healths recharged slower.
-Fast weapon regeneration speed.
TML
-Simplified energy attack combinations (i.e. universal triangle
button). This ensured that you don’t accidentally use an energy attack.
-The weapon set (i.e. Ricochet Bombs, Gas Cans hurt yourself) and
color-coded the same way.
-Machine Guns. They overheated slower, similar to TMB.
TMHO
-The damage points system.
-Upgrades, however I think they should just put them in some other
parts of the level rather than destroying a car. That way, that gives
players a chance of powering up without having to destroy one another
car and having the advantage. It also encourages level exploration.
-The full screen rear-view mirror. They finally put that in TMHOETE so
they might as well keep that.
-Return of Tower Tooth (who is pretty important to the storyline as far
as the Kanes are concerned).
Suggestions for TM PS3
-Give cars energy attacks made specifically for them. To ensure
balance, they can make it require energy AND a special in order to use
them.
-While they can still show stats, why don’t they show numerical values
too (i.e. specific amount of health points). The stats (especially the
special weapon stat) don’t always correspond to when the character
being used is in a game.
-Maps added on as downloadable content; they did that with Warhawk PS3.
-Take the best maps from the previous TMs and update them (not just
graphically). I don’t think it’ll happen though.
-These are the new types of maps I’d like to see in TM PS3. For the
colorful side, I don’t have much in mind that fits, though I like to
see castles (more castles please!), a German-area, an England area, and
another ancient-type battleground (something… Aztec-like). For the dark
side, another asylum, a WW-type battlefield, a mental
institute/hospital, a schoolhouse, and perhaps the shopping mall that
they never succeeded in creating.
-While they may very well make a new Tooth character possibly as a
boss, I hope they don’t overdo his size or anything.
***********************************************************************
6. Outro
Took me about 5 updates to include an outro >_>
Credits:
-ESP/Dave and Scott for making this port a great TM game.
-Me for writing this guide and getting the game.
-kazen16’s TMHO FAQ, which I conveniently used to copy and paste the
car stats when I didn’t have the patience to look at the screen and
write it down at the same time XD Great FAQ also, btw.
-TMA being responsible for giving TM a future.
-Lastly, you readers for reading the FAQ (as well as sending me the
occasional comments in my email).