Review - Twisted: The Game Show

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Review - Twisted: The Game Show

Post by 3DO Experience » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:30 am

TWISTED: THE GAME SHOW from Electronic Arts

Reviewed 1994 by Andrew A. Jinks for Game Bytes Magazine.

TWISTED is a hilarious and original game that makes great use of the strengths of the 3DO system. You choose a contestant from six very distinct characters and help them to win. The grand prize is a one way ticket out of TV land into reality. Along the way you face numerous fun and interesting challenges as you work your way up a spiraling game board in an attempt to reach the top first.

Each contestant gets to roll the Cyber-die which can generate a roll of between 0 and 6 and progresses up the twisted helix game board consisting of 90 spaces. There are four different spaces to land on: the red Bozo square on which you lose a turn, the green Roll Again square, the purple Wheel of Torture square and the yellow Challenge square where you get to use the Matrix to select a challenge. The wheel of torture is a wheel with three levels of spinning fruit and you have to stop the wheel when three like fruits line up at the top of the wheel. You're stuck there until you do. The vast majority of squares are challenge squares.

When you land on a challenge square you go to the Matrix in order to select a challenge. The Matrix is 3x3 grid of challenges where your opponent gets to secretly select a row and then you select a column. Besides having challenges there are also squares on the Matrix that cause you to lose a turn, swap places with your opponent or roll again. This results in some interesting strategies as you try and get your opponent to select the above. If you select a lose a turn square you are treated with video of a thermonuclear detonation or another impressive explosion. If you manage not to select any of the above squares you move on to one of the many interesting challenges, which allow you to roll again if you complete them.

Challenges range from the banal topical trivia squares to the wacky Sound

Bites square. Other challenges include:
- Twin Peeks: a concentration-like game
- Departure Lounge: a rearrange-the-picture game
- Supermarket High-rise: spot the item that was there
- Mystery Matinee: rearrange the moving picture
- Zapper: stop the commercial from playing
- Face Lift Salon: unscramble the faces

As far as I can tell all of the still pictures used in the above challenges are 16-bit color which gives the whole game a very nice look.

Full motion video is one thing the 3DO can do well and it has been used very creatively in this offering. In Mystery Matinee you have to arrange a scrambled video while it is playing. It is scrambled into 3x3 squares and on harder levels even more squares. This is one example of the original and interesting uses of video in this product. Video is also used for the characters of the game that congratulate or jeer you as you move up the board depending upon your success or failure. The characters are not full screen but cut out and placed on impressive still backgrounds.

Sound is also used very well and very originally. Sound Bites is an entertaining game using pictures of former American presidents. When selected each president makes a sound. To complete the challenge you have to match like sounds. The really funny part is the wacky sounds the presidents make from braying like a donkey to belching like a line backer.

There are only a couple of minor things that I didn't like about the game. One is the fact that it is two player minimum although you can play by yourself as a 'Gee, I wonder which character will get to the top first with me playing both of them' kind of game. It would have been nice to have some AI to play against. The other minor criticism is that it doesn't lock out your opponents controller during Matrix selection time. This doesn't matter if you are playing with someone who is very patient and honest but a little insurance never hurt anyone.

Twisted is an entertaining and original two player game for the 3DO system. By using the strengths of the 3DO system, which include great sound, lots of colors and full motion video, Twisted is a creative game unlike anything anyone has ever seen on a Sega, Nintendo or even a PC CD-ROM for that matter. For anyone with a 3DO system this game is well worth buying.
"Wait. You don't have a bag of charcoal in your gaming room???"

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Post by Trev » Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:57 pm

Twisted ... my favorite 3DO game ever!

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Post by mosul210 » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:33 pm

Twisted is a game that is very unique to the 3DO - I've never seen anything like it on any other platform.

The game is a complete riot - naturally being a party game, the more players you have the merrier. The mini game challenges are unique, entertaining, and well balanced.

Like I said already, this game symbolizes what the 3DO is all about. An easy recommend.

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Post by jesus 666 » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:19 pm

Take Mario Party and remove all it's best elements (masses of game types, fun simultaneous play) and magnify it's worst points (long waiting whilst your opponents take their turns, Random elements where your opponents can suddenly beat you through no skill of their own, limited 1 player) then add loads of unfunny humour and you pretty much have twisted.
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Post by Trev » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:43 am

Can't agree on all points ... randomness does not even come close to matching Mario Party level of nonsense! Also, I personally find Twisted hilarious :P , although this is subjective of course. Still, no comparison on the randomness issue.

Do you like Zhadnost? It has fun simultaneous play, no long waiting and even less randomness than Twisted.

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Post by r3tr0g4m3r » Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:10 pm

Great multi-player game. One of my favorite 3DO games!

Love the explosions "Oooooo! That's gotta hurt!" and the roll again FMVs. LOL

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Re: Review - Twisted: The Game Show

Post by a31chris » Mon Oct 12, 2020 8:31 am

I love this too! However for things like the explosion animations etc they should have put in a few different ones to spice it up. It gets redundant with only one for each character.
What came after the Jaguar was the PS1 which for all it's greatness, ushered in corporate development and with it the bleached, repetitive, bland titles which for the most part we're still playing today. - David Wightman

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Re: Review - Twisted: The Game Show

Post by a31chris » Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:27 am

My friend and I played this tonight. We saw the credits and looked up Gerri Lawlon who plays the vanna
White character. Poor thing died last year from undisclosed reasons.
What came after the Jaguar was the PS1 which for all it's greatness, ushered in corporate development and with it the bleached, repetitive, bland titles which for the most part we're still playing today. - David Wightman

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