Best Games Like Twisted Metal

Twisted Metal is known for its gratuitous violence, over-the-top characters like Sweet Tooth, and deadly demolition derby car arena battles.

While there hasn’t been a new entry since the PS3-era, we’re hopeful one of Sony’s studios will revive the franchise and inject it with some fresh new ideas.

Until that happens, we’re happy to recommend the best games like Twisted Metal for PC and console, including car combat games similar to Twisted Metal.

For more combat racing suggestions, make sure to check out our other curated gaming lists, and comment below with your favorite Twisted Metal game!

Related:Best Racing Games 2023Best Driving Sims 2023Best Action Games On PC 2023

Motor Assailant is a car combat racing game like Twisted Metal that features fast-paced battles against AI drivers and giant bosses.

In it, players step into the driver’s seat of six distinct vehicles before racing their way across 18 levels to unveil a somber corporate secret involving extraterrestrials.

Similar to Twisted Metal, each car has a unique weapon that determines its playstyle and can be upgraded and customized at the garage.

On top of this, levels are littered with power-ups like mines, homing missiles, and airstrikes that allow for even more destruction.

We all could use a bit more cyber-powered vehicular combat in our lives so its nice to a game like Nightwolf doing its part.

Set in a dystopian future where the most popular sport is car arena battles, the game tasks players with surviving an onslaught of motorized enemies in the “Megadome.”

Gameplay draws inspirations from classics like Twisted Metal while leaning into the synthwave stylings of the 1980s.

To this point, players’ vehicles are outfitted with rapid-firing machine guns and targeting lasers capable of making quick work of opponents.

Phaseshift is a car combat racing game currently in Steam Early Access that features Tron-like vehicles and cyberpunk-styled tracks.

While the game draws most of its inspiration from series like Extreme-G, Rollcage, and Wipeout, there’s still a lot for Twisted Metal fans to enjoy.

For one, vehicles can be equipped with up to four abilities at any time, allowing you to switch up your tactics and explore different playstyles.

Secondly, many of the included abilities are reminiscent of Twisted Metal weapons, including homing missiles, plasma launchers, laser cannons, proximity mines, etc.

Reminiscent of games like Rocket League, Turbo Golf Racing is an arcade-style sports racer with a combative twist that will appeal to fans of Twisted Metal.

In it, up to 8 players compete to slam oversized golf balls into a hole before their opponents.

To do so, they’ll have to use a mix of speed and aggression by racing down diverse courses, ramming into other players, and wielding explosive power-ups.

The game also features car customization and an upgrade system that sees you unlocking “cores” to add unique abilities to your vehicle.

Next up is Desert Pirates, a driving shooter game inspired by the Mad Max films that incorporates some Twisted Metal-like elements.

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world, the game has up to 12 vehicles fighting over limited resources in unforgiving desert arenas.

Much like Twisted Metal, each vehicle is distinct and driven by unusual characters with their own backstory and playstyle.

Over time, players can expand their convoy with more drivers and take on the desert in roguelike-inspired campaigns.

A concealed jewel by all acounts, Death Skid Marks is a top-down arcade car combat game with roguelike RPG elements.

The premise sees you traveling to a “kickass” music concert when your vehicle is attacked by waves of enemies on Route 666.

To survive, you’ll have to bash, ram, and shoot your way against increasingly stacked odds with help from an assortment of weapons and special items.

Over time, players can upgrade their car with better parts for improved survivability as well as purchase new weapons.

Carmageddon has been around for roughly the same amount of time as Twisted Metal but never had the luxury of being backed by a big publisher like Sony.

The latest installment, Carmageddon: Max Damage debuted in 2016 and is a remake of Carmageddon: Reincarnation for PS4 and Xbox One.

In it, players compete in a variety of racing events focused on causing as much destruction as possible by smashing into pedestrians, other drivers, and animals.

The game features an array of upgradeable vehicles modified to wield various spikes, chains, saws, battering rams, and flamethrowers.

If Carmageddon is a bit too chaotic for your taste, Wreckfest is another option that adheres to the traditional demolition derby formula.

Released in 2018, the game is a spiritual successor to the FlatOut series that uses soft-body damage modeling to take vehicular combat to new heights.

In it, you crush, smash, and ram your way to the finish line in various modes where the goal is to come in 1st place or be the last car standing.

This often calls for a careful balance of offensive and defensive plays, including destroying your opponents’ vehicles while guarding your own.

GRIP, a high-speed combat racing game with a sci-fi theme, was also launched in 2018. It replaces Twisted Metal’s 90s atmosphere with a modern setting.

This makes sense when you factor in the game’s driving mechanics, which see you driving upside down on walls, ceilings, and just about anywhere else your tires can go.

While there aren’t any colorful cars or big personalities, GRIP features 30 vehicles of all shapes and sizes, many of which are inspired by antigrav vehicles from Wipeout and F-Zero.

Just like those in Twisted Metal, cars in GRIP have ballistic and projectile weapons, including homing missiles and rapid-firing machine guns.

Despite its cartoony graphics, Cel Damage is directly inspired by the Twisted Metal series in terms of both story and gameplay.

In it, you play as one of 10 different characters who have been cast for an in-universe cartoon car competition show called “Cel Damage.”

The cartoon theme spills over to combat, with some vehicles sporting wacky weapons like vacuum nozzles and portable holes, chainsaws, and guns.

Additionally, arenas are littered with power-ups that grant limited use items such as freeze rays, giant springs, and nuclear bombs.

Diesel Guns is another arcade vehicular combat game whose inception was influenced by the Twisted Metal series.

In it, you control a variety of high-powered death machines with unique stats and weaponry.

The game places emphasis on vehicle and weapon diversity by introducing specific rules; for example, the higher a vehicle’s speed, the more lethal its weapons become.

Additionally, each weapon in the game features an alternate firing mode that players can freely switch between.

Road Redemption is a spiritual successor to the Road Rash series that introduces a couple of changes, most notably a roguelike-structured single-player campaign.

Combat is a mix of both close and long-range, with the player able to grab, kick, and counterattack as well as shoot SMGs, shotguns, and rifles. 

The game also features dozens of melee weapons, including pipes, baseball bats, pool cues, and the occasional wrench.

Every hit in Road Redemption feels meaty and tactile, resulting in gameplay that feels as visceral and addictive as Twisted Metal.

If you’re looking for a unique arena-style game with tons of replayability, Rocket League is an excellent choice that boasts simple controls, car customization, and a thriving online community.

As one of the few online games to provide cross-play support across all platforms, the vehicular soccer game has acquired a massive following.

This is fantastic news for fans of Twisted Metal who might have never played it or assumed from its visuals that it was just for kids.

You can even pick up an exclusive Sweet Tooth vehicle if you’re playing on PS4.

Switching from 3D to 2D, Bloody Rally Show looks to combine top-down arcade racing with the hyper-violence of reality TV.

In it, you play as a driver for a show called “Bloody Rally Show,” a racing program set in a dystopian world.

Your goal is to keep viewers coming back by drifting, boosting, and blasting away the competition.

Like Twisted Metal, there’s plenty of gratuitous violence and over-the-top dialogue thrown in to really sell this idea of it being a show.

Developed by Redline Studios and published by Atari, Crashday: Redline Edition is a re-release of the original 2006 PC racing game Crashday.

It features a new UI and a host of graphical improvements that make the now 14-year-old game feel much more recent.

At its core, the game still plays like the original, with players picking their vehicle and entering one of 30 tracks to compete in a variety of races, stunt shows, and wreck matches.

There are seven game modes in total, each focusing on vehicular combat using missiles, machine guns, and straight-up car crashes.

Gas Guzzlers Extreme is another combat racing game that takes a few cues from the Twisted Metal series. 

In it, players start out with underpowered heaps of metal, slowly working their way up to powerful sports cars by winning races and surviving hellish arena battles.

In terms of combat, each vehicle has two weapons that it can swap between to fire either small or big rockets.

Gas Guzzlers Extreme may not have all the bells and whistles you expect in a modern game, but that only adds to its old-school arcade combat racing appeal.

Despite being a narrative-driven open-world game, 2015’s Mad Max actually has a lot in common with Twisted Metal when it comes to its vehicular combat.

When you’re not busy completing story missions, you can just cruise around the game’s irradiated open-world picking fights with rival gangs.

The car combat consists of hooking onto enemy vehicles using a harpoon gun, blowing them up with explosives, and ramming into the driver’s seat at high speeds.

The game also boasts the ability to customize just about every inch of your murder machine through unlockable upgrades and cosmetics.

Considering fans of Twisted Metal don’t have much to hold on to these days, it’s nice to see a game like Destruction AllStars release.

In it, you play as one of many “dangerous drivers” who compete in explosive car-based battles in arenas throughout the world.

There’s the usual fare of turbo boosts, deadly crashes, and massive explosions, but the ability to exit your vehicle and cause mayhem on foot is what sets AllStars apart.

Just pray you don’t get yourself run over before you can make it back to the driver’s seat.