Jaffe won't "cut the balls off" Twisted Metal for European tastes

Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe has said he's not going to pander to European sensibilities, despite the franchise's history of under-performance outside the US.

"What we're not going to do is go 'how do we cut the balls off this spirit, of this essence, just in order to say maybe we'll get more fans," Jaffe told Eurogamer
at E3.

"There are games that can survive that kind of neutering, but Twisted Metal isn't one of them. If you don't get it, you don't get it."

Jaffe blames censorship of the last major title in the series, Twisted Metal Black, for the game's poor reception outside the US.

"Our last really big Twisted Metal went out everywhere except America with all the storytelling, cut scenes, characters and things that gave it a conceptual definition ripped out for censorship reasons."

Expressing a hope that better marketing would help Europeans see the "fighting game and the sporting spirit" of Twisted Metal, Jaffe said he's "not going to beg" Europeans to like it, comparing the game's reception outside the US to Wipeout's limited success inside it.

"My layman's sociological view of Europe is that you guys tend to respond to things that are sleeker, cleaner, more refined, a bit more humorous," he said.

"I think Twisted Metal is rough around the edges, it's raw, it's like a garage band. It's dented, it's busted up, it's oil and diesel fuel. And to us in America, at least to Twisted Metal fans, it wears that as a badge of honour. We like that spirit.

"In the same way Wipeout was never a mega hit over here and has always been appreciated by a smaller group than in Europe. There's a similar dynamic going on. Your Wipeout is our Twisted Metal."

Twisted Metal is due exclusively on PlayStation 3 in October.