The Freaks of Twisted Metal Black: Mr. Grimm

Previously on The Freaks of Twisted Metal: Black, we met the mutilated boxer known as No-Face.  In continuing with our coverage of all the psychos in Twisted Metal: Black, today let's take a look at one of the most well-known characters in the series: Mr. Grimm.

Mr. Grimm is one of the few characters who makes an appearance in every Twisted Metal game.  This scythe-wielding bad-ass always rides a motorcycle into battle (with the exception of the sub-par Twisted Metal 4), and is usually introduced to us as the one and only Grim Reaper.  His storyline is pretty consistent throughout most of the games; he enters the contest in order to consume as many souls as possible.

In Twisted Metal: Black, the developers abandoned Mr. Grimm's supernatural aspects in favor of a more realistic representation.  In this game, Mr. Grimm is a regular human being; a Vietnam War veteran to be exact.  At the beginning of the game he is being contained in the asylum because of an extreme case of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as another mental issue that we'll get to in a moment.

It turns out that back in the war, Mr. Grimm (we are never told what his real name is) and his best friend Benny were captured and locked in a cave after witnessing their whole squad get annihilated.  This resulted in Benny dying in the cave, while Mr. Grimm had to result to cannibalizing Benny's corpse in order to survive.  Going insane from this experience, Mr. Grimm makes himself a helmet out of Benny's skull, giving him an appearance more familiar to Twisted Metal fans.

As the game goes on, we learn that Mr. Grimm has developed a taste for human flesh, making him a consumer of humans rather than the consumer of human souls.  This definitely makes him one of the most disgusting characters in Twisted Metal: Black.  What did you guys think of this incarnation of Mr. Grimm?  Did you prefer him as the Grim Reaper?

The Freaks of Twisted Metal Black: No-Face

When you think of vehicular combat, chances are the Twisted Metal series immediately comes to mind.  This brutal series of games has kept us entertained with its carnage since 1995, when it debuted on the Playstation 1.  Twisted Metal has always been extremely violent, but on the Playstation 1 these games were somewhat over-the-top thanks to its cast of characters.  Examples include Mr. Grimm, a motorcycle-riding Grimm Reaper, and the characters Dave and Mike, two lowlifes with 1980's metal-head personalities who steal a monster truck and enter it into the Twisted Metal competition.

As if this image wasn't funny enough, you should see the live-action cut-scenes in Twisted Metal 1.

When the series made the jump to the Playstation 2, in the form of Twisted Metal: Black, it received a total reboot, trading its colorful and wacky aspects for something much darker and grittier.  The drivers of the vehicles were no exception either; the game starts off with all the characters locked away in an asylum for various reasons.  Here you won't find any carefree dudes out for a joyride in a monster truck, all these characters are complete psychos with their own unique sets of problems.  So, instead of trying to cover all these characters in one article, I figured it would be a better idea to split this up into an ongoing series called The Freaks of Twisted Metal: Black.  Today we're going to look at one of the more disturbing and disfigured characters in the game: No-Face.

When we are first introduced to No-Face, we don't really know what's wrong with him until he looks into the camera and reveals his hideous face:

Yes, No-Face does in fact have a face, sort of...

We later find out that No-Face is a former boxer who encountered a severely bad run of luck.  No-Face, or Frank as he was known back in the day, once faced a superior opponent in the boxing ring, losing the fight and ending up with severe injuries.  He was recommended to a surgeon to repair his damaged face, but it turned out that this same exact surgeon had lost $20,000 by betting on Frank in his disastrous fight.

To exact revenge, during the surgery the evil doctor completely mutilated Frank's face, cutting out his eyeballs and tongue, sewing his eyelids and mouth shut, among other atrocities.  Upon waking up after the surgery, Frank went insane from pain and rage, completing his transition to the No-Face persona.

No-Face's back-story is definitely one of the most disturbing in the game.  It's also somewhat funny to imagine how this guy could possibly enter a vehicular combat tournament, let alone drive a car, with no eyes (although the manual does try to explain this by saying his other senses have become more refined).

Did you guys ever play Twisted Metal: Black?  If so, were you a little disturbed by No-Face?

The Rise and Fall of Handheld Console Battery Life: A Modern Tragedy

After hearing the news about the Playstation Vita's 2012 U.S. release date, I again began to debate whether this handheld is worth waiting for, or if I should just take the plunge and buy a 3DS.  Inevitably I decided to compare the reported battery lives of the two handhelds, and the results were not too satisfying.  Both the Vita and the 3DS have an approximate battery life of 3-5 hours, meaning you'll be spending a lot of time with your good friend Mr. AC Adapter.  Apparently I'm not the only one upset about this.  Whatever happened to the good old days of handheld gaming?  Remember when changing batteries in your original Gameboy seemed like a rare occurrence?

With that in mind, I decided it would be interesting to look at the battery lives of some of the more popular handheld gaming consoles over the years.   Let's graph these suckers:

Click to expand.

Well you can thank the Sega Game Gear (3 hour battery life!) for ruining my hypothesis that battery life had improved up until a certain point, after which there would be a steep drop.  But still, look at that 30 hour battery life of the Gameboy Color then compare it to the approximately 4 hours of the 3DS.  Portable gaming just isn't so portable anymore.  Until battery technology catches up with modern hardware, we will still end up tethered to a power outlet most of the time.

Odd Peripherals: The Playstation Reality Vest

There are a ton of peripherals in the gaming world, which range from useful to lame to what-were-they-thinking.  A few posts ago I talked about the Steel Battalion controller, which was incredibly expensive and impractical (due to only being compatible with the Steel Battalion games), but you have to admit it had a certain amount of coolness.

While I could fill pages and pages of this blog talking about all the completely weird and pointless gaming peripherals in existence, today we are going to look at just one, the Reality Vest for the Playstation 1.

It's such an obscure accessory that very few pictures exist online.

The Reality Vest was compatible with all Playstation 1 games that made use of the Dualshock controller.  The vest is essentially a giant wearable rumble pack that jolts your whole body around whenever a monkey is beating your ass in Ape Escape.  That's reality for you eh?

So for those of us who can't afford a reclining chair with built in vibration, here's your cheaper alternative!  Seriously though, I see no point in extending the rumble function from your hands (via the Dualshock) to your chest.  Unless this thing can pick me up and toss me into a wall every time I drive off the track in Gran Turismo, it has no business being called the Reality Vest.  But I guess we now know what the vibrating exercise belt scam evolved from.

Out of curiosity, are there any weird peripherals that you have bought during your years of gaming?