too offensive. The endings were eventually included as bonus content in Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition for the PlayStation 2. Twisted Metal was first shown alongside Warhawk at the first annual E3 in Los Angeles between May 11 and 13, 1995. The two games were among the first PlayStation titles available outside Japan and were part of a large, multimedia advertising campaign by Sony for the console's western debut. Retailers and members of the press were given custom Twisted Metal license plates to promote the game. Despite some criticism from members of Sony Computer Entertainment's Japanese division and focus test groups just prior to its marketing phase, Twisted Metal went gold and was completed on a budget of $850,000. Twisted Metal was officially released for the PlayStation in North America on November 5, 1995, in Europe on January 6 and in Japan on November 15, 1996. A PC version of the game was also developed and used to showcase the Windows 95-compatible Nvidia NV1 graphics accelerator chip at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in 1996. Reception and legacy Twisted Metal received positive reviews from critics. It received an aggregate score of 66.88% on GameRankings. Game Revolution praised the game's action and variety of the vehicles, but noted that the graphics were "a little sloppy". IGN criticized the single-player mode's short length of "just a couple of hours", but remarked that the two-player mode "more than makes up for the one-player mode's lack of length". Twisted Metal was awarded the 1995 "Game of the Year" from the editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly. The Black Widow of GamePro criticized the graphics for their static arena crowd, difficult-to-read radar, and heavy break-up, and described the music as "weak overall". However, they concluded that "despite its flaws, this twisted game is fun". Maximum applauded the varying strengths and weaknesses of the vehicles and most especially the innovative free-roaming levels. They criticized that the game is much too short and concluded: "A playable game, but one which is probably destined for obscurity". A reviewer for Next Generation called it "another showcase title for the PlayStation", and said that while the texture maps are simple, this allows the action to play out fast enough that players will rarely notice the lack of detail. He agreed with Maximum that the game is too short, contending that even players with nominal skill will reach the final stage