After developing several non-Twisted Metal vehicular combat games for GT Interactive, a large number of SingleTrac employees left the company to form the gaming studio Incognito Entertainment and signed with Sony. Naturally, Sony offered them the opportunity to develop a new Twisted Metal title and their first game was Twisted Metal: Black for PlayStation 2.

The game has a much darker atmosphere than the first two games, and is the first game in the series to receive an "M" rating from the ESRB. Critics regarded it as the best in the series.