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Sweet Tooth is a vehicle featured in the Twisted Metal series. Driven by the clown-themed killer, Needles Kane, Sweet Tooth has appeared in every game in the series to date. Due to its strong association with Needles, Sweet Tooth is also commonly used to refer to both the driver and the vehicle.

Sweet Tooth is depicted as an old-fashioned ice cream truck with pink polka dots patterning its white-painted chassis. Its exact shape varies between games, but it is usually extremely boxy and cumbersome-looking. Fittingly, its in-game stats favor armor and power over speed and handling.

One of the vehicle's most memorable features is the decoration atop its roof: a macabre clown head seemingly in the likeness of Needles himself. It mimics its driver's flaming scalp with fiery orange hair or actual flames, depending on the incarnation. In some versions of Twisted Metal, the clown head is also the source of Needles' signature Napalm Cone weapon; a massive burning projectile that can home in on enemy vehicles.

Twisted Metal (1995)


"While it drives like a bathtub on wheels, this baby is POWERFUL! Watch out for its napalm ice cream cones!"
—Twisted Metal - Sweet Tooth's Bio

Sweet Tooth makes its debut in Twisted Metal, the first game in the series. It's a very tough vehicle to drive and isn't recommended for newcomers.

When Driving It: Flaming Ice Cream Cones may sound like they don't do much damage, but they do. Sweet Tooth has one of the most powerful special weapons in the game.

When Fighting It: Stick and move with it. Do not let it face you or you'll get nailed with homing missiles.

Special Weapon

  • Napalm Cone: A very powerful flaming projectile. Comes in Vanilla and Chocolate.

Twisted Metal 2


Sweet Tooth returns in Twisted Metal 2 as a hidden character. To use it, you'll need to input a code which differs depending if you're playing on PlayStation or PC. The codes are displayed below:

On PlayStation: Input " ↑, L1, Δ, → " in the vehicle selection screen.

On PC: Input "gloriousicecream" in the vehicle selection screen.

Special Weapon

  • Napalm Cones: Homing pink cone missiles that wave in mid-air and are more accurate from longer ranges. They regenerate quickly and can be spammed; however, they are not very strong.

Twisted Metal III


"This demented concessionaire bops around in his ice cream truck spreading merriment and salmonella. You'll also note that Sweet Tooth is down with the good humor: he'll be laughing the entire time he's launching the explosive head off the top of his truck."
—Twisted Metal III - Instruction Manual

Sweet Tooth is once again a hidden character in Twisted Metal III. However, it can be unlocked by beating the game with any character. It's also possible to unlock it by inputting " ←, ←, ←, →, → " at the Password screen.

Special Weapon

  • Flaming Head: Launches a giant remote bomb shaped as Sweet Tooth's flaming head. It explodes when it comes in contact with any vehicle or when you detonate it.

Twisted Metal 4


Sweet Tooth returns in Twisted Metal 4 as the boss of The Carnival level and the final boss overall. It can be unlocked as a playable vehicle upon completing Tournament Mode once as any character, or inputting " Start, R1, →, →, ← " at the Password screen.

Special Weapon

  • Henchmen: Three clown heads that chase anyone on their proximity. Just one usage this special can kill small and most medium-sized vehicles. The blue one pulls the enemy toward its center and can be nearly impossible to escape from, the green one fires M.I.R.V missiles nonstop, and the red one shoots flames. They can also navigate through walls and the ground, and in their final stage, they emit huge explosions, causing an immense amount of damage.

Twisted Metal: Black


"This ice cream truck's whimsical nature hides the truck's true function - a place for Needles to commit his treacherous acts. Its appearance makes it easy to lure his most innocent victims; and more often than not, the freezer is used to store other "items" besides the frozen treats Needles sells. The truck's heavy control and slow speed are offset by the devastating nature of its Special Attack."
—Twisted Metal: Black - Instruction Manual

Sweet Tooth, also known as "Tasty Treats Ice Cream Truck" in the instruction manual, returns in Twisted Metal: Black as a default character for the first time since the original Twisted Metal.

Special Weapon

  • Sweet Bot: When activated, Sweet Tooth will transform into a towering contraption, setting numerous hidden missile racks to firing position before firing its payload (with shooting style similar to Zoomy missiles). The missiles have their own auto homing mechanism.

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl


"Beware of this ice cream truck's Special Weapon - a tasty, yet deadly, ricocheting frozen treat with auto target re-acquisition action! If Sweet Tooth misses the first time, watch out for the rebound!"
—Twisted Metal: Small Brawl - Instruction Manual

Sweet Tooth's appearance in Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. This R/C version of the truck is also referred to as "Tasty Treats Ice Cream Truck" in the game's instruction manual.

Special Weapon

  • Frozen Treat: Fires ice cream bar ricochets that bounce off walls and target the nearest opponent for an extended period of time.

Twisted Metal: Head-On


Sweet Tooth's appearance in Twisted Metal: Head-On.

Special Weapons

  • Napalm Cone: Fires flaming napalm cones from the top of the ice cream truck. It has slight homing ability and can bounce off walls. However, the ricochets cannot home in on targets.
  • Napalm Cones: After receiving the Special Weapon upgrade, it's possible to charge up the special. Charging it all the way and letting go of the button will make it launch five Napalm Cones.

Twisted Metal: Lost


The Sweet Tooth used in Twisted Metal: Lost. It's the same vehicle from Black.

A solid gold version of Sweet Tooth gets unlocked upon completing the Story on hard mode. It is simply named "Gold Tooth".

Special Weapon

  • Sweet Bot: Same as the special from Black.

Twisted Metal (2012)


The vehicle is another rendition of the iconic ice cream truck. For whatever reason, this vehicle also has incredible ramming power, even being able to inflict heavy ram damage on Darkside.

Special Weapons

  • Laughing Ghost (40 Pts): The primary special weapon. The clown head will launch off the truck and can penetrate through walls to reach its target, very similar to Spectre's "Ghost Missile", but with a little more power.
  • Sweet Bot (Laughing Death - 25 Pts, Drop Attack - 55 Pts): The secondary special weapon gives the player the ability to turn into a robot AKA "Sweet Bot". Much like in Twisted Metal: Black, except now you are no longer limited to the ground. It can fly (which uses your turbo) and slam down on the ground to send out a shockwave (Sweet Slam) which also uses turbo and cannot be used if your turbo is at a certain percentage. The higher the drop, the more damage it does. It can also turbo charge into opponents with the "Sixaxis Slam" and throw its clown head (Laughing Death), like the Headless Horseman. Though the normal Laughing Ghost does 40 damage when fired in Truck mode, Laughing Death only deals 20 and cannot go through walls. Sweet Bot has heightened stats as opposed to Sweet Tooth.

During his bot mode, he has a higher armor endurance rate, along with a more powerful special attack. His attacks are more powerful (With the exception of Laughing Death, which only deals 20 damage. Compared to the Sweet Tooth counterpart, Laughing Ghost, this is significantly weaker).

Twisted Metal TV Series


Sweet Tooth makes an appearance in the 2023 TV series by Peacock.

The ice cream truck design is a less exaggerated version of its 2012 game appearance, but the clown head on top of the truck is mostly similar to its classic design.


Trivia

General

  • Sweet Tooth is the only vehicle in the series to have the same driver in every game.
  • Sweet Tooth is one of three vehicles to have appeared in every game. The others being Mr. Grimm and Warthog.
  • In TM and TMIII, Needles does not have his trademark "flaming head." However, a flaming clown head is adorned atop his truck.
  • Sweet Tooth is one of two vehicles to use the same model in more than one game, since it uses the same model in TM1 and TM2. This also applies to Minion.
  • In TM1 and TM2, the head on top of Sweet Tooth is a 2D sprite that always faces towards the screen and if in multiplayer the head will face the 2nd player. This is to give the ice cream truck a living personality. In every other game in the series, it is the opposite: a 3D model that always looks forward, except in TMIII, TMB, and TM:L, where it endlessly spins around clockwise unless it is transformed into Sweet Bot in the latter two, in which case its head targets the closest opponent.
  • Sweet Tooth was scheduled to be in the cancelled Twisted Metal: Harbor City, using the same design from TMB. The vehicle's design was most likely going to be kept the same, as Harbor City was supposed to be a direct sequel to Black.
    • In the third mission from a leaked Harbor City build from 2005 (and in Sweet Tour Mode), Needles had to find his truck in the police Impound Lot, likely confiscated after the events of the previous game.
  • Sweet Tooth was added to the vehicular soccer videogame Rocket League on July 7, 2015. It is exclusive to the PlayStation 4 version.

Twisted Metal (1995)

  • Sweet Tooth's Special Weapon sound effect plays when the player gets a game over.

Twisted Metal 2

  • Minion and Sweet Tooth cannot be selected as AI opponents in deathmatch mode; however, Sweet Tooth still randomly spawns as an AI opponent in Story Mode.

Twisted Metal III

  • Unlike in TM2, it is now possible to choose Sweet Tooth as an AI opponent, however, it must be manually selected.
  • The texture used on the truck's head was reused from Needles Kane's menu artwork.

Twisted Metal 4

  • In the introduction, Sweet Tooth, oddly, does not have a flaming clown head adorned on top of it. However, ironically, it does have the pole for which the head rests on.
    • The head shows up for a few frames when The Joneses is on screen.
  • Sweet Tooth's paintjob in the intro is completely different from the one in-game.
  • Sweet Tooth's Special Weapon is called "Henchmen." However, when the player is destroyed by a CPU Sweet Tooth's Henchmen, the "Destroyed by ___________" message that appears on-screen erroneously refers to it as "MIRVBaby."
  • This version of Sweet Tooth's special is considered the most overpowered, likely referencing Needles' wish to be the star of Twisted Metal in the game's intro.
  • Sweet Tooth's head atop the truck in TM4 has a fire effect which can burn other cars. However, this fire can also be extinguished, and it won't light up again.
  • Sweet Tooth's head in the main menu has no fire effect, being part of the model instead.
  • In an early version of the game dated September 29, 1999,[1] Sweet Tooth's special was not made yet; with it launching a Power Missile instead.

Twisted Metal: Black

  • TM:B is the first game in the series to feature an extended-hood version of Sweet Tooth.
  • The jingle that plays from Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck came from the song "Joker Invasion" by Joker GF.

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl

  • A real-life version of the R/C Sweet Tooth car was created to promote the game in magazine print ads.

Twisted Metal: Lost

  • The Sweet Tooth truck model is actually smaller than in its predecessor TM:B.

Twisted Metal (2012)

  • At the paint shop, Sweet Tooth can be customized to look like Dark Tooth if the player so chooses.
    • Sweet Tooth can also be customized to look like Gold Tooth, after installing patch 1.05. However, unlike TM:L, there is no statistical difference, only aesthetically.
  • Sweet Bot's original design included a machine gun on its right arm. However, for the final version of the game, this machine gun was removed. It may have been removed due to the fact that it could have possibly made Sweet Tooth even more overpowered, as it already had the ability of flight, Sweet Slam, the charge attack, Laughing Death, and Laughing Ghost. It is possible, however, that the machine gun would have replaced the normal mounted guns sidearm and wouldn't have been another weapon on its own.
  • Sweet Bot is likely a homage to the popular series and movies, Transformers.

Gallery

Twisted Metal (1995)

Twisted Metal 2

Twisted Metal III

Twisted Metal 4

Twisted Metal: Black

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl

Twisted Metal: Head-On

Twisted Metal: Lost

Twisted Metal (2012)

Twisted Metal (TV Series

References

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