Darkside

Darkside is a recurring vehicle in the Twisted Metal series. It is a black semi truck, driven by Mr. Ash in Twisted Metal (1995), Twisted Metal III and as his young self in Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. Dollface has been the driver of Darkside in all games since Twisted Metal: Black.

Twisted Metal (1995)[]

"A massive vehicle with awesome power but slow acceleration."

—Twisted Metal - Darkside's Bio

Darkside makes its debut in Twisted Metal, the first game in the series. A great vehicle for ramming opponents, but incredibly difficult to use.

When Driving It: Its big, bulky, and mean. If you can line an enemy up, ramming is your best offense.

When Fighting It: Watch out for its lethal Freeze Missile/Ram combo. It comes from his front grill and causes major damage. (Note: In the Windows version, Darkside uses its Special Weapon instead of the Freeze Missile, as in this version of the game, the Death Blast gains the ability to freeze enemies the way a Freeze Missile already does it.)

Special Weapon

Death Blast: A thin beam of white hot fire, stolen from the depths of hell
Death Blast (windows version) : A thin blue beam of icy death stolen from the depths of hell.

Twisted Metal III[]

"Play chicken with this Mac Daddy and you'll be scraping yourself off the side of the road. Mr. Ash has entered the contest to throw around his weight in Washington D.C. and ruffle your feathers with his bad attitude."

—Twisted Metal III - Instruction Manual

Darkside reappears in Twisted Metal III as an unplayable boss, being fought after destroying all three enemies in Washington D.C. Darkside's special weapon is a stronger version of Firestarter's Flamethrower attack with addition of a Freeze Missile at the same time of firing.

Special Weapon

Freeze Flame-thrower: Darkside shoots one Freeze Missile and fires a large flamethrower simultaneously.

How to Select
Darkside can be selected only with GameShark. The code to select Darkside in version 1.0 is: 800D28D0 000E; while on version 1.1 it is: 800D2CC8 000E (Note: You have to enable the "In-Game Menu" in the Settings or the game will freeze).

Twisted Metal: Black[]

"The vehicle Dollface has chosen to use in the contest is a semi-truck she calls Darkside. It was hijacked from the truck driver Dollface hitched a ride from. This armored behemoth is perfect to ram through opponents with a sirenless police car acting as a bumper."

—Twisted Metal: Black - Instruction Manual

Darkside returns as a default playable character in Twisted Metal: Black for the first time since the original Twisted Metal.

Special Weapon

Power Ram: Darkside accelerates to breakneck speed and crashes through anything in its way. Take note that the Special Attack can be rear-fired as well. Plus, ramming an opponent into a wall or "T-sliding" into an opponent will cause greater damage.

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl[]

Darkside appears as an unlockable vehicle; it is once again a Peterbilt 379. Except, however, it is dark blue instead of black and has cartoonish proportions to fit the game's aesthetic style. The vehicle also features a symbol of a full moon with a black howling wolf in front of it. The special weapon, a powerful ramming attack, is meant to destroy opponents in a few hits.

It has the best armor rating in the game after the bosses, Trapper and Piecemeal.

Special Weapon

Power Ram: Rams into its opponents with great force. It is possible to hit the same enemy multiple times with a single activation.

How to Unlock
Darkside can be unlocked at Easy Death Oven by firing a Napalm at the plumber's butt. Go under the opened area in the center island of the kitchen and collect the icon.

Twisted Metal: Lost[]

Darkside, with the same design as in Black, appears once again driven by Dollface.

Special Weapon

Power Ram: Same as the Twisted Metal: Black version.

Twisted Metal (2012)[]

Darkside is a returning vehicle in this game, and is once again a black semi truck.

Special Weapons

Darkside Slam (78 Points or 85 against Reaper), Drop Mines (15 Points Per Mine): The vehicle's special weapon is very similar to the one in Twisted Metal: Black, in that Darkside will accelerate and ram into vehicles. Additionally, Darkside can rear-fire the special to deploy Drop Mines from behind the truck.
- A new feature found in Darkside's Primary special is labeled as "Double Turbo Slam." If you have a SIXAXIS compatible controller, you are capable of performing this. While charging at an opponent, flick the controller and then activate the Special. (Do not do both at the same time. You must activate the extra turbo boost before the special, otherwise it will not work.) This deals in between 10-30 more damage (Ranging the attack from 45 Points Damage to 78 Points Damage).

50. Cal Tri-Gun (60 Points): The secondary special raises a tri-mini gun that can rotate in a 360 degree circle.

How to Unlock
It is unlocked after beating Iron Maiden in Mr. Grimm’s Story.

Unused Entries[]

Twisted Metal 2[]

Darkside was planned to appear in Twisted Metal 2, but the truck was dropped from the game for unknown reasons. It would have had a flatbed for what would have been the only time in any of its appearances.

Despite being cut, it can still be seen in the background of the options menu. A piece of concept art from TM2 of Darkside fighting Sweet Tooth on a bridge also exists. It is presumed to have been driven by the cut driver, Granny Dark.

Twisted Metal: Harbor City[]

Darkside was planned to make a return in Twisted Metal: Harbor City.

In all builds available, it is the same model as the one from Black. It is unknown if the final model would've been changed or not.

Special Weapon

Power Ram: Same as the Twisted Metal: Black version.

Trivia[]

General[]

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl is the only time Darkside is blue instead of black. However, in Twisted Metal (2012), you may repaint Darkside blue if so desired.

Twisted Metal (1995)[]

Darkside's license plate in the original Twisted Metal, (STNSPWN), means "Satan spawn".
In a preview screenshot of Twisted Metal (1995) from the June 1995 issue of the EGM Magazine, Darkside appears to have the name "Reaper".^[1]

Twisted Metal III[]

According to Jim Buck, one of TMIII's Software Engineers, Darkside and Primeval are not unlockable as playable characters because their bigger size led to collision issues. Despite this, Darkside is fully playable through use of cheat devices such as Gameshark or Action Replay.

Twisted Metal: Black[]

Darkside's special in Twisted Metal: Black is the only special that will do damage even if the attack misses.

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl[]

According to the game's art director, Dave Goodrich, Darkside was originally colored black, but it looked too much like a real truck next to the other RC cars, so it was changed to midnight blue instead. Additionally, the vehicle's symbol being a wolf howling in front of a moon represents Darkside's name referring to the dark side of the moon. This logo was supposed to be tied to a cut ending of Darkside. A moon model as the end of its antenna was also considered.^[2]
There were many iterations of the truck's design during the concepting phase of development, including a classic truck body style, and a short cab delivery truck version which was inspired by a rejected design from Black.^[2]
Additionally, Darkside's special was originally to be capable of reflecting any damage or weapons fire dealt to him back at whoever that attacks him, along with the ability to rebound off walls and automatically re-target opponents, plus a slow-falling gravity effect, but those abilities were never implemented into the game. The energy shield created by the special was supposed to be "like a comet reentering the atmosphere".

Twisted Metal (2012)[]

It is presumed that Juggernaut and Darkside are the same vehicle, since they have nearly identical features and the same Paint Shop options.

Gallery[]