Iron Maiden

"I've parked something on the battlefield to give you a fighting chance. You'll need it, because Dollface, she's...well, she's quite ambitious. As you can see."

—Calypso on Iron Maiden, Twisted Metal (2012)

Iron Maiden is a boss in Twisted Metal (2012). She is a gigantic (skyscraper-sized) robot modeled after Dollface, with a cannon on her right arm, rocket engines instead of feet, and faces on each side of her head, one similar to Dollface's mask and the other a demonic, enraged version. She serves as the final boss in Mr. Grimm's story campaign, engaging the stuntman in a multi-stage battle.

Battle[]

Phase 1[]

Initially, the mecha will protect herself with an energy field, making a direct attack useless. Iron Maiden will attack in several ways:

Flying over the course, attempting to harm Mr. Grimm with the fiery exhaust from her legs.
Launching five missiles from her left hand. This is preceded by a trio of red lasers locking on to the target; ducking behind cover can help break the lock or block the missiles when they are fired.
Firing several large fireballs from the cannon on her right arm.
Flying over the course similar to her first attack, but releasing smoke from her engines instead of flames. Less damaging, but greatly obscures vision of the road ahead.

In addition, the player will be under attack by a group of enemy cars, all named Limo. They are not especially notable in any way, but they play a role in Dollface's eventual defeat. This phase of the battle is fought similar to the game type Nuke Mode.

The player must locate and destroy the one red Limo in the group, optionally destroying the other white Limos to prevent interference. The red Limo releases one of the Dolls' faction leaders, who must be picked up (simply touching her with your vehicle is enough) and taken to a mobile missile launcher truck near the cliff where Mr. Grimm begins the level. When the helpless victim is within the green circle behind the truck, a circular meter with The Dolls' insignia begins to fill. When the meter is full, the leader will be sacrificed to the truck, causing it to launch a rocket that must be guided towards Iron Maiden while evading her defensive fire.

If the player successfully maneuvers the rocket into Iron Maiden, the colossal combat mecha will briefly lose its shields and become enraged, only to quickly recover by tapping into auxiliary power. From here, the process must be repeated, but with more white Limos to get in the way and the missile truck actively moving around the course.

Phase 2[]

OutlawVIronMaiden — Iron Maiden turns offensively on Mr. Grimm.

When the second missile meets its target, Iron Maiden's shields will fail completely, forcing Dollface to take a more offensive approach. Switching to its enraged face, the robot will use all of its previous attacks against Mr. Grimm, with the addition of one new move; releasing swarms of cherub-like drones that dive towards the player or act as stationary landmines. At this point, Iron Maiden is vulnerable to any attacks in the player's arsenal, but homing weapons work most effectively to catch the flying robot.

When the Iron Maiden's health drops to half, it will create an Electric Cage around itself and install a 40-second timer on the player. Now, the player must stay inside the ring to avoid losing time from their timer; if it reaches zero, they will automatically explode. In the process, they must also evade Iron Maiden's other attacks and retaliate with their own weaponry.

Phase 3[]

When the monstrous machine's health falls to 25%, it will malfunction and fall onto a bridge, hanging on with its arms. Immobilized and grounded, the Iron Maiden enhances its attacks to compensate:

It can repeatedly smash the ground with its fist, creating waves of red energy that move across the ground. The waves deal minor damage and moderate knockback, but can be jumped over with good timing.
It can also launch a barrage of fireballs or attack drones down various "columns" of the bridge. The latter may again fizzle out and act as a temporary mine.

Iron Maiden's new attacks all have limited range, but its Electric Cage remains active, forcing Mr. Grimm to stay in the line of fire or risk self-destructing. Fortunately, it has little health at this point and a healing item is present on one side of the bridge, providing decent options for survival.

When the Iron Maiden's health is finally depleted, it will lose its grip on the bridge and fall into the canyon far below.

Phase 4[]

However, as Mr. Grimm leaves the bridge, Dollface detaches the mech's head and engages the player in one last fight. The head no longer has the Electric Cage to limit Grimm's movements, but it is extremely difficult to hit, thanks to its small size, high speed, and tendency to release massive swarms of attack drones. It can also attack with a quick barrage of fireballs or a continuous stream of fire from its mouth.

When the head's health bar is emptied, it shakily ascends before exploding violently. Dollface falls into the canyon, screaming for Calypso to save her; meanwhile, Mr. Grimm prepares to finally fulfill his dream by meeting with the enigmatic proprietor of the competition.

Trivia[]

An Iron Maiden is a torture device where the victim is placed inside an iron coffin which (sometimes) resembles a maiden (this maiden being the Virgin Mary or some other biblical figures). The inside of the coffin is littered with spikes which insure that the victim dies from multiple stab wounds while they are forced to remain inside the coffin. Sometimes a small opening exists in the maiden for interrogation.
- In Twisted Metal (2012), Dollface is the operator of Iron Maiden. It may or may not be coincidence that in Dollface's ending in Black, her boss Mr. Kreel gets encased in an iron maiden (the torture device), killing him.
In the "Revenge" trailer, it appeared that the Iron Maiden was the boss for Needles, where in the game it is Mr. Grimm's boss. The fight in the trailer can somehow be enacted by selecting the Sweet Tooth for the battle.
You can take control of the drones that are launched at you in the last stage of the fight by facing them and launching a freeze missile at them and they can be controlled like a nuke missile.
During the fight, Dollface taunts Mr. Grimm by threatening to wear his skull as a helmet, quipping, "now why does THAT sound familiar?" This is a reference to the Mr. Grimm (a different character who wore a helmet made from a skull) from Twisted Metal: Black.
The original concept art seems intent on making Iron Maiden smaller, with more projectile weapons. This idea was scrapped and re-done after the consideration of Dollface's vehicle size compared to the original Iron Maiden.
Iron Maiden appears in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as a hazard where it invades Columbia and attacks the players.
Unlike the other two bosses, almost every vehicle can be used against Iron Maiden, with the exception of Juggernaut and Talon.