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- For the many iterations of its driver, see Needles Kane.
Sweet Tooth is a recurring vehicle in the Twisted Metal series. Driven by the clown-themed killer, Needles Kane (also known as Sweet Tooth), the ice cream truck has appeared in every game in the series to date.
Description
The vehicle 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 boxy and cumbersome-looking, generally favoring armor and power over speed and handling.
One of the vehicle's most memorable features is the decoration atop its roof: a 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 Sweet Tooth's signature Napalm Cone Special Weapon: a massive burning projectile that can home in on enemy vehicles. It is also famous for its creepy laugh that plays after the Special Weapon is activated.
Due to some games primarily referring to its driver with the "Sweet Tooth" nickname, the truck was sometimes given different official names in supplementary material. In Twisted Metal: Black, it was known as the Tasty Treats Ice Cream Truck; while in Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, it was known as the Frosty Treats Ice Cream Truck. In-game, however, it was always known by the name Sweet Tooth.
Entries
| Vehicle | Driver(s) | Entry | Description |
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Sweet Tooth's first appearance was in 1995's Twisted Metal, the first game in the series. |
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Its second appearance was in 1996's Twisted Metal 2. It was unlockable and had the same design from the first game. |
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Its third appearance was in 1998's Twisted Metal III. It was unlockable once again. |
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Its fourth appearance was in 1999's Twisted Metal 4. This time, it was the game's final boss. |
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Its fifth appearance was in 2001's Twisted Metal: Black. It was a starting vehicle for the first time since the first game, and was known as the Tasty Treats Ice Cream Truck. |
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Its sixth appearance was in 2001's Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, now being an R/C known as the Frosty Treats Ice Cream Truck. |
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Its seventh appearance was in 2005's Twisted Metal: Head-On. |
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Its eighth appearance was in the Lost mode from the Extra Twisted Edition of Twisted Metal: Head-On (2008). It uses the same design from Black. |
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Its ninth appearance was in 2012's Twisted Metal. While it still was the main vehicle of Sweet Tooth (the driver), it could be driven by any other contestant from the game. |
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Its tenth and final appearance was in 2023~2025's Twisted Metal TV Series. |
Scrapped
- Sweet Tooth - Twisted Metal: Harbor City: Sweet Tooth was scheduled to be in Twisted Metal: Harbor City with the same design as that of Black.
Trivia
- Sweet Tooth is the only vehicle to appear in all eight games of the Twisted Metal Series.
- One could argue that Mr. Grimm and Warthog come very close to appearing in all eight games; however, in Twisted Metal 4, they are substituted with the similar Captain Grimm and General Warthog, respectively. It is unknown if these vehicles were meant to be vastly different versions of the trademark vehicles or if they are completely different vehicles with similar names.
- In Twisted Metal (1995), 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 both 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, Black, and Lost, 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 added to the vehicular soccer video game Rocket League on July 7, 2015. It is exclusive to the PlayStation 4 version.
- According to David Jaffe in an interview from MEL magazine, the idea for Sweet Tooth's name came from his girlfriend at the time.[1]