Twisted Metal: Black — The Main Characters, Ranked By Likability

Content Warning: the following article contains depictions of violence and suicide.

After two excellent games, as well as two lesser games, Twisted Metal: Black rejuvenated the Sony franchise in a whole new way. With the previous entries going a bit overboard with the tongue-in-cheek elements of the franchise, Black went in a darker, much more brutal direction, with the final result receiving widespread critical acclaim.

The game’s tone switch ended up working out well for developer Incognito Entertainment, creating a memorable experience with some memorable characters. Aside from the silent, far more neutral portrayal of Calypso this game presents, Black’s reimagined characters range from innocent victims to bloodthirsty monsters.

10 Sweet Tooth/Needles Kane

For years, Sweet Tooth was merely an obnoxious clown, but Black’s more Jason Voorhees-esque version of Sweet Tooth would soon become iconic. After slaughtering an insane amount of people, Needles Kane was cursed by fellow contestant Preacher, with his head being set ablaze from that day on.

If Kane wins Calypso’s contest, he is given Preacher’s blood which will only lift the curse if he renounces his murderous ways. Kane, completely unwilling to stop killing people, rejects his own wish and kills Calypso in cold blood.

9 Brimstone/Preacher

Speaking of Preacher, he was one of the new participants created for the game and is easily the least sympathetic of the new characters. The pious evangelist, who the church had the good sense to reject, attempted to drown a baby that he believed was possessed by a demon. That same demon infected Preacher, who then murdered lots of people before being sent to Blackfield Asylum.

Should Preacher win the contest, Calypso reveals the truth to Preacher, revealing that there was never a demon and that Preacher murdered all those people for no reason. Horrified by his own actions, Preacher attempts to make peace with God before throwing himself off of a roof.

8 Spectre/Bloody Mary

Some people don’t take rejection well, with Bloody Mary being an extreme example of that. After years of being rejected, Bloody Mary was serving as a bridesmaid for her friend Kristen, who tossed her the bouquet and missed, which Mary believed to be out of spite.

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Mary killed Kristen and was locked away in Blackfield Asylum with the rest of the characters, with her wish being that Calypso give her a groom. If she wins, Calypso presents Bloody Mary her lobotomized groom, who vows he will never love her before she bludgeons him to death.

7 Junkyard Dog/Billy Ray Stillwell

A corn farmer who was disfigured when a crop duster released a strange chemical on him and his crops, Billy Ray Stillwell was sent to Blackfield when he murdered his wife, who was having an affair with the pilot. His wish is to get revenge on the pilot who warped his face and ruined his life.

In Billy Ray Stillwell’s ending, he demands his prize from Calypso, who brings him back to the farm to find the pilot. Stillwell then drives the propellers of the crop duster into the pilot while Calypso watches the whole scene with glee evident on his face.

6 Crazy 8/No-Face

Butchered by a plastic surgeon who had lost money by betting on him in a boxing match, No-Face attacks the hospital the surgeon works at, only to be caught and locked away in Blackfield. No-Face’s reasons are certainly understandable, but the execution proves to be a bit outlandish.

No-Face’s ending sees the driver of Crazy 8 approaching Calypso with the wish to get revenge on the surgeon only to find the surgeon strapped to a punching bag. No-Face then punches the surgeon with a boxing glove laced with sharp objects, making the surgeon the only person No-Face ever knocked out with one punch.

5 Mr. Grimm

Going from an incarnation of The Grim Reaper to a disturbed Vietnam veteran gave Mr. Grimm a new coat of paint. After being captured by enemy troops, Grimm and his friend Benny were trapped in a large hole, with Grimm being forced to eat Benny.

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In Mr. Grimm’s ending, after killing and eating the military advisor that forced him to eat Benny, Grimm comes to a chilling conclusion. The reason he never liked the food at the asylum was because he liked the taste of human flesh.

4 Shadow/Raven

Nicknamed Raven because of her obsession with the bird, Raven is a goth teenager who was looking at tarot cards with her friend Kelly. At that moment, two bullies showed up and tossed Kelly into a river where she drowned because she couldn’t swim.

Sent to Blackfield by her parents, Calypso offers her the chance to get revenge on the bullies who drowned Kelly. In her ending, Raven brutally murders the bullies with the help of voodoo dolls, choosing to keep them to use on her parents at a later time.

3 Roadkill/John Doe

Roadkill’s driver has a story that really cuts at the player’s core. John Doe is dealing with amnesia with only the menacing tattoos on his body to go by, very similar to Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Calypso is able to convince John Doe to take part in the contest by showing him a picture of his past self.

In John Doe’s ending, Calypso tells Doe that he was once an FBI Agent who was infiltrating a doomsday cult. He had thrown a bomb they had planted in a CDC building out of a window, with the explosion robbing him of his memories. As Doe remembers his family, Calypso shoots him so that he won’t reveal his operation to the FBI in a scene ripped straight from a crime show.

2 Outlaw/Agent Stone

A police sniper with phenomenal aim, Agent Stone’s promising career ended in disaster. While trying to bring down a doomsday cult, Stone lost his temper at the thought of the creeps going free and fired on the cult without focus, accidentally killing an innocent family in his blind rage.

Turned grief-stricken and suicidal, Stone participates in Calypso’s game in the hope that Calypso will bring him back in time to rectify his mistake. If Stone wins, Calypso does just that, with Stone correcting the mistake, allowing the family to potentially survive. Sadly, he is then shot dead by a cultist who was still alive, a cultist that looks suspiciously like Calypso.

1 Darkside/Dollface

An innocent girl who made a simple mistake, Dollface gained her new face when she accidentally spilled coffee on documents that belonged to her boss, a mask designer named Kreel. Kreel forced the mask onto her and locked it onto her face with a key.

Unlike the other drivers, Dollface is seemingly kind and sweet, making the player more likely to root for her victory. In the end, Calypso helps her gain acceptance of her new face and get revenge on Kreel, making her ending the happiest…kind of.

About The Author

Seth Rector
(172 Articles Published)

Ever since he was a young lad, Seth Rector has had a love for all things that reek of geek. Movies, tv shows, comic books, and video games are what he considers his wheelhouse. A writer at heart, Seth says he’s over the moon now that he can write about what he loves. When he isn’t writing for Screen Rant, he is putting his film degree from Lights Film School to good use by working on future film projects.

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