Marcus "Needles" Kane—commonly known as Sweet Tooth—is a fictional character from the Twisted Metal video game series."Two classic characters, one class brawl: Optimus Prime (Transformers: The Game) vs Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal series)", GamePro 235 (April 2008): 24. Sweet Tooth is designed around the premise of a killer clown who drives a combat ice cream truck, and his face has been featured on the cover of every Twisted Metal game, making him the series' mascot. The name "Sweet tooth" was originally used as the name of the ice cream truck, but would also be used as a pseudonym for Needles starting with the second game. He is one of only a few characters in the series to drive more than one vehicle: driving "Dark Tooth", "Tower Tooth", and "Gold Tooth" in Twisted Metal: Head-On and its expanded PlayStation 2 port.
The character has gone through several redesigns differing from game to game, similar to fellow character Calypso, and his personality has grown progressively darker along the way. Despite the changes some factors remained uniform, notably the perpetual flame on his head introduced in the second game. Starting with Twisted Metal: Black, his design became a large, somewhat overweight bare chested clown with a mask featuring a maniacal smile. Twisted Metal: Head-On expanded on this idea, changing the mask to face paint and the smile to his own.Dark Tooth ending cinematic from Twisted Metal: Head On
Design and history Sweet Tooth's original look featured him as a green-haired, slim circus clown who had escaped from a mental institution.Sweet Tooth's Twisted Metal: Urban Assault storyline The design was expanded upon in the second game in response to changes to the truck's design, notably due to the clown head adorning the truck now featuring a personality of its own."The Darkside vs. Sweet Tooth image marks the first time an artist gave the ice cream truck head a living personality, seeing the clown with such an evil personality inspired the team to flesh out the driver of the truck itself, applying the vibe of the head on the truck to the driver inside". Factoid 4 in Sweet Tour, Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition The result gave Sweet Tooth the flaming head design seen on the character since. 989 Studios, who handled the next two games, put more emphasis on the clown design, redesigning his attire to that of a ringmaster in Twisted Metal 4; neither design was held in high regard by the developers, with David Jaffe stating his dislike of III's look.Twisted Metal documentary bonus video, Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition As of Black and beyond, the design was modified heavily, giving him increased bulk and other features that would be called his "classic look" by Incog Inc.'s design team."As you can see from the photograph taken during filing of the Twisted Metal 1 end movies, Sweet Tooth was at the start simply a circus clown. He did not even have his trademarked flaming hair. But by Twisted Metal: Black, the classic look of Sweet Tooth had emerged. From chicken scratch sketches to full blown CG character models, no expense was spared in bringing this mascot character to his current incarnation". Factoid 10 in Sweet Tour, Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition
The ice cream truck was designed before the driver himself, and Black'''s incarnation took six months and many concept sketches to finalize. Labeled early on "DEMONIC ICE CREAM TRUCK", attention to details such as the head adorning the vehicle and the contents of the back of the truck were focused on during development."The ice cream truck for Twisted Metal: Black took six months to design, with over three hundred concept sketches done before the team locked on the final version. In the following images you can see the attention to detail that went into everything from choosing the right clown head to figuring out what was inside the back of the truck itself. You can also see the original art of the ice cream truck labeled DEMONIC ICE CREAM TRUCK that was designed well before the character of Sweet Tooth was even conceived". Factoid 25 in Sweet Tour, Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition Boss variants of the truck have also appeared regularly in the series starting with Dark Tooth in the second game (which was a re-textured version of the original Sweet Tooth vehicle). While the designs for the vehicles have progressed steadily, care has been emphasized to keep them rooted to the simple yet unique ice cream truck structure, something that has become harder and harder for the team as the games go on."With each title it gets harder and harder to design a Sweet Tooth boss that is unique and special enough to be a boss character while still retaining the core elements of the very simple ice cream truck design". Factoid 7 in Sweet Tour, Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition
Appearances Twisted Metal (1995) Needles Kane makes his first appearance in the original Twisted Metal. Seen lacking his signature flaming hair, he is decidedly more tame than in future installments. He still has his killer personality, although not as flamboyant. He is portrayed by live-action actor Robert Goodens.
Twisted Metal 2 Sweet Tooth returns in Twisted Metal 2, seen for the first time with his familiar personality and flaming head. His wish is to become a bug so he no longer has to live a life where he needs to kill people. He is a secret character, able to be battled in Story Mode, but is only playable with a cheat code. This is the first game in the series where Needles is interchangeably referred to as "Sweet Tooth" and "Needles Kane". This game also sees the debut of Marcus, who is revealed in later games to be Sweet Tooth's split personality.
Twisted Metal III Sweet Tooth undergoes a radical change from Twisted Metal 2 to Twisted Metal III, from sinister stalker to maniacal psychopath. His updated look in this installment plays up the circus side of his personality, giving him a more clownish look and a great fascination with ice cream and candy. This is one of two Twisted Metal games besides the original where he does not have flaming hair, instead having styled orange hair that resemble flames, the other being in TMSB. As in TM2, he is a secret character, but the player only needs to beat the game to unlock him, or input a secret code.
Twisted Metal 4 In Twisted Metal 4, Sweet Tooth returns, now as the master of the Twisted Metal tournament, having overthrown Calypso. He is more of a ringmaster than a clown in this installment, but oddly remains silent for the entirety of the game, instead having one of his clown minions speak for him. He is the final boss of TM4, and is considered one of the most difficult bosses in the series. Sweet Tooth's special attack in TM4 is considered by fans to be the most overpowered of any Special Weapon in the entire series. Because he is the final boss, he does not have a unique ending, instead sharing the generic ending with the other unlockable bosses and the custom cars.
Twisted Metal: Black and Twisted Metal: Lost In Twisted Metal: Black (a reboot of the series), Sweet Tooth had a big make-over design-wise, giving him a more maniacal homicidal appearance. His personality also changed and became much darker. His background was expanded upon, stating he was a wanted mass murderer that survived the electric chair, to later end up at the Blackfield Asylum. It is revealed that the flames on his head were product of a curse imposed by the Black character Preacher, the driver of Brimstone, before execution. He was cursed with the burden of the fires of Hell upon his head, which burns him endlessly and causes him pain.Sweet Tooth storyline cinematics, Twisted Metal: Black
Calypso offers to remove the fire from Sweet Tooth as a prize. However, in his ending Calypso reveals that in order to break the curse, he would have to renounce his obsession of murdering innocents, to which Sweet Tooth responds by killing Calypso himself. Sweet Tooth also has an unnamed younger brother who drives Yellow Jacket alongside a dead zombified Charlie Kane. Due to the surreal setting of Black and its apparent disconnection from the mainstream games, the game's plot is considered an alternative story-line. It is also implied by Minion that the game takes place in Sweet Tooth's mind.
In Twisted Metal: Lost, it is said in the bio of Yellow Jacket that his brother and Charlie were attempting to kill Needles, then themselves, to "end the bloodline of generations of murderers and psychopaths." An alternate form of Sweet Tooth's truck is unlockable: a more powerful version painted gold called "Gold Tooth".
Twisted Metal: Small Brawl Sweet Tooth returns as a car in the child-themed spin-off game Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, based on RC cars instead of real ones. In this game, Sweet Tooth is the youngest and most mischievous kid in the contest, and enters looking for some ice cream.Sweet Tooth bio, Twisted Metal: Small Brawl His ending shows that Calypso offers him an ice cream from his familiar Ice Cream truck, but Sweet Tooth instead steals the truck to terrorize Calypso.
Twisted Metal: Head-On In Twisted Metal: Head-On, it is revealed that he is the split personality of Marcus Kane, the driver of Roadkill. As with Twisted Metal 4, his goal in this tournament is to take over Twisted Metal itself—in his ending, he claims that he has participated in (and won) many previous tournaments, but now he wants a change. In this tournament, if Marcus gives into his persona, the two become the driver of "Dark Tooth" and "Tower Tooth", the game's two final bosses. In this game, he is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
Twisted Metal (2012) In the 2012 reboot, he generally goes by "Sweet Tooth" or "Marcus Kane", while only his followers still refer to him as Needles. His passion for finding "the one that got away"—the only one of his would-be victims that managed to escape alive—is the driving force of his story and his motivation for entering the new Twisted Metal tournament.
His real name is Marcus Kane, a middle-aged man who lived a decent life. Happily married and a father of four, he worked as an ice cream salesman, handing out treats from his future demolition vehicle. However, a small part of him was filled with resentment and hatred for his mundane life, eventually manifesting as a split personality. This dark side, dubbed "Needles", began eating at the edges of Marcus' sanity, trying to convince him to set it free.
After an unknown period of time, Marcus finally gave in to Needles' demands, externalizing the facet of himself by creating a macabre clown mask. Unfortunately, this allowed Needles to subdue or destroy Marcus' personality, effectively bringing the man's repressed madness and sadism to the forefront. To celebrate his new freedom, the newly-named Sweet Tooth donned the clown mask (somehow setting his head ablaze in the process) and decided to murder "his" family.
Marcus' wife, youngest son and baby were quickly slaughtered, but Sweet Tooth took his time with his daughter. He would later admit this was a mistake, as it gave the girl time to grab a pair of large scissors and drive them towards the mad clown's right eye (hitting just under). As Sweet Tooth reeled in pain, Sophie fled into the night, becoming the first—and only—person that survived Sweet Tooth's murderous urges.
Infuriated at this turn of events, Sweet Tooth vowed to find his daughter and "make her BLEED". He began roaming the world in his ice cream truck—modified for combat and destruction—in search of the one that got away. At one point, he was able to track Sophie to a hospital, but found no sign of her beyond the "scent of her fear". On the other hand, Sweet Tooth took great pleasure in slaughtering everyone that got in his way on the way up, musing that "it was like Christmas morning: every hallway filled with little, tiny, blood-filled gifts".