There have been eight Twisted Metal games, which save for the first two were all Playstation console exclusives. Twisted Metal (1995), Twisted Metal 2 (1996), Twisted Metal III (1998), Twisted Metal 4 (1999), and Twisted Metal: Small Brawl hit the first Playstation while 2001’s Twisted Metal: Black (widely deemed the best of the bunch) was for the PS2, Twisted Metal: Head-On was for the PSP, and Twisted Metal (2012) was for the PS3. Some of the games fast-driving, gun-toting characters debuted early on and have lasted, most notably the clown with a flaming head, Sweet Tooth. Most of those long-runners have been adapted for Peacock’s Twisted Metal series, which recently concluded its excellent second season. As one might expect, a TV series has to expand upon one-liner spewing videogame characters and, in quite few cases, it’s managed to give them compelling backstories and fully fleshed-out personalities. And now, we’re going to go through the best of those character expansions.
Naturally, the characters had to be adaptations of their videogame counterparts. So, even though Stephanie Beatriz’s Quiet is arguably the best character of the show she’s original to it and thusly didn’t count. The same goes for Saylor Bell Curda’s Mayhem. Furthermore, while Patty Guggenheim is fantastic as Raven in Season 2, the character isn’t particularly expanded from her videogame counterpart.
4) Vermin
One of the better introductions in Twisted Metal Season 2, Vermin is brought to hilarious life by Lisa Gilroy. Comedy fans may recognize Gilroy from guest hosting for Taylor Tomlinson on After Midnight and for her two appearances on Very Important People with Vic Michaelis.
The show’s version of Vermin is technically a new character. In the games, Vermin was just a vehicle, modeled after the average exterminator’s van. So, Vermin still counts, because they essentially took an automobile and fleshed it out to be an entire person who can fight, has rotted teeth, and can experience heartbreak.
3) Dollface
Like John Doe (more on him later), Dollface hasn’t been a major part of the Twisted Metal franchise throughout most of its run. She didn’t appear until Twisted Metal: Black and only came back once, in the 2012 reboot.
In the show, Dollface continues to have her mask, but the similarities essentially stop there. Her Peacock rendition is actually the amnesia-stricken John Doe’s sister, and they get some bonding time in before she’s taken out on the battlefield. However, Twisted Metal game-runner Calypso brings her back as Minion, who was a boss in the first few games.
2) Axel
Axel has been in six of the mainline Twisted Metal games, dating all the way back to Twisted Metal 2. Like in the show, he’s a buff man who is harnessed between two massive tires with a pair of machine guns on the front of the makeshift vehicle.
The design of Axel (which is the name of the man and the machine that he’s attached to) remains unchanged, and like in most of his appearances in the games the vehicle isn’t so much something he’s attached to as much as something he can get in and out of. However, in the games, he gets into the painful vehicle as a sort of self-punishment, whereas the show he’s basically forced to by a mad scientist. Furthermore, Axel gets a touching backstory as an assassin who is good at what he does but has grown tired of the life. While on a job he refrains from killing a baby, rescues that baby, then has that baby stolen from him. That baby grows up to be Mayhem, who Axel spends his final moments on the planet saving.
1) John Doe
Anthony Mackie’s John Doe may be one of the two main characters in the show, but he’s a minor character in the videogame saga. In fact, he’s only in one, Twisted Metal: Black (he also appeared in Twisted Metal: Lost, an extra feature in Twisted Metal: Head-On‘s expanded PS2 port).
Most of what is established about John Doe in the game is established in the series. He has amnesia, a black widow spider is included in his design (a tattoo in the game and a design on his clothing in the show), and he drives a vehicle called Roadkill. But all of the backstory we learn about the character in the show is entirely new, as is his real name, Lionel. By the end of Season 2 we don’t know everything about Doe (or, rather, Lionel) but we know far more than we did in the game, and his personality is far more agreeable and endearing.