Twisted Metal (PS1) - Sweet Tooth Tournament

Well, I figure this had to come eventually. The obligatory single player Twisted Metal playthroughs. We all got our start here, after all, so in a way it's like getting back to the roots. Though this doesn't compare the the rush of a multiplayer duel for me, there's still some fun to be had.

Sweet Tooth stats (PS1)
Max Health: 115 HP
Handling: 70
Acceleration: 5
Top Speed (Turbo): 89 MPH (133 MPH)
Special Weapon Damage: 30
Max Specials Stored: 2
Special Regen Time: 20 Seconds

On paper, I should love this Sweet Tooth. Mr. Grimm is one of my favorite cars in the series, and I like heavy cars. TM1 Sweet Tooth is essentially a fat Mr. Grimm, so I should love this car, right? ehhhhhhh... This Sweet Tooth is admittedly more of a juggler than a straight bruiser. He has the strongest single hit damage of the "juggler" specials, but his damage is kneecapped by being able to carry only 2 at a time. So ironically, he's kind of a middling juggler, but also weaker than Grimm in that regard. He is at least great at ramming the small cars to death.

Furthermore, for his weight class, he's surprisingly fragile. He only has 5 more max HP than Outlaw, Thumper, and Roadkill, while being nowhere near as fast as them, and a little less evasive than them. Ramming conflicts between him and them are also iffy, with him tending take a lot of damage even if he's running them over. And against the other big cars in the game? Forget it, just consider him a small car permanently under the slow effect. Zoning them out is your best bet, which he is admittedly pretty good at doing. TM1 largely favors the small cars in general, and Sweet Tooth is a good car to point to to demonstrate this.

But Sweet Tooth also has a unique attribute, in that the weapons he fires come out rather high on his body. This attribute is a double-edged sword. For homing weapons; it's a strength, as it forces the missile to begin turning early to reach the angles needed to track the target, and this accelerates the speed at which it can reach those angles. But with weapons that have no homing ability (special, powers, & freeze) it can cause issues where the weapon flies over a small car's head. Especially if Sweet Tooth is on the sidewalk and say Spectre is on the road, since sidewalks are actually raised slightly from the road and it's not all just one flat surface. This is removed in the PC port of the game, making his special more reliable.

Overall he's not an easy car to use, and I don't think he's a particularly powerful car overall, but he has good strengths, and I do like TM1 Sweet Tooth. I also think he's better in the PC version, even if his main buff is the ability to carry 3 specials, up from 2.

Played on Hard mode. This was played on a PlayStation Classic, and save states were used for convenience, but only between level transitions and the "Minion Approaching" screens. I'm trying to go deathless until The Fight of Your Life, where I will actually allow myself to die, because this fight is really hard even with 3 lives. 5 enemies in the Arena map with naught but fire missiles, land mines, oil, and a single homing missile pickup? It's hard, but it's kinda fun, if a bit chaotic.

...Except for Sweet Tooth who the recording got cut a little short for. Oops.

0:00 Contest History + Game Intro
2:30 Sweet Tooth
3:16 Arena Duel
4:10 Warehouse District Warfare
7:24 Freeway Free For All
13:59 River Park Rumble
20:47 Assault on Cyburb
35:46 Rooftop Combat
40:42 Minion
45:40 Ending
47:29 The Fight of Your Life!