If you grew up with a PlayStation controller glued to your hands in the late nineties, you probably remember the exact moment the series shifted. It wasn't just the physics. It wasn't just the weirdly upbeat Rob Zombie soundtrack. It was the roster. The twisted metal 4 characters felt like a fever dream, mostly because they were. This was the second game developed by 989 Studios after the original creators at SingleTrac jumped ship, and honestly, you can tell. They didn't just iterate; they threw the internal logic of the universe into a blender.
Calypso was gone. Well, he wasn't gone, but he was a playable character—which basically felt like a betrayal of everything we knew about the wish-granting mastermind. Sweet Tooth was running the show. The result was a lineup of drivers that felt less like urban legends and more like discarded action figure concepts from a Saturday morning cartoon.
The weird transition from urban legends to cartoon villains
In the first two games, the drivers felt grounded. Grounded in a "grimdark" 90s way, sure, but they felt like people who lived in a dirty city. By the time we got to the twisted metal 4 characters, that grit was replaced by something much louder and, frankly, much stupider. We got Goggle Eyes. We got a literal garbage truck driven by a guy named Trash Man.
It’s easy to forget how much of a departure this was. 989 Studios actually held a "Create a Character" contest, which explains why some of these designs feel so disconnected. This wasn't a cohesive vision. It was a grab bag.
Take a look at the bosses. You had Crusher, Moon Buggy, Super Thumper, and RC Car. RC Car! It was literally just a giant remote-controlled car. While the previous games had you fighting Minion—a literal demon in a tank—this game had you fighting toys. It changed the stakes. Suddenly, the tournament didn't feel like a life-or-death struggle for your soul. It felt like a demolition derby at a county fair.
Ranking the twisted metal 4 characters: The good, the bad, and the Trash Man
Most people remember the heavy hitters, but the mid-tier roster is where the real weirdness lives. Let's talk about the ones that actually worked versus the ones that felt like filler.
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Orbital was actually cool. I’ll stand by that. He was a British secret agent with a half-frozen face who drove a sleek, futuristic sports car. He felt like he belonged in the series. His special weapon—a literal vacuum that sucked other cars in—was tactically interesting. It forced you to play differently.
Then you have Pizza Boy.
Yeah. A guy in a tuned-up hatchback with a giant spinning pizza cutter on the roof. Honestly, it’s iconic for all the wrong reasons. It represents that specific era of "extreme" culture where everything had to be a wacky trope. But in terms of gameplay, Pizza Boy was surprisingly viable because of his speed. That was the thing about the twisted metal 4 characters; the balance was actually decent, even if the lore was a mess.
The Returners: When Sweet Tooth took the throne
The biggest lore flip in this game was Sweet Tooth becoming the boss. Since he was the face of the franchise, 989 decided he should finally win the tournament and overthrow Calypso. This gave us a playable Calypso for the first and only time in the core series.
- Calypso: He drove a literal Soviet missile truck. It was slow, clunky, and had a nuke for a special. It was the ultimate glass cannon.
- Sweet Tooth: As a boss, he was terrifying. As a playable character (unlocked via code), he was a tank.
- Minion: He returned, but he wasn't the demon we knew. He was just... a guy in a tank. This is where the factual accuracy of the series lore starts to crumble.
The "Create a Character" winners—Captain Grimm, General Quarters, and The Joneses—were interesting experiments. The Joneses drove a station wagon. It was a literal "family on vacation" car. It was funny, but it also signaled that the series had moved away from being a horror-themed car combat game and into a parody of itself.
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Why the physics changed how these characters played
You can't talk about the characters without talking about the engine. The 989 Studios engine was "floaty." If you played the original games, you knew that weight mattered. In the fourth installment, every car felt like it was made of balsa wood.
This made characters like Micro Blast—a literal tiny toy car—actually playable. In the older games, a car that small would have been crushed instantly. In TM4, Micro Blast could zip around and avoid almost everything because the hitboxes were so generous and the gravity was so low. It turned the game into a high-speed arcade shooter rather than a tactical combat sim.
People often complain that the twisted metal 4 characters felt "samey" in terms of handling. While the stats said they were different, the physics engine tended to equalize them. Whether you were driving Meter Maid or Goggle Eyes, you were going to spend a lot of time sliding around corners like you were on ice.
The forgotten legacy of the custom characters
One thing people genuinely forget is that this game actually let you "create" a character. It wasn't a deep system—you basically picked a chassis, a special weapon, and a voice—but for 1999, it was revolutionary.
This is likely why the pre-set twisted metal 4 characters felt a bit thinner than usual. The developers wanted you to make your own. They leaned into the "party game" aspect. If you wanted to make a car that looked like a generic SUV but shot Sweet Tooth’s napalm, you could. It broke the balance of the game, but it added a layer of replayability that wasn't there before.
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Fact check: Was Twisted Metal 4 actually a failure?
Despite what the hardcore fans say, the game didn't "flop." It actually sold quite well. It went "Greatest Hits." But it’s the reason the series went dormant until Twisted Metal: Black came out on the PS2 and reset the whole timeline.
The twisted metal 4 characters were so divergent from the original vision that Sony eventually decided they needed to go back to the drawing board. They brought back the original creators to "fix" the mess 989 had made. This makes the fourth game a fascinating time capsule. It’s an example of what happens when a studio tries to "fix" something that isn't broken by adding more "attitude" and less atmosphere.
How to actually play as these characters today
If you’re looking to revisit this roster, you have a few options, but none of them are perfect. Unlike the first two games, which have been ported to everything from the PS3 to the PS5 with trophy support, TM4 is often left in the dust.
- Original Hardware: Tracking down a physical disc is still the "purest" way. It runs on PS1, PS2, and the original PS3.
- Emulation: Most modern emulators handle the 989 engine well. You can actually upscale the resolution to see just how weirdly detailed the character models for Pizza Boy and Goggle Eyes were.
- The Cheat Codes: You haven't lived until you've used the "Boss Car" codes. Playing as the giant RC car or the Super Thumper changes the game entirely.
The twisted metal 4 characters represent a weird, neon-soaked transition period for gaming. They weren't the dark, gritty icons of the early years, and they weren't the prestige-television-ready characters we see in the modern Peacock series. They were loud, bright, and a little bit dumb.
If you want to understand why the franchise eventually went back to its horror roots, you have to spend an afternoon playing as a guy who drives a garbage truck. It puts everything into perspective.
To truly master the roster, start by ignoring the "cool" looking cars. The most effective twisted metal 4 characters are actually the ones with the smallest hitboxes. Pick Micro Blast or Pizza Boy, focus on collecting "Power" pickups rather than just spamming your special, and abuse the "Freeze" combo (Left, Right, Up). The AI in this game is notoriously aggressive, but it can't handle fast, circular movement. Mastery isn't about the car's armor; it's about staying out of the "line of sight" logic that the 989 engine uses to track you. Once you break the AI tracking, even a pizza delivery car can take down Sweet Tooth.