A sneak peek has arrived for the forthcoming Twisted Metal TV show — touted as an action-comedy — which will be debuting later this summer on the streaming platform Peacock.
The scene in question is the largest chunk of significant footage we’ve seen from the show, aside from an initial teaser trailer that didn’t reveal much of anything. Now, thanks to a clip of Twisted Metal debuting on Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, fans of the car-crashing game franchise finally have their first sense of what the tone of the show will be. Check out the clip for yourself, which was posted online via GameSpot’s official Twitter account.
The clip in question stars the show’s lead — Anthony Mackie — duking it out with Twisted Metal’s most iconic character, Sweet Tooth, voiced by Will Arnett. Oddly enough, the characters are not fighting each other with their cars in some kind of battle arena as you might expect. Instead, they are confronting each other in person in what appears to be a casino.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of the Twisted Metal franchise. I haven’t played the more mature-rated games that give more of a backstory to Sweet Tooth, such as Twisted Metal: Black or the Twisted Metal remake on the PlayStation 3. The only experience I really have of the franchise is Twisted Metal 1 and 2 on the original PlayStation. Based on that limited experience, where most of the fun I remember having as a kid with my siblings growing up was smashing cars together in a demolition derby-type scenario, this scene didn’t really resonate with me. However, maybe once we do see more of the action-heavy scenes, I may change my tune.
I must say, I did not outright hate the clip that was played. But it didn’t really seem to capture the essence of a Twisted Metal experience in a nutshell, in my view. That being said, the scene is obviously out of context with the overall story, so I’m willing to give it a shot. I did like both Mackie and Arnett’s performances. And even though I didn’t laugh out loud, I did find the pair dueting Sisqó’s “Thong Song” to be pretty fun.
Reactions to the clip on Twitter were pretty darn mixed, just like mine was. They ran the gamut of people calling it plain awful to rather enjoyable. The lack of featuring cars in the clip was a clear point of contention for many.
On the other hand, some people seemed won over by the clip, or at the very least, curious to see more.
In addition, many Twisted Metal fans were quick to characterize the clip as essentially a flaming dumpster, to put it mildly.
Another notable aspect of the clip is the fact that Arnett only plays the voice of Sweet Tooth, with the more muscle-bound pro-wrestler Samoa Joe playing the physical part, Darth Vader-style. Joe was clearly the winner for the day — as far as the internet is concerned — because much praise was leveled at his appearance, regardless of whether they liked the clip overall.
Check out Twisted Metal when it debuts on Peacock on July 27.