Possibly but Not really. In the past games he was the grim reaper. He's been dark skinned and wearing some sort of tight (what looked like) leather mask, he's also been portraid to be a body with a skull for a head in some of the games (like ghost rider without the flames). I believe there was a case where he had somewhat of a bulky dark  skinned pinhead (from the hellraiser series) look. With the game being more grounded in reality and going for live-action cutscenes, he's now a black guy with locks and skull face paint.

EDIT: My mistake. He's never been dark skinned and leather faced. I was mixing him up with someone else. He's always been bones (except in black where he was white and wore a mask made of his friend's skull) and in the few instances that suggested him with flesh, he was white.

http://twistedmetal.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Grimm

David Jaffe is the mutha fuckin man I haven't payed much attention to this guy because I only play xbox and duh he doesn't make games for xbox but it's true being a racist is so dumb and I'm glad he came out and said this.

Whoever don't like what I just said, I don't care.

and yes I am black.

Shout out to hiphopgamer one of my personal friends.


Wow David Jaffe wow just wow.

Then it's quite understandable why some fans would be pissed.

They changed a characters ethnicity with no explanation, 7 games into the series? 

This up coming twisted metal is a complete reboot starting from scratch when it comes to story, though. Similar to how TM:Black in 2001 just sorta ignored the past games. (It was the only game where Mr. Grimm was human before this upcoming TM, and something tells me not many people complained back then when TM was much more familiar.) Mr. Grimm is nothing like the Grimm of old. He's not the grim reaper anymore or an ex-soldier turned cannible.  He's got a completely new story and motive. He's pretty much a new character. I guess it's all debatable though.

Jaffe does say that he can understand that some fans would be disappointed that Grim isn't the ex-Soldier wearing a skull mask character that he was in Twisted Metal: Black, though. So he's not really talking to the people that have that legitamite reason to be disappointed. He's talking strictly to the ones that are just being racist about it.

I love Jaffe's philosphy towards gaming, that games should be games and not interactive movies. Especially as he is the creator of God of War, a cinematic game, and yet he has the integrity to distance himself from that type of game and constantly preach about the importance of focus on gameplay (not saying gameplay is weak in God of War, they're superb games, but they have a strong cinematic design).

Seriously, that guy needs to either lay off of the coke or hang out with Quentin Tarantino.

One or the other...

if anyone was wondering why i didn't comment, it's because i didn't want to drive anyones opinion as the op, but this site is filled strong minded people whom can't be swayed.

in short, i find David's stance admirable.