Press Start may receive a commission when you buy from links on our site at no extra cost to you.
Although a strong case can be made for Top Gun: Maverick in this day and age, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was, for a long time, the single best action sequel ever put to film. It turned the horror leanings of the original on its ear, creating an explosive blockbuster of a successor that both subverted and shattered expectations alike. Although Arnie’s star was well and truly on a meteoric rise, Judgment Day cemented him as Hollywood’s larger-than-life action star. Video game tie-ins were at the height of their popularity in the early nineties, and while the Judgment Day light gun game scratched an itch, it didn’t quite live up to how spectacular the film truly was.
Crafted in the image of classic run-and-gun games like Contra, Terminator 2D: No Fate is a slick retelling of the film itself, while giving fans a glimpse at the events that precede and follow on from the film’s canon, like how Sarah found herself in Pescadero State Hospital to begin with. What’s most fun is how the game explores the series’s ideas of free will, letting players explore alternate timeline paths that differ from Judgment Day’s prime canon.
While it’s a fun exercise for those who’d ponder “what if John and Sarah didn’t reset the T-800’s chip?” I’d argue that, with only a few possible futures to explore, Terminator 2D does little to earn its ‘No Fate’ subtitle.
Although I wish it did more to present other possible timelines and really let the player flex their free will, the events of Judgment Day are so iconic that it’s hard to be mad if the game is, for the most part, a faithful retelling of that. It’s bursting at the seams with small allusions to the film itself, which fans will no doubt pick up on. Whether it’s how perfectly the night guard’s death spasms were recreated in pixel art as the T-1000 brutally impales his eye, or how the biker tossed onto the hot plates during the bar brawl flounders to keep his bare palms from burning, it’s all note-perfect and demonstrates a genuine adoration for the source material.
The run-and-gun gameplay itself, which, as I mentioned earlier, feels reminiscent of genre originators like Contra, feels pared back and incredibly nostalgic. It amazingly manages to feel like an era-appropriate tie-in for the 1991 film, sent forward in time to deliver what is comfortably the film’s best video game adaptation. I do think that, on higher difficulties, the enemies can be too punishing, and with fewer lives, it can feel like a bit of an impossible task. Like with most titles of the era, your aiming is restricted to the cardinal directions, which would feel a little bare bones were it not for the character’s spry mobility, meaning they’re able to clamber, bob, and weave through obstacles and incoming fire.
Buy Terminator 2D: No Fate for $78 from Amazon (includes delivery)
Depending on the path chosen, the campaign will have anywhere between twelve and fifteen stages. The game leaps liberally between the film’s events and the Future War, meaning you’ll fight all manner of enemies, from cops to the Terminators themselves. For the purpose of being a video game, there are several boss fights peppered throughout. As is typical for this kind of game, they’re enormous single-arena fights against Hunter-Killers and other machines; iconic moments from the film, such as the semi-truck chase and helicopter pursuit following the Cyberdyne escape, feature as other boss stages, framed as a chase sequence. There’s a brevity to the game’s story mode that makes it seem perfect for repeat runs, which is fortunate as there are a heap of modes to try.
Along with the standard story mode, which can run as long as an hour and change, you’ll find an arcade mode that trims the story fat for an action-first experience. You’ve also got a boss rush mode, a Mother of the Future mode that punishingly puts all of Sarah Connor’s missions into a single no save and no continues run, a never-ending shooting gallery mode, and a level training option for those looking to perfect a certain stage to collect the ‘S’ ranks.
So, while the base story is short and can be bowled over quickly enough, along with its alternate paths, all of the extra difficulty and modifier modes give the game a respectable replay value.
As a big fan of the two Terminator films—I’m not sure why they stopped making them, to be honest—I can’t gush enough about how near-perfect this game’s audiovisual presentation is. Seeing characters, scenes, and moments from the film reimagined in pixel art felt special; the only shortfall is that they seemingly did not obtain the rights for Arnold’s likeness, opting instead to use the T-800’s skeleton for any of his dialogue prompts. For as mammoth as his place in Terminator is, for him not to be back, if you will, is a shame.
All of the key arrangements from Brad Fiedel’s original cinematic score have been rearranged in spectacular chiptune fashion. However, there’s a good helping of original work in there to complement the extra playable action not seen in the film’s events. Arguably, the game’s most impressive wink at the audience comes by way of hiding Steppenwolf’s “Bad to the Bone” in the bar’s jukebox, which skips its disc and roars to life with a well-timed Arthur Fonzarelli-like punch.
Terminator 2D: No Fate is a more than competent action game that harkens back to a nostalgic era of run-and-gun platformers and movie tie-ins. Although I don’t feel as though it capitalises on its premise of exploring other possibilities and futures within the Judgment Day canon, it delivers more than enough fan service to keep any fan glued to the screen for a couple of evenings.
