Naturally, you can’t have a review of games based on the film The Terminator without covering games made based on its sequel – “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”, and James wasted no time after the previous episode releasing this one to cover games based in the amazing 1992 sequel to the 1984 classic.
The episode opens with the game that most people would remember, Terminator 2: The Arcade Game. It was a shooter, mindless but well regarded. James does a quick review of it, as well as the various ports of the game to SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy. I personally had only a few chances to play it in the early 90’s and wasn’t very good at it, so I don’t have a strong connection to this game like others would, unlike the next game he decides to take a look at – Terminator 2: Judgement Day for the NES.
This is a game I had as a kid, and let me tell you, everything James complains about here is incredibly valid! I could barely get to level 2, let alone make it much further, and while I have a soft spot for it that doesn’t change the fact that difficult. It has it’s good points, which James does cover, but it’s got just as many flaws and quirks to bring up; lack of ammo, confusing level designs, the way enemies just take damage, and the lack of ammo in the final battle, even as just an option! It at least tries to cover the main scenes in the film, but it clearly wasn’t fully thought out.
We move on to the Game Boy version of the game, which is different from the NES game we just looked at — instead of playing as the T-800 the entire game, you instead begin as John Connor in the future trying to enter Skynet to reprogram the T-800 that gets sent back in time in the film. An interesting idea for the first few levels, sure, but it’s not done right, and once the Nerd gets to the “reprogram the Terminator” sequences it’s over. One life, no continues, not much fun to be had there.
Lastly, the Nerd decides to pop in Terminator 2 for the Super NES. If you were expecting something great, forget it, this one winds up being the worst of them all! From the comedy style opening, to the strange jumping and controls that “make a mockery” of someone as bad-ass as Arnold Schwarzenegger, the odd level design and the “collect future objects” thing just crammed in, level is just getting you ready for what’s to come — the driving.
The Nerd simply cannot figure it out, and I don’t blame him — there’s already way too much going on when the section starts, and while it looks like something there was a good idea behind, in practice, without instructions, James just can’t figure it out. Oh, and it’s another game that only gives you one life.
With that, James had had enough, judging the SNES Terminator 2 game the worst of the whole bunch and, in a parody of the end of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, he throws it into the molten iron of the steel mill to never be seen again.
Final Rating: 4.0/5
A solid episode, especially when considered with the previous one, covering the majority of the North American home console releases of Terminator games in the early 90’s. While this episode is a little low on the profanity or extreme comedy (much like the previous one) it does its job well by focusing on the games shown, at least in so far as James could actually progress in them.