The Terminator

"Not as good as the movie, but what game is?"

The Terminator for the Super Nintendo is a basic platformer without any frills or any major shortcomings. Like the title suggests, The Terminator isn't as good as the incredible movie it's based on.

Graphics-6

The Terminator's graphics could have been better, but they still do a good job of showing the main character, the Terminators, and the weirdo punks that always try to kill you. The backgrounds are very well done, though, even if the simple, Genesis-quality sprites aren't the best ever.

Sound-4

No Terminator game I have ever played has had good sound, and this is no exception. A shotgun blast sounds like a ''twang-twang'' noise, and explosions are very muffled. There aren't any other real sound effects (yes, lasers sound like a shotgun), and the background music is just repetitive enough to get stuck in your head, but you won't like it there.

Gameplay-8

This is definetly The Terminator's high point; solid platforming action. Your only controls are Jump and Shoot, and the only break in that routine is in the first level, where you briefly man an anti-aircraft gun, and in two others, where you must outrun the Terminator in a car (Jump is just replaced with Accelerate). Overall, the gameplay is amongst the top 50 Super Nintendo games, which, with over 600 games for the system, is quite an accomplishment.

Story-6

On it's own, The Terminator's story would be decent, albeit a little confusing: You are a warrior sent back in time to 1984 from an apoctylptic future to stop an unstoppable killing robot. This robot, called 'The Terminator' was sent back to kill the mother of the future leader of the humans which inhabit this future. These humans will destroy the machines which originally caused the destruction of the world and sent the Terminator back in time. Unfortunately, the game itself does not reflect much of this, and therefore seems poor compared to the movie, which is where it got it's poorly executed story.

Challenge-11

This game is VERY hard. It's not impossible like it's little brother on the NES, but you don't have much health and if you die, you are sent back to the very beginning of the level. All of the levels are insanely long, except for the last one, which is WAY too easy. The driving games are especially hard, since you must go 200 of something while being chased by the Terminator, whose car is faster and whose gun is bigger. Police will also occasionaly try to stop you, but not the Terminator. There are also barricade on the HIGHWAY on which you are driving, and, of course, other cars. The '200' counts down very slowly. Oh yes, and your car also has the same health you do on foot. Evil.

Oh yeah, there are also no continues.

Replayability-None. Once you have beaten this, you will never, ever, ever want to play it again.

Buy/Rent-You can't rent it anymore, so I would recommend buying it. It's not that much, and will at least fill up some spare time.

Overall Rating (not an average)-7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/02, Updated 03/05/02