A playthrough of Mindscape's 1992 license-based action game for the Super Nintendo, The Terminator.
The Terminator was one of the most bad-ass action movies ever made, and the license seems like a perfect fit for any number of excellent action video games to be based on. However, as with most movie licenses, history has shown us time and time again that a good license alone does not a good game make.
Games based on The Terminator have been hit-or-miss in their quality for decades now, but at the very least, this SNES adaptation of the 1984 film classic is a servicable adaptation. Thankfully, Mindscape contracted development of this one with Gray Matter, and while GM were hardly known for AAA work, their output was a huge step above stuff from Radical, the producers of the absolutely wretched NES Terminator game.
This run-and-gun SNES title put you in the shoes of Kyle Reese and tasks you with stages based on events from the film. You begin in the future, wading through seas of various killer cyborgs and androids before heading back into the past where you'll shoot through various familiar locales trying to find and protect Sarah Connor from her would-be assassin.
The shooter stages are pretty rudimentary but they get the job done. Though most are linear, left-to-right Contra-style affairs, the second stage is an open-ended exploratory level that quickly frustrates thanks to a ton of blind jumps and a gauntlet of rooftop helicopter battles: it's annoying that the worst level in the game appears so early on, because once you get past it, the game improves a great deal. The shooting and jumping work as you expect (though the screen is a bit too zoomed in to be able to see incoming attacks well), and it's pretty forgiving in its difficulty despite not giving you any continues. I loved the police station level, if for no other reason than it was hilarious to hear Kyle scream, "Sarah!" every time he opens a door.
The driving stages are pretty good, too. There are only two of them and they're short, but they look good and they control well. Too bad we didn't get a couple more of those thrown into the mix!
The presentation could've used a bit more work though. The digitized photos look great, though in what is probably a huge oversight, you can see all of the cutscenes by just letting the intro demo run over and over. I can't think of any other game that will let you see the ending without ever touching a single button.
The in-game graphics are all super dark and murky, making the stages look pretty dreary and dull, and the music is drowned out by some of the worst sound effects I've heard in a SNES game. Seriously, why is everything accompanied by a loud boing?
Overall what we have here is a flawed but still perfectly playable game, making The Terminator on the SNES a solid "not bad" choice for movie-based games.
-
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
Visit for the latest updates!
/ 540091756006560
/ nes_complete