Mar 24 2009
“The Terminator” (1992) ****
Story:
In an apocalyptic 2029, the Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war brought on upon by self-aware AI, resulting in a Humans vs. Machines war. The AI in question, Skynet, sends back a cyborg (they’re called Terminators) to the year 1984 terminate Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, who will grow up to become the leader of the future resistance. At the same time, a rebel named Kyle Reese has been sent back to 1984 as well to protect Sarah from Skynet’s Terminator.
Graphics:
It’s a 2D side-scroller and much of the graphics may appear to be cartoonish, but hey, what else can you expect from this era of video games? The graphics do get the job done for the most part, I’ll give it that. It’s not “Super Mario Bros.” graphics, but it does work.
Controls:
The controls are very tight, you are able to jump and control basic maneuvers very easily. There’s nothing here that interferes with this aspect of the game.
Gameplay:
Well, the first couple of levels have absolutely nothing to do with the film itself, it takes place in future Los Angeles 2029, you play as Kyle Reese and you have to jump buildings and even take out a fighter jet in order to reach Sarah Connor in 1984. The rest of the levels stay true however. This game does a have a fairly high amount of difficulty associated with it, you must survive every level without losing any of your lives or else you’ll start over from the very top. For the most part, the gameplay is half action-packed and half-snorefest.
Overall:
Just to clarify, the Sega CD version of “The Terminator” is not just a straight Genesis conversion with enhancements here and there (which most Sega CD side-scrollers are widely known and criticized for). There are ten brand new levels, new backgrounds, animations, cinematic intermissions, and they even gave it a new musical score.
This isn’t the best ‘Terminator’ game out there, but once you start playing it, you may just feel like following through to the very end just to see what comes out of it for you. On a personal note, however, I kind of felt like each time I played it, it seemed more worse than the last as things just became uninteresting. If you’re a hardcore ‘Terminator’ fan though, you just might play it through for a second time.
Rating: ***
