The retro enthusiasts at Bitmap Bureau made their intentions for Terminator 2D crystal clear: to create the high quality 16-bit style T2 tie-in we never saw in the early ‘90s. No longer faced with hardware and cartridge limitations, they’ve arguably had an easier time creating Terminator 2D than the likes of JLN and Ocean did back when the movie was released. The only thing going against the Bitmap Bureau is that expectations are higher nowadays. ‘90s movie tie-ins were always assumed to be cash grabs, whereas today we expect them to be projects born out of a love for the franchise – something thankfully evident here, instantly setting it apart from what we saw in the ‘90s. Rest assured you won’t be forced to solve sliding tile puzzles.
Sporting tidy pixel art and intricately detailed animations, Terminator 2D looks and plays like a lost late SNES game. It not only turns key points of the movie into brief playable sections, but takes a few liberties to help expand the enemy roster, especially when it comes to boss battles. The first stage is a perfect example, pitting Sarah Connor against hockey-mask wearing thugs before taking on a beefy cowpoke named ‘Bandit Bob’ who carries a mini-gun.
Intended to teach the basics, this stage is predictably simple. You won’t be able to settle into a groove for long though, as each playable character has a slightly different move set, with some characters able to slide (which can be used as an attack) and others able to perform a combat roll. It’s possible to aim in eight directions while standing still, which is useful for sneakily killing enemies on higher ledges, and each playable character carries a different weapon – with a few Contra-style pick-ups available, including a homing shot. These activate for thirty seconds, rather than having a limited amount of ammo.
On your first playthrough (with easy, normal and hard modes available from the outset) twelve stages are presented, set in either 1995 or 2029 and starring Sarah, John or the T-800. Easy mode lives up to its name, more or less being a training mode as you’re given infinite continues and face noticeably few enemies – literally just one or two on screen at once, easily defeated with a couple of hits. Normal mode increases the number of enemies, while many bosses spawn additional fodder. Only three continues are given in this mode, although more can be found by destroying parts of the environment. Hard mode grants just one continue from the outset, and enemies require 3-4 hits to kill. This reflects the developer’s true vision. Arcade mode is there for those seeking a streamlined challenge, offering one life and no continues, while later a boss rush and two other modes unlock. Finish it on very hard, and you’ll have access to cheats.
There’s plenty of incentive to return for additional playthroughs, with more storyline choices appearing on the second run which introduce three new stages during the second half, including the police station shootout. Including multiple endings was a very smart move, as you may be surprised to hear that Terminator 2D: No Fate can be beaten in 45-50 minutes. A typical stage lasts around five minutes, and the boss fights aren’t too tricky on easy/normal with attack patterns simple to memorise. Some can even be beaten without taking a hit with minimal practise. After spending just a few hours blitzing through normal mode to see everything available, I was well prepared for the boss rush, making good headway on the first attempt.
Where Terminator 2D excels is with its variety, mixing things up often and introducing new mechanics for scenes that last barely a few minutes. The majority of stages are of the run and gun variety with a few ideas introduced, such as a cover system and the ability to kick doors, harming anyone stood behind. Sarah Conner’s Pescadero State Hospital escape scene has light stealth, lock picking, and frantic dashes from the metallic T-1000. The T-800’s bar fight scene plays like a beat’em up, with a shoulder barge, heavy punches and a backfist attack. It’s commendable that the developers created fully functioning beat’em up mechanics for a stage over in a flash. The downside of the stage’s brevity is that memorising enemy and power-up locations is a breeze. It’s doubtful anyone would have objected to most stages being longer.
Vehicle sections add further variety, involving weaving through traffic before shooting and ducking into cover – with the harder difficulties adding more hazards – while the steel mill battle sees Sarah protecting John from the T-1000. Let John out of your sight for too long and you can say farewell to a precious continue.
Every stage is ranked, including S ranks to gain – some of which are easily achieved – while pixel art cut-scenes outline the premise and setting for each scene. The quality of the images varies from being uncannily similar to photo stills, to more caricature-like. For the musical score, lots of renditions of the now familiar T2 theme tune feature, along with a certain track for the bar scene. The final result screen breaks down your stats, including the number of enemies killed and lives used, before showing your placing on the high score table. Which is local only, sadly.
While I can’t fault Terminator 2D for authenticity, replicating key moments from the movie with acute detail, I was surprised by how concise it was. On one hand it’s neat that Bitmap Bureau introduced new mechanics and their accompanying pixel art animations for scenes barely five minutes long, while on the other, following the movie this closely makes for a fleeting experience. It’s a whirlwind tour, with no second acts. Choose easy mode, and you can expect to see the ending within an hour, even on your first playthrough.
The fact remains that Terminator 2D isn’t a ‘one run and done’ experience, with harder modes to try and different endings to see. This does of course mean that you’ll need to play through it several times over to get your monies worth. For better or worse, this is the video game equivalent of watching the film on repeat. If you don’t consider yourself a huge Terminator fan, I would recommend the equally varied yet longer lasting Neon Inferno over this.
It’s good to see the Terminator back on consoles, especially in a modern retro form. It’s just a shame that they don’t stick around for long. Perhaps comparing this to an arcade game rather than a SNES one would have been more apt.
Bitmap Bureau’s Terminator 2D: No Fate is out 12th Dec on all modern systems. Published by Reef.