T2: Terminator 2 - Judgment Day

The Good
T2 is probably one of my favorite movies, so I got this game and I enjoy it very much! It's for the most part accurate with the movie. The music is awesome, the levels are well designed, the character models look almost exactly like the characters in the movie, and great action! It is also pretty creative with the shifting from side-scrolling to free-roam driving. Before I rant too much about this game, I want to finally say that I love that the level has a series of objectives you need to complete before you can move on, instead of just flat trying to get from the beginning of the level to the end of the level! Terminator 2: Judgement Day on the SNES: 3/5!

The Bad
The things I didn't like are very simple to put out. It bothered me that terminator was WAY too slow, so if you're under attack, it's hard to evade gunfire. Another thing is that there is too little of music, but the music sounds awesome, so it doesn't bother me much. And the final "bother" I'm laying down is that when I'm trying to turn north or south on the driving levels, I can never get it to turn, but it's probably because I'm playing an emulator on the XBOX with an XBOX controller. The following things aren't features that annoy me or bother me, but just kind of makes me think WTF. When you're in the mall, you're walking down the hall with a shotgun in your hands, and the security doesn't care. Even if you fire a shot at the air, the security won't care. Another thing that's kind of funny is when you die, it takes terminator FOREVER to die. He'll just lay there and wiggle around for like 5 minutes. But finally, it annoys me that there are endoskeletons in the final level. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN IN THE MOVIE!? Well, that's my con review.

The Bottom Line
An actually well-done movie port. For those who are fans of the film or film series, play this game! In my view, you are bound to enjoy it!

The Good
Some people will complain about its graphics; the characters may be small, but they are well-detailed and you can still recognise them from the movie. The animations are very smooth.

The control are NOT, contrary to popular belief, clunky: they just take some time getting used to, and once you do, it becomes a piece of cake afterwards getting things done. Initially Y is to do a knee thrust and A is to punch, with the former being the strongest of the two. Once you get weapons, Y is for the handgun and A is the shotgun and other powerful weapons such as the bazooka or the chain-gun (my personal favourite).

The sounds and music, while none of it is from the movie (except the intro), they blend in with the atmosphere pretty well.

Some of the levels are pretty huge, especially the Mall, which makes the game pretty interesting as you go around looking for future items. Also, the fact that some items or objectives (i.e locate John Connor's ID; Sarah Connor's room) change location within the level almost every time you play the game keeps it from being repetitive. Also you can choose not to have John follow you , which is helpful when there's a slew of cops up front. Just don't forget to pick him up.

And last, but not least, the game is faithful to the 1991 movie, which I absolutely loved just as much as the 1984 original; every key scene is here: the Bar, John's House, the Galeria, Pescadero, Dyson's house, Cyberdyne and the Steel Mill. It's always fun beating the hell out of the T-1000, which you'll face very often from the Mall onwards (or even earlier if you didn't shoot down the alarm at John's house or finish the level fast enough) as well as the cops and, oddly enough, endoskeletons in the last levels.

Even though you get a lot of injuries in the bike scenes fending off rival bickers or the T-1000 riding a vehicle or facing the cops at Dyson's and at Cyberdyne , the game has the courtesy of refilling you and the Connors' life bars every time you enter a new level which helps a LOT.

The Bad
The biking stages' controls are a little awkward: while the arrows tells you where you're supposed to go, the D-pad responds reverse, which disorients you i.e, left is right except when doing turns (Y+ arrow) ; while down is to turn around. But this is nothing serious and, again, you get used to it before long.

Especially in the last levels, it can get pretty difficult, but not frustrating. Sure, Arnold can withstand a LOT of hits, but the supporting characters do not, and there are no continues. If you die or the the Connors die (especially John), you start all over again. I don't mind that protecting John Connor is crucial (as in the movie) but some continues or even passwords would've helped.

The Bottom Line
Overall, the game captures the spirit of the movie very well: You're the Terminator, who can withstand a ton of hits, explosions, and shots. The controls may be complicated at first, but you get accustomed to them in almost no time, and you want to persevere because you're playing through key scenes from the movie.

A must for adventure-game fans and for fans of the movie.

The Mega Drive looks, sounds, and plays essentially the same, except that you can move everywhere and not just sideways in the driving stages.