T2: The Arcade Game

The latest of the Terminator 2 film licence releases is upon us, converted from the arcade game and bound to be a hit with countless arcade fans, for one simple reason. Before creating T2, the authors took a long hard look at an old game called Operation Wolf and decided it was damn groovy, and they're right. It is. So, they must have thought, 'let's plagiarise it to death, tart up the graphics with some sexy robot-types and we're on to a winner'. And that's exactly what they've done.

One of the things that makes T2 so appealing, as was the case in Wolf, is you don't have to bother reading half a novels worth of manual before you can get blasting. If you know how to move a mouse and click a mouse button, you can play T2.

The storyline, as is to be expected, is lifted directly from the movie. The machines of Skynet are after that nice John Connor bloke again, the son of the even nicer Sarah Connor. It's your job, as Chief Dude, to protect John from this Skynet lot and blast them all to kingdom come.

As for the actual gameplay, the rules are as easy as pie. You fight your way through seven levels, homing your mouse cursor in on anything you can find along the way and blast seven kinds of excrement out of it. Brilliant! Mindless violence has never been so much fun. Skynet throw everything they've got at you every step of the way, but there are power-ups of every description lying about all over the place and hidden in cases, so you never run out of ammo or energy.

John Connor himself pops up now and again, usually in a spot of bother and expecting you to get him out of it. One of the levels has John in a truck booting hell for leather across the landscape while you shoot down alien space ships and wobbly skeletons (what a combination) in the hope of seeing him safely to his destination.

T2 is non-stop action from start to finish. If you lose your concentration for a second you can say goodbye to a large portion of energy bar. In particular, the guardian robot at the end of level one is the toughest enemy character I came across in the five levels I played. He is the only guardian up to that point in the game and is an utter pain in the ass. There I was, blasting away at him like a man possessed while at the same time, intercepting his crossfire and frantically scooping up all the ammunition and rapid fire bonuses I could find lying on the ground. It's at times like this you thank the lord for the invention of pause keys

If a game can be judged by how often you keep coming back to it then T2, for me at least, is a surefire winner. Every time I lost all my credits and died, I went straight back again uttering those famous last words: 'just one more try'.

Out of the apocalyptic fires of a nuclear holocaust, a lone warrior must journey to save mankind from the brink of extinction. From terminator to protector, you must now save young John Connor from the relentless, quasi-liquid killing machine, the T-1000! As in the coin-op, T2 features incredible scaling and great graphics that plunge you head first into the battle of tomorrow. Power up your gun and get ready to save the human race from technology gone mad!

Everyone's favorite pumped-up metal monster, the Terminator, is back and in action on your Game Boy. Surprise, surprise! The action is just as fun and furious as it is on other systems.

Hasta La Vista, Baby

12: The Arcade Game by Acclaim is the latest conversion of the hit coin-op that burst through the arcades like machine gun fire last year. Once again, you're faced with the possibility of being an extinct species, thanks to a race of robots that's trying its hardest to exterminate you. For survival, you've joined forces with a small but determined resistance movement that is trying to protect its leader, John Conner, both in the present and the past. Need further clarification? See the movie.

From a first-person, gun sight-ready, head-on perspective, you'll scroll through a vast assortment of landscapes, including Skynet fortress and the Cyberdyne labs. The graphics are amazingly detailed, which makes up for the lack of color. Because of the small and very dark Game Boy screen, you may want to crank up that contrast and save a couple of eye nerves along the way.

Heavy Metal

You begin armed with only a machine gun, but you collect a variety of power-ups to increase your fighting power, including shields, gun coolant, bullets, and 1-ups. You also get some guided missiles for your protection.

You'll need plenty of ammo, information, and courage to face what's ahead. Each robot, police officer, and Terminator gets up and in your face during the course of the frenzied action. The mechanical assault also gets nasty when weird, furturistic HK's fly by and metallic Endoskeletons try to push you to the brink of extinction.

The game has little music, but that doesn't stop it from being noisy. Every deafening explosion and machine gun burst is clearly defined and very loud. Your ears will know when you've hit something, even if your eyes don't.

Pumping Irony

For a system that sports no color, it's ironic that this Game Boy version of the T2: Arcade game is a faster and more furious game than others. You may find some frustrating flex time over the game's difficulty. Fear not, friends! Saving John Conner has never been more exciting or rewarding. Don't be a girly-gamer, get out the guns and waste 'em!