Terminator | |
---|---|
Genre(s) | Action Adventure Beat em up First-person shooter Racing Platform Side-scrolling Shoot 'em up Third-person shooter |
Developer(s) |
|
Publisher(s) |
|
Platform(s) | Various
|
First release | The Terminator (DOS) 1991 |
Latest release | Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance 2024 |
Parent series | Terminator |
This list of Terminator video games includes video games based on the Terminator film series. The films generally focus on humans attempting to prevent the rise of Skynet, an artificial intelligence. In the future, Skynet will wipe out most of humanity with help from its army of Terminator machines.
The first Terminator game was released for DOS in July 1991, and is based on the original film, The Terminator (1984). Other games based on the first film and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), were released over the next two years. Subsequent films also received game adaptations, and several non-film based games have also been released.
Several video games titled The Terminator were released, each of them based on the 1984 film of the same name. By 1988, Danish company Robtek had acquired the license to create games based on the film, but it subsequently went into receivership before any game could be released. [1]
By mid-1989, development was underway by Sunsoft on a Terminator game, which would be released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). [2] However, Sunsoft lost the license and eventually published the game as Journey to Silius in 1990. Sunsoft reportedly lost the Terminator license because the game did not follow the plot of the film, instead focusing solely on Kyle Reese as he battles Skynet's machines in the future. [3] [4] Gameplay footage had been shown at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in 1989, and the footage would resurface 30 years later. [5]
The Terminator is a DOS action-adventure game based on the first movie. In mid-1990, Bethesda Softworks announced a deal with the Hemdale Film Corporation to create computer video games based on The Terminator. [6] Bethesda Softworks developed and published the game in July 1991. [7] [8] It was the first game based on the Terminator film series. [9]
A shoot 'em up game, titled The Terminator, was developed by Probe Software and published by Virgin Games. It was released in 1992, for several Sega consoles: the Mega Drive/Genesis, the Master System, and the Game Gear. [10] [11]
Another shoot 'em up game, also titled The Terminator, was released for the Sega CD. It was developed and published by Virgin Games in 1993. The graphics and music took advantage of the Sega CD's capabilities, and the game includes the use of full motion video from the film. [12]
A side-scrolling action game titled The Terminator was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in December 1992. [13] Gameplay consists of platforming and driving stages, with Kyle Reese as the player character. It was sublicensed by Bethesda Softworks, developed by Radical Entertainment, and published by Mindscape. [14] Gary Whitta of Computer and Video Games (CVG) was critical of the graphics, and considered the gameplay outdated with no originality. He rated it 61 out of 100, [15] while MegaFun rated it 55 out of 100. [16]
Another side-scrolling action game, also titled The Terminator, was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). [17] It was developed by Gray Matter [18] and published by Mindscape in April 1993. [19] The SNES version also puts the player in control of Kyle Reese. It features levels based on the film, including the future war in 2029, and the police station and nightclub in Los Angeles 1984. It also includes several driving levels. [20] [21]
CVG rated the SNES version 70 out of 100. The magazine criticized the graphics, stating that they resembled an 8-bit game rather than the 16-bit capability of the SNES. CVG also criticized the difficulty, stating that checkpoints are placed too far apart. [22] N-Force found the gameplay boring and exceedingly difficult, rating the game 55 out of 100. [23] Nintendo Power considered the game an improvement over Mindscape's NES version. The magazine praised the graphics and music, [17] while MegaFun found the graphics dreary and the sound monotonous, rating the game 58 out of 100. [24] Reviewers for GameFan were critical of the game but praised its driving levels. [25]
A mobile game, The Terminator, was released in 2003. It is a shoot 'em up developed and published by In-Fusio. [26]
Several video games based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day were released between 1991 and 1993.
A pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams Electronics in 1991. [37] [38]
A chess game developed by IntraCorp and published by Capstone Software for MS-DOS in 1993. [39] Characters from Terminator 2: Judgment Day act as chess pieces. White is the "human" side, with the T-800 as king, Sarah Connor as queen, two John Connors as bishops, two Miles Dysons as knights, and soldiers in green uniforms as rooks and pawns. Black is the "machines" side: gray-colored robots with metal skeletons, without the T-1000. The pieces are not taken on the chess board but in futuristic battlefield settings resembling the scenes of the man-machine war from the movie. The player can choose from several game types and difficulty settings. The game rates the player in accordance with the United States Chess Federation scale.
Computer Gaming World stated in 1994 that Chess Wars was one of "a host of imitations and look-alikes" of Battle Chess . The magazine reported that it crashed so often that the chess engine could not be evaluated because no game was completed, the SVGA graphics were "unimpressive", transitioning between the board and battles was "painfully slow" and the pieces were poorly animated, and falsely claimed to have 4500 chess openings when it lacked an opening library. Computer Gaming World concluded that T2 Chess Wars and Star Wars Chess "are examples of marketing at its best (or worst, depending on your point of view)". [40]
Developed by Isle of Man-based betting software developer Microgaming and released in June 2014, this video slot game is a 5-reel online slot machine with a free spins bonus feature and a T-1000 theme. Microgaming CEO Roger Raatgever said, "We've taken the core elements of the iconic Terminator 2 film to create an online slot that does the brand justice. Visually it is stunning and it has a fitting game mechanic that is completely unique to the online gaming market. Our operators and their players will be awestruck by our creation; we are incredibly excited about the game launch today." [41]
Several games are based on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines . The first game, titled after the film, was released in 2003. It is a first-person shooter game with elements of hand-to-hand combat in the third-person perspective. It was developed by Black Ops and published by Atari for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. [42] [43]
Another first-person shooter game, Terminator 3: War of the Machines , was also released in 2003, for Microsoft Windows. [44] In 2004, Terminator 3: The Redemption was released for several consoles. [45]
A pinball game was also manufactured by Stern Pinball for release in 2003. It was designed by Steve Ritchie and includes voice acting by Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. It is similar to the pinball game Terminator 2: Judgment Day , also by Ritchie. [46] [47]
A third-person shooter action game titled Terminator Salvation , based on the film of the same name, was released in 2009. [48]
An arcade game based on the film, developed by Play Mechanix and published by Raw Thrills, was released in 2010. [49] [50] [51] [52] It is a light gun game featuring next-generation graphics. Two players can cooperate simultaneously using machine gun-styled light guns to blast terminators, drones, and other enemies while pushing a button on the magazine well of the gun in order to reload.
For the 2015 film Terminator Genisys , two mobile games were released.
Terminator Genisys: Revolution, [53] also called Terminator Genisys: Guardian, [54] was developed and published by Glu Games, and released in June 2015. [55] It is a free-to-play third-person shooter with micro-transactions that include new characters and weapons. [56] [57] Jon Mundy of Pocket Gamer called it "another shallow movie tie-in, high on action, spectacle, and (especially) IAPS, but low on depth and content". [56] A game, based on Terminator Genisys: Revolution, was also shown in select theaters prior to the showing of the film, with viewers aiming their mobile phones at the screen to shoot Terminators. [58]
In June 2016, Skydance Media granted Plarium the rights to develop a new mobile game based on the film. [59] [60] The game, Terminator Genisys: Future War , was released in May 2017. It is an MMO strategy video game, set during the future war between humans and Skynet. [61] Jessica Famularo of Pocket Gamer criticized the grinding gameplay and minimal storyline, and called it the "Terminator game you neither wanted nor asked for". [62]
Terminator: Dark Fate – The Game is an MMO strategy video game developed by Firefly Games and the China-based Camel Games for Android and iOS. It is based on the 2019 film of the same name. Firefly Games began working on the game in 2017, after being contacted by the film's production company, Skydance Media. [63] The game was released on October 18, 2019, [64] and a global release occurred on November 8, 2019. [65]
In the game, the player commands a group of Resistance fighters who must defend against machine attacks. The player can expand the group's Resistance base and can also form alliances with other players. The player is guided by characters from the film. The game is free-to-play but utilizes in-app purchases in exchange for various resources. [63]
Terminator: Guardian of Fate, a virtual reality game by VRstudios, was also launched in November 2019, as a tie-in to Dark Fate. The game is exclusive to the Dave & Buster's chain, debuting at 130 locations across the U.S. It uses HTC Vive headsets and supports up to four players. Like the film, it features the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, though in a voice-over role. In the game, Connor and players travel together in a vehicle to evade a terminator. [66] [67]
Another game, Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, was released on PC on February 21, 2024. [68] It is a real-time strategy game that takes place after Judgment Day, during the war between humans and the A.I. known as Legion. [69] [70] The player assumes the role of a commander in the Founders, a group consisting of ex-U.S. military personnel. A multiplayer mode also features two additional teams: the human resistance and Legion. [68] Slitherine Software is the game's developer and publisher, [71] in collaboration with Skydance. [72] The game received "mixed or average" reviews according to Metacritic, with a score of 72 out of 100. [73] Alex Avard of Empire found the quality of Terminator games to be inconsistent, but wrote that Dark Fate – Defiance, with its "tightly designed" gameplay, "may have just helped to raise that historically low bar a little bit higher." [74] Jon Bolding of IGN criticized the game's difficulty. [75]
Several games, not based on any particular film, have been released since 1992.
Terminator characters have also made appearances in non-Terminator games.
Terminator is an American media franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. It is considered to be of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. The franchise primarily focuses on a post-apocalyptic war between a synthetic intelligence known as Skynet, and a surviving resistance of humans led by John Connor. Skynet fights with an arsenal of cyborgs known as Terminators, designed to mimic humans and infiltrate the resistance. A prominent model throughout the films is the T-800, commonly known as the Terminator and portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Time travel is a common aspect of the franchise, with humans and Terminators often sent back to alter the past and change the outcome of the future.
Sarah Jeanette Connor is a fictional character and the female protagonist of the Terminator franchise. She is one of the protagonists of The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), as well as the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009). The character develops from a timid damsel in distress victim in the first film to a wanted fugitive committing acts of terrorism, a hardened warrior and mother who sacrificed everything for her son's future, on the verge of losing touch with her own humanity, and a mentor preparing and protecting a protégée for her destiny.
The Terminator, also known as a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 or the T-800, is the name of several film characters from the Terminator franchise portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator himself is part of a series of machines created by Skynet, an artificial intelligence, for infiltration-based surveillance and assassination missions. While an android for his appearance, he is usually described as a cyborg consisting of living tissue over a robotic endoskeleton.
Kyle Reese is a fictional character in the Terminator franchise, Kyle is the protagonist of the first film and a supporting role in other works. Kyle Reese is portrayed by Michael Biehn in The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jonathan Jackson in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009), Anton Yelchin in Terminator Salvation (2009), and Jai Courtney in Terminator Genisys (2015).
John Connor is a fictional character and the male protagonist of the Terminator franchise. Created by writer/director James Cameron, the character is first referred to in the 1984 film The Terminator and first appears in its 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2). In the character's first appearance, John is portrayed by Edward Furlong as a child, and briefly by Michael Edwards as an adult in a small role. Other actors have portrayed the character in subsequent films, including Nick Stahl, Christian Bale, and Jason Clarke. In addition, Thomas Dekker portrayed John Connor in the two-season television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day or T2 is a light gun shooter based on the film of the same name, produced by Midway Manufacturing Company as an arcade video game in 1991. Developed in tandem with the movie, several actors from the film reprise their roles for the game and are featured as part of the game's photorealistic digitized graphics. The game's plot largely follows that of the film, casting up to two players as the T-800 "terminator" cyborg, sent back in time to protect John Connor from assassination by the T-1000 terminator. A success in arcades, home conversions of the game were released by Acclaim Entertainment for various platforms under the title of T2: The Arcade Game to avoid confusion with the numerous tie-in games also based on the movie.
Where's Waldo? is a hidden object game developed by Bethesda Softworks and published by THQ for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. It was the first video game loosely based on Martin Handford's 1987 book of the same name. Mostly similar to the books, players must help Waldo get to the Moon by finding him in each of the eight levels in the game.
RoboCop Versus The Terminator is a run and gun game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Master System, and Game Gear in 1993, with later ports to the Sega Genesis and Game Boy in 1994. It is based on the 1992 four-issue comic book mini-series of the same name, which is a crossover between the RoboCop and Terminator franchises. The actors who originated the characters did not reprise their roles in this game.
The Terminator 2029 is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is based on the Terminator film series, and was released in 1992 for DOS. It is Bethesda's second Terminator game following The Terminator (1991).
Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that serves as the main antagonist of the Terminator franchise. Skynet is an AGI, an ASI and a Singularity.
Terminator Genisys is a 2015 American cyberpunk action film that is the fifth installment in the Terminator franchise. It is a reboot of the franchise, taking the premise of the original film in another direction and ignoring the events depicted in sequels and the TV series. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, who reprises his role as the Terminator. It is directed by Alan Taylor and written by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. Along with Schwarzenegger, the film's cast features Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J. K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi, Matt Smith, Courtney B. Vance, Michael Gladis, Sandrine Holt, and Lee Byung-hun. The story follows Kyle Reese, a soldier in a post-apocalyptic war against Skynet, who is sent from 2029 to 1984 to prevent Sarah Connor's death. When Kyle arrives in the past, he discovers that the timeline has been altered by Skynet and that Sarah has been raised by a reprogrammed Terminator sent to protect her.
Terminator Genisys: Future War is a mobile MMO strategy video game created by Plarium in cooperation with Skydance Media. The events of the game take place in a post-apocalyptic future years after the events of the Terminator Genisys film. Originally developed as a sequel film, the game was released on May 18, 2017 on the iOS App Store and Google Play. It uses Plarium's usual model of free to play, with some in-game features and upgrades available to purchase.
Terminator: Dark Fate is a 2019 American science fiction action film. It is the sixth installment in the Terminator franchise and serves as a direct sequel to both The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), ignoring the events depicted in Rise of the Machines (2003) and Terminator Salvation (2009). The film stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their characters Sarah Connor and the T-800 Terminator, respectively, and introduces Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna and Diego Boneta as new characters. Dark Fate is directed by Tim Miller and written by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray, based on a story by James Cameron, Charles H. Eglee, Josh Friedman, Goyer, and Rhodes.
Terminator: Resistance is a 2019 first-person shooter game developed by Teyon and published by Reef Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is based on the Terminator franchise, set during the original future war depicted in the films The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). It was released in Europe on 15 November 2019. In the United States, the Windows version was released a day earlier through Steam, while the other versions released on 7 January 2020. The game received generally mixed reviews from critics, and positive reviews from Steam users. An enhanced version for PlayStation 5 was released on 30 April 2021 and for Xbox Series X/S on 27 October 2023.
The Terminator is a 1993 platform shoot 'em up game developed and published by Virgin Games for the Sega CD. It is based on the 1984 film of the same name, and includes full motion video from the film. The game was praised for its graphics and its soundtrack performed by Tommy Tallarico, although the film footage was considered low quality. The gameplay also received some criticism.
The Terminator is a 1992 video game published for several Sega consoles, including the Sega Genesis, the Master System, and the portable Game Gear. It is based on the 1984 film of the same name. The game was developed by Probe Software and published by Virgin Games. The Terminator was praised for its graphics and sound, but criticized for its gameplay.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 action-adventure game developed by Bits Studios and published by LJN. It is based on the 1991 film of the same name, and was released for the Game Boy. It was praised for its graphics, gameplay, and music.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is an action game released for several 8-bit consoles, including the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and Sega's Game Gear and Master System. It is based on the 1991 film of the same name. The NES version was developed by Software Creations and published by LJN in February 1992. The Sega versions were published in late 1993, by Flying Edge.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1993 action game developed by Bits Studios for two 16-bit game consoles: the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was published by Acclaim Entertainment through subsidiary companies: Flying Edge for the Genesis, and LJN for the SNES. It is based on the 1991 film of the same name, and features side-scrolling and driving levels. It received generally negative reviews.
Danish software house cum hardware manufacturer Robtek acquired the licence to interpret Terminator and Terminator II over a year ago, but sadly went into receivership before anything saw the light of day.