Terminator 2: Judgment Day hit theaters in July of 1991, at the peak of an era in which every blockbuster film got a tie-in game or twelve released alongside it. T2 was certainly no exception to this trend, and it arguably fared better than most films in being adapted to video games thanks to its smash-hit light gun arcade game, which used digitized imagery and relentless action to capture some of the movie’s look and feel.
The numerous home games it received, however, were largely a disappointment; some of them had interesting ideas, but none pulled off the feat of distilling James Cameron’s pulse-pounding sci-fi sequel into an action game worthy of the T2 name. Yet as that movie teaches us, our fate is not written, and now, nearly 35 years after its release, we have Terminator 2D: No Fate. This new action side-scroller is not only a stellar video game adaptation of the movie; it also immediately distinguishes itself as one of the best arcade-style run-and-gun shooters of all time.
The emphasis there is on “arcade-style.” This year has given us a few 2D action games with big licenses—Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound—but those games wound up complicating the arcade-style action of their predecessors in ways that I felt diluted their core identities and made for less compelling experiences. No Fate, however, is straightforward, relentless arcade action in the best way.
It feels in many ways like a product of the era that gave us such classics as the early Contra games and Metal Slug, though the folks at developer Bitmap Bureau do smartly build on and refine what the best run-and-gun games of the ‘80s and ‘90s did as well. Some members of this team have been making games since the Genesis and Amiga era, but they’re not trying to needlessly complicate what already works in games like Contra 3: The Alien Wars; they’re just trying to make it as thrilling and compulsively playable as possible. And boy, have they succeeded.
No Fate’s 15 stages are a mix of scenes lifted straight from the movie—the brawl at the biker bar where the naked T-800 seeks some clothes, some boots, and a motorcycle; the assault on Cyberdyne—and scenes that extend beyond the narrative covered by Cameron’s film, including some “future war” stages in which you play as John Connor and fight your way through a machine-filled, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Your first successful runthrough on the game’s medium difficulty will only take around 45 minutes, which may sound too fleeting for a $30 game, but I urge you to consider picking this one up if you have any love for action games in your heart. This is a game that, for many reasons, you’ll want to play time and time again.
First of all, the controls here are absolutely amazing. Your movement is so precise, so responsive, that it feels like a dream, and every weapon you use, from Sarah Connor’s handgun to John’s futuristic pulse rifle, is powerful and satisfying to wield. However, don’t mistake this for a game in which you simply run to the right and keep firing. Enemies and environmental hazards keep you on your toes, encouraging you to sometimes melee a foe, sometimes slide to send a grenade flying back at them, sometimes take cover in a doorway as bullets go flying past.
Also, the game nicely shakes up the action from stage to stage. This is a run-and-gun at its core, but the aforementioned bar brawl instead plays more like a beat ‘em up, and some stages put you on a motorcycle or behind the wheel of a police van and force you to avoid hazards on the road while also fending off the T-1000 who’s in hot pursuit. There’s also Sarah’s stealthy escape from a mental hospital in which you feel the chilling presence of the T-1000 stalking you through the halls.
No Fate is a game at which you naturally feel yourself getting better as you play; you learn to more skillfully navigate the patterns of its big, showstopping bosses and to get through tricky sections unscathed. The reward of mastery is quite satisfying in itself, but since this is a game with arcade-oriented design principles, that better performance also results in higher scores. The longer you go without getting hit, the bigger a score multiplier you build up, and this is a game that makes gunning for higher scores genuinely fun and exciting because that bigger number really is an expression of your increased skill.
Speaking of mastery, once you get a handle on the game’s normal difficulty (called “No Problemo”), you’ll want to try your hand at the tougher ones, “Hasta La Vista” and “Judgment Day.” These don’t go the boring route so many games take with harder settings of simply giving rank-and-file enemies more health, but instead change up the game in meaningful ways with more difficult enemy placements and behaviors and trickier boss patterns to navigate. These tweaks fully reinvigorate the challenge of tackling the game and give you even more satisfying situations to conquer.
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Back-of-the-box quote:
“I need your clothes, your boots, and your copy of Terminator 2D: No Fate, available in stores now!”
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Developer:
Bitmap Bureau
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Type of game:
Sick-ass arcade-style run-and-gun.
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Liked:
Stunning pixel art, showstopping bosses, outstanding controls, varied gameplay, satisfying score system, great difficulty options.
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Didn’t like:
The developers obviously didn’t get the rights to Arnie’s likeness.
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Platforms:
PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, Switch (played)
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Release date:
December 12, 2025
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Played:
~10 hours, completed all paths in story mode on normal difficulty with an overall S rank (but I need to get a higher score!)
Levels are brisk and never overstay their welcome, but there are still a few fun secrets to be found lurking in them here and there. And there are a few different routes you can take through the game’s stages, with the one you get determined by choices you make at a few key moments. Depending on what you decide, a full playthrough might include just 12 stages or as many as all 15. It’s fun to see what surprises the alternate routes have in store—one optional stage is a clear homage to one of the most memorable scenes from the first Terminator flick—and to see how they deviate from the film’s storyline.
Terminator 2D: No Fate excels on every level. It’s got absolutely stunning pixel art that brilliantly captures the visual identity of the film. (This aspect of the game is overseen by Henk Nieborg, one of the great veterans of the medium.) Its moment-to-moment gameplay is as good as that in the very best and most legendary run-and-gun games of all time. Its action is wonderfully varied and just challenging enough to make you want to master it. And once you do, it offers new difficulty options that change things up in interesting and worthwhile ways.
In 1991, a great opportunity was missed: the opportunity to make an action game for home consoles that captured the immense potential offered by the Terminator 2 license. But at long last, Bitmap Bureau has rectified this wrong with a game that almost feels like a classic of that bygone era. If only we could send it back in time so we all could have enjoyed it back in 1991.
