Terminator 2D: No Fate has been announced by Reef Entertainment and developer Bitmap Bureau, a brand new side-scrolling action game that’ll probably make you think you’re playing a remaster of an early 90s movie tie in. It’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC on 5th September.
As you can see from the trailer, this is a real love letter to the film and 16-bit video games, but with all the potential that funnelling that through modern hardware can produce. There’s really slick animation, the sprite work is really high detail, and then there’s just so many moments that are being recreated from the film – in addition to some original stages.
Play as Sarah Connor, the T-800, and John Connor in the far future missions, with a blend of beat ’em ups, shooting and stealth.
This could be the Terminator 2 tie-in game that we never had. Except… we did have them. Lots of them. There was a computer game by a studio called Dementia – really quite a bad name for a games company – an arcade shooter by Midway, a Game Boy game by Bits Studios, and a 1992 NES game by Software Creations. Bits Studios returned in 1992, making a 16-bit version for SNES and Mega Drive. I have no idea if any of these games were good.
So, perhaps Bitmap Bureau design director Mike Tucker can put it a different way: “It’s a love letter to 80s/90s arcade games and we feel like it’s the T2 game we should have had back in our youth.”
To go alongside the game reveal and announcement is a Making Of video, where Tucker utters these words:
Intriguingly, the way that the game has been developed is intended to allow them to port the game back to classic machines. The current console releases are set for 5th September, with other, older platforms yet to be announced.
Source: press release
