A new Terminator game has been announced but it’s sticking close to the technology of 1991, for a new retro themed side-scroller due out this year.
Would you believe there were no less than six video games based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, all of which came out in the span of three years, at the time of the film’s original release? It’s difficult to imagine something like that happening nowadays and yet apparently there’s room for one more.
It’s been nearly 34 years since the movie came out but Reef Entertainment, the publisher behind 2019 first person shooter Terminator Resistance, has decided to make its next Terminator title a direct adaptation of the beloved sequel.
Rather than a big budget shooter though, Terminator 2D: No Fate is, as the name suggests, a 2D action side-scroller that deliberately evokes 80s and 90s era arcade games.
For the most part, Terminator 2D looks like a straight adaptation of the movie (the trailer confirms the iconic highway chase is included), with you playing as both the T-800 and Sarah Connor as they attempt to thwart the T-1000.
However, the game is set to include entirely new future sections that see you play as John Connor in what look like Contra inspired run ‘n’ gun levels.
In fact, Terminator 2D promises to include a lot of new content that wasn’t shown in the movie. Aside from ‘original scenarios’ and ‘untold Terminator stories,’ Reef Entertainment says there will be multiple endings as well.
For instance, this screenshot tells us it’ll be possible to have Sarah kill Miles Dyson (one of Skynet’s creators); something she never did in the movie.
Reef Entertainment also mentions multiple game modes besides the main campaign, including an arcade mode and a boss rush as well as infinite mode and level training. Details on what exactly those last two are haven’t been shared.
As for who is making the game, that would be British studio Bitmap Bureau, which has plenty of experience in making retro inspired games, like side-scrolling beat ‘em up Final Vendetta and top-down shooter Xeno Crisis. That second one is even playable on a bunch of retro consoles, including the Mega Drive and SNES.
Bitmap Bureau has similar plans for Terminator 2D, but the game is currently only confirmed for modern platforms – Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC – and is slated to launch physically and digitally on September 5, 2025.
This isn’t the only Terminator game dropping this year. In 2022, Terminator: Resistance studio Nacon announced an open world survival game entitled Terminator: Survivors, as a follow-up to Resistance.
An early access version was meant to launch for PC in October 2024, but Nacon opted to delay it to an unspecified date in 2025. It’s very much not intended to be a retro-esque experience as, aside from PC, it’s only slated to come to Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
Elsewhere, the T-1000 is set to arrive as the next DLC character for Mortal Kombat 1 on March 18, with the actor Robert Patrick reprising the role.
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