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As the old saying goes, a Terminator never forgets. This is bad luck if your name happens to be John Connor and you are the future saviour of the human race. See, in the year 1996 a nuclear strike is called by SkyNet, the American defence computer which figures the easiest way to save humans from themselves is just to kill them all now and have done with it. The survivors of the holocaust then faced a bitter way against SkyNet and its robotic minions. The human race was saved for the most part by the leadership of Mr. Connor. However, in a last-ditch attempt to save its own diabolical scheme, SkyNet is sending a horrible metamorphic killer robot, the T-1000, back in time to bump off Connor whilst he is still a wickle boy, thus preventing him from doing anything at all to further the human cause.

Luckily, the human resistance got wind of the proceedings and are themselves sending an old captured and reprogrammed Cyberdyne Systems Terminator back to protect the kid. As you may have guessed, you play that Terminator, and it is your job to destroy everything SkyNet throws at you and John, destroy the existing Terminator and blow up the CyberDyne Systems lab to prevent Terminators ever being invented. This operation is performed in a first-person view "Operation Wolf-esque" shoot-'em-up controlled by either joypad or Menacer light-gun (if you're lucky enough to own one).

A conversion of the popular lightgun-based coin-op, itself licensed from the megabucks film sequel to the James Cameron original.

Use your Menacer light gun or joypad to blast the living daylights out of the machine army.

Fans of the T2 film (although course no-one under fifteen will have seen it at all) will remember Arnie's solemn promise not to kill any humans. This oath is carried over into the game too. Should you accidentally kill any humans, there is a severe points penalty imposed upon you. So think once, think twice, think don't deliberately shoot up all the resistance just for fun.

Though self-preservation is an essential factor in Terminator 2, there are times when the livelihood of others is more important than your own. On these levels, a key figure must be protected from injury by you shooting all the threatening enemies in sight. On one such level, John Connor is driving a jeep to SkyNet HQ in order to finish the machine menace once and for all. It is your job to knock out all the Hunter/Killers and Terminators who attack the jeep before they have the opportunity to destroy it. Other levels see you protecting the young John Conner as he sprints around a heavily guarded laboratory, and save Sarah Connor from her doom as she plants bombs around Cyberdene Systems HQ.

As a Terminator, you may be a bit hard, but against such overwhelming odds your rapid-fire machine gun won't keep you alive for long. The problem is it has a tendency to run down after prolonged periods of fire, leaving it with a pathetic fire rate. Not shooting for some time allows it to regenerate, but in the meantime you're a sitting target for the SkyNet forces. Fortunately, customising your gun is made easy by the many supply crates left lying around by the resistance. Shoot these and they reveal their contents in icon form. Shoot the icon and the power-up is yours. The goodies available are listed here:

1. Rapid Fire Recharge
   Recharges your weapon to full power. The most common power-up and very handy indeed in tight spots.
2. Weapon Coolant
   Recharges your weapon and stops the weapon heating up so quickly, giving you more fire time before your shot rate dwindles.
3. Plasma Pulse Generator
   Allows your weapon to shoot super-powerful plasma bolts for a short period of time.
4. Smart Bomb
   Instantaneously destroys everything on-screen when shot.
5. Shield
   Protects from all attacks and damage for a limited period of time.
6. Guided Missiles
   Fire and Forget missiles with limiting homing abilities and great destructive potential. Indispensable against Hunter/Killers and bosses.
7. Coin
   Replenishes a certain amount of the energy of whomsoever shoots the icon.
8. T2 Logo
   Shoot this tiny joy bundle for an extra credit.
9. Roulette
   This excellent icon randomly selects one of the following.

1. 100,000 Points
   A large pointular sum is added to your score.
2. Extra Power
   The firepower of your gun is permanently boosted.
3. 10 Rockets
   Bestows an extra ten guided missiles upon your personage.
4. 500,000 Points
   More points than you can shake a stick at are awarded to the lucky player.
5. Smart Bomb
   Same effect as smart bomb icon.
6. Shield
   Same effect as shield icon.
7. Full Recharge
   Recharges both your gun and your energy to full.

Terminator 2 is about as good a conversion of the spectacular coin-op as could possibly be expected. The graphics of the arcade machine are impossible to reproduce on a Megadrive, but the programmers have had a darn good try and the results are none too bad. The sound is okay, the tunes are a bit dull, but there's plenty of crunchy death effects and some (dodgy) sampled speech. The gameplay is a little harder to define. With a joypad, the cursor is fast moving enough, but a little unwieldy. Also, as the cursor colours are the main colours used in all the futuristic levels (blue and red) it's easy to lose track of where you're firing exactly.

However, with a Menacer things are completely different. Terminator 2 has got to be the greatest light gun game going, far superior to the average duck shooting or firing ranges. Terminator 2 is the sort of game which makes buying a light gun justifiable. If Sega sign up more titles like this (perhaps their own Line Of Fire would be nice) and keep the standard up, the Menacer could be a big hit. However, joypad players should give this a miss.

The graphics are very impressive and the sounds are decent too, but the game itself? Well, that depends on the control method used to play it. With a Menacer it's fairly tough (as long as you stand a reasonable distance from the screen) and it certainly proves to be addictive and thoroughly enjoyable - easily one of the best light gun games I've played! But with a joypad, it's really boring. The on-screen sight makes it far too easy to blast the targets, and I finished the entire game on my first go! Doh! If you've got a Menacer, this is obviously a good buy. If you haven't, it's a goodbye.

Presentation 91%
P. Loads of digitised scenes from the film and great in-game presentation. The options are easily accessible.

Graphics 89%
P. Smart sprites and backgrounds. It's all very atmospheric and reminiscent of the film.
N. Could do with a few different colours in there, no matter what James Cameron reckons.

Sound 79%
P. Loads of effects, samples and tunes to give your ears something to think about.
N. Sadly, the tunes, effects and samples aren't really all that good, although they do their job.

Playability 83%
P. Fast and furious with the Menacer, with loads of things to blow up.
N. Joypad players will be put off by the cumbersome and easily-lost cursor.

Lastability 65%
P. Two player mode adds excitement and as it has some substance the game will last longer than its novelty value.
N. That said, it's pretty easy to complete.

Overall 75%
The first real light gun game which has anything to offer. Menacer owners should definitely buy it, but joypadeers should leave it alone.