Retro Game Review: Robocop vs. Terminator (Genesis)

  

                                                                  The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me
Hello Enthusiasts,

If you're like me, you likely still have some of your old game consoles. Those games bring back a lot of memories, but do they hold up to this day? Today I will review one of these old games, Robocop vs. Terminator on the Sega Genesis.

The player is Robocop, going through various locations and slaughtering criminals with almost every step. The player's goal? Defeat every enemy in Detroit and beyond. Robocop travels through Downtown Detroit, OCP, a hazardous waste yard, and even the future war with the machines from the Terminator movies.

The game starts off pretty easy, but becomes a lot less forgiving by level 4 or 5. I recall ED-209 being a real pain for me, as he was huge to jump over, and he basically had three different lives and forms. The first Terminator you encounter goes down easy enough, but it is certainly not the last one you will fight, and they only get more difficult from there (mostly).

As hinted  with ED-209, the game includes a lot from both the Robocop and Terminator movies, as expected. You have the same future landscape for a couple of levels that you see in the Terminator films, Robocop 2 from the movie of the same title, Robocop's sweet hand cannon, and you can use the laser rifles that you see in the future scenes of Terminator. All of this creates what feels like the ultimate sci-fi action movie.

I remember playing this one a lot when I was younger, and in replaying it now, I realize just how gory it was. This was in-part because the game came out three years prior to the establishment of the ESRB, who I think would have slapped a solid "M" on this game. As it is, the later releases of the game received the long gone "MA-13". The criminals that you take down will explode into a pile of blood in the most gruesome way imaginable. The Terminators will get taken down in fazes of their skin all being blown off. Suffice to say, I don't recommend this for your children if you want to keep them away from gore, even if it is 16-bit gore.

Even though I remember this game with some strong nostalgia, I do recognize its faults. As a platformer, this game doesn't do too well. A lot of the gaps to jump over can seem impossible, especially when you factor in that Robocop has one of the worst jumps on the Genesis. There's also a weird system of losing special guns when you die in the game. You have the two gun slots, and when you die you lose the gun that you were actively using. This will lead players to switch to their less useful special weapon when their health gets low. This can be really annoying, especially during boss battles, as this means taking longer to take down the boss.

I personally remember this as being one of my favorite Sega games, I would play this more than Sonic the Hedgehog or Vectorman, but only if it was just my dad home. It does have some serious faults though, and I can imagine that anyone playing the game for the first time would not enjoy it nearly as much as I might.

I give Robocop vs. Terminator on the Sega Genesis a 5 out of 10

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast