The game is all action with very little plot and objectives that serve only to extend the fighting. There is real sense of urgency or accomplishment when the objectives amount to: go here, rescue this guy (he has a key), go there, and blow up that machine with C4. If you didn’t know it was a terminator game from the front cover and the main menu screen you might have a hard time figuring it out from the game itself.

The game is on the short side with only ten levels. Most of the levels can be beaten in a manner of minutes if you have any skill at all. The game uses a typical password system to record game progress that can be annoying if you don’t have something to write on. Even having to restart from the beginning is not that bad though because the game play doesn’t vary much from the beginning to the end.

As Terminator, you have a wide array of capabilities with which to wreak havoc and mayhem. You are equipped with primary (machine guns, shotguns, lasers, flamethrowers, etc.) and secondary weapons (grenades, C4 and when times get tough fists). The select button allows you to activate the Terminator’s thermal vision that uncovers hidden power-ups, health and other objects of interest. Terminator has three different movement modes (walk, run and strafe) that can be cycled through using the left trigger. Run is the most useful, but strafe can be useful at times when it becomes difficult to dodge and aim at the same time.

The game does include a multiplayer mode, but only one copy of the game was available for review so the multiplayer mode will unfortunately go un-reviewed. Not that anyone plays GBA games multiplayer anyway.

So, this game will have to survive on its single player merits. Easily done, though, for this portable, play-on-the-road platform. Although this game may not be a hall-of-famer, it would easily win in a one-on-one grudge match against “99 bottles of beer on the wall.”