Terminator 2D: No Fate is the best Terminator since T2

Bitmap Bureau delivered a loving homage to classic games and the best Terminator movie

Forgive me, for I am an avowed Terminator sequels hater. Would that I were granted access to time displacement equipment, I would use it to time travel back to the late '90s and find a non-violent solution to prevent Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines from ever happening, thereby creating a cascade effect that would similarly prevent Terminators Salvation, Dark Fate, and Genisys from existing.

In this idyllic alternate future, sci-fi action movie fans would say things like, “Remember Terminator? Why didn’t they ever make more of those after Terminator 2?” (The other person in this conversation would then say, “Wasn’t there a TV show? The Sarah Connor Chronicles?”) As part of this repaired timeline, though, we’d still have Terminator 2D: No Fate, one of the best takes on Terminator fiction in video game form.

Released in early December, right around the time when Polygon had already locked in its best games of 2025 list, I started to play Terminator 2D: No Fate, a game I had been looking forward to since its enticing announcement. While I don’t think that No Fate should bump Ghost of Yōtei off our list, it is excellent. Short, but excellent.

Terminator 2D: No Fate is packed with deep appreciation for James Cameron’s The Terminator sequel, as well as wonderful surprises for anyone who loves classic games like run-and-gun shooter Contra and beat-’em-up Final Fight (or the slightly more obscure Rolling Thunder and gimmick-heavy Sly Spy). But No Fate does not coast on nostalgia for those games, it takes what was enjoyable about short, replayable, one-hour game experiences and applies them to Terminator’s narrative and fiction.

The game’s story is a loose retelling of the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, mainly focusing on set pieces like Sarah Connor’s escape from the Pescadero State Hospital, the infiltration of Cyberdyne Systems HQ, and climactic action scenes at the steel mill. But No Fate goes further into the past and future, presenting new scenarios including an early kidnapping of young John Connor by bandits and playable versions of Future War scenes that were cut from Judgment Day.

But No Fate’s biggest, wildest swings are its alternate takes on key decisions made in Cameron’s film, including the touch-and-go moment where Sarah is a hair’s breadth away from murdering scientist Miles Dyson in his home and the deleted scene where Sarah is repairing the T-800’s CPU — basically, two key scenes where John Connor intervenes and sets the path of Sarah’s future.

To get to these new timelines (and other modes), you’ll need to complete Terminator 2D: No Fate more than once. Since the game is short, and relatively straightforward on standard difficulty, that’s no problem(o). Doing so not only unlocks a changed future for Sarah, it unlocks new levels, including new opportunities to play as the T-800, who gets surprisingly little (but highly memorable) playtime in the original story mode arc. And while some players might find the value proposition of Terminator 2D: No Fate a bit askew — it really does only take an hour to play through once, and costs $29.99 — it’s meant to be played repeatedly, if not exhaustively, to see it all.

Fully completing Terminator 2D: No Fate will take time; the game’s unlockable difficulty modes are quite hard, though the step up from standard “No Problemo” difficulty — known as “Hasta La Vista” — is arguably the best balance of challenge and white-knuckle thrill. The hardest, “Judgment Day,” plays like the arcade operator has flipped all the game’s dip switches to the extreme in order to steal all your quarters.

In addition to replaying No Fate to unlock things and experience alternate pathways, the real joy comes in discovering the amount of care that Bitmap Bureau poured into their game. No Fate is full of rich, detailed sprite animations and little gameplay quirks to be discovered, like the ability for Sarah and John Connor not just climb ladders, but to jump toward them and catch a rung mid-leap. Or the option to kill an enemy by knocking another enemy onto him. Or performing the more challenging, but non-violent method of taking down a police dog without shooting it. Discovering its Easter eggs, finding every hidden item, and seeing every gameplay scenario is much of the joy.

Terminator 2D: No Fate is a must-play for anyone who comes down on the side of Terminator 2 being the superior of the only two Terminator movies — yeah, that’s my hater position. And if the dollar-to-hours ratio feels off to you, hold out a while and grab No Fate on an eventual future sale. We’ve waited this long for a decent follow-up to Terminator 2, what’s another few months?