Why The Terminator is Making a Surprising Comeback in the Gaming World!

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On the big screen, the Terminator film series has been a mess for decades. The Terminator arrived in 1984 to help to create a whole host of the sci-fi tropes that we see today, earning a colossal fandom despite really being a horror film. It took seven years, but in 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day arrived. Arguably the better film, it was given $100 million to play with rather than just $6.4 million, returning $515 million worldwide.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which took another 12 years to land, creates a whole host of issues for story continuity. In 2009, Terminator Salvation proved to be the opposite of its title, 2015’s Terminator: Genisys did well at the box office – greatly riding Emilia Clarke’s fandom from Game of Thrones – and then 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate was the final nail in the coffin. Since then, it’s been in gaming that Terminator has been kept alive and well.

Flurry of Promising Terminator Games

Over the last few years, a few Terminator game releases and announcements have caught the eye, and it all started with a game that was essentially discarded on release as another IP cash-grab. Terminator Resistance wasn’t a good game when it arrived in 2019. The first-person shooter by Teyon was generic, to say the least. Over the next few years, they worked on it more and created a truly enjoyable experience.

Now, Terminator Resistance – which is set during the Future War – boasts over 14,000 reviews to a Very Positive overall score on Steam, which is well deserved. Its comeback in the form of the Complete Edition has lit the fire under Terminator games, and next is Terminator 2D: No Fate. Set to arrive in September, it’s created a lot of buzz despite its somewhat niche setup as a 2D side-scroller.

That said, the retro aesthetic is very popular right now. Many games find success by tapping into nostalgic-looking gameplay while infusing new control inputs and creative mechanics. Going in the opposite direction is Nacon’s Terminator: Survivors. Teased in 2022 and pushed back to a release date sometime this year, the open-world game is said to emphasize decision-making as the path to trying to survive the post-apocalyptic world.

Terminator has Been Going Strong Elsewhere

Even with the film series being unreliable in recent decades and the games only starting to return to the forefront of entertainment recently, Terminator has been going strong in online entertainment. Most prominently, this has been in online casino gaming. The hit Terminator slot games spun-off into a fully-licensed roulette online game that is all about Terminator 2. Terminator 2 Roulette sinks the player into the atmosphere of the hit film.

There’s an added boost beyond the T2 aesthetic to the roulette game. In it, the top payout isn’t 36:1 for hitting a single. Instead, the T-800s will randomly boost individual numbers by 50x, 100x, or even 500x. Bet on them and win, and the player’s in for a big prize boost. While it is another kind of game, its run from hit slot to popular roulette game showcases the enduring appeal of the Terminator setting and, at the very least, the first two films.

So, it perhaps won’t come as a surprise that there’s a future for Terminator on the big screen. The IP still generates hype and has already collected over $2 billion across six films. Before James Cameron sends another Terminator to the box office, we can all still enjoy the great new and upcoming games.

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2025-03-17 22:33