Played NES version as far as final boss in slow motion mode. Stage 1 was incredibly lame beat em up. The only thing you could do was punch (with a very stupid pipe like sound effect), jump and duck. Way too simple, and the only gameplay was mashing punch to stun lock lone enemies, then using jumping to do quick retreating hits against multiple enemies. The boss was absurdly larger than Arnold and the tactic was get very close for a quick 1, 2 then move away before he could counter. Stage 2 was among the worst gaming experiences ever and took me dozens of tries. It was kind of like Paperboy, riding motorcycle while dodging obstacles and being chased by the semi truck. Even slowed down it was way too fast. It took reading a guide to figure out I had to press down to shoot backwards at the truck, but you could only hit the truck from the center or bottom of the plane. Go up to avoid crashing and it could be enough to get run over. Stages 3 and 4 were a little more exploration based with a gun and limited ammo while enemies were infinite. You also had to crouch shoot them to avoid score penalty for killing. I had the shotgun for 3 then had enough score at 4 to get the ultimate mini gun. I barely scraped past both stages and since hp was not restored between stages I let him die to start with full hp. The end of stage 4 had a ridiculous time limit with absolutely 0 margin for error. Then stage 5 was ok platforming in between 3 fights with the T 1000 though I ran out of ammo way back in stage 4. It was here I discovered jumping and landing on enemies did damage, though it was taking forever to defeat him. I finally got him by punching him in the back after jumping on him since this stun locked. This did not work in the final battle because there was something about getting him into the molten metal. I figured out that jumping on him from behind pushed him backwards without being hit by punches but I could not get him far enough. My hp was low and I was getting sick of this garbage game so I gave up. Atrocious game design throughout. Other than the controls being decently smooth the only positive thing I can say is how well going up and down stairs was implemented; simply hold up or down while walking.

3.8/10

SNES version

Oh god how was this game worse than the NES? Absurdly stiff controls, a useless hop of a jump, relentless infinite enemies, confusing level goals including pointless hunt for artifacts, and even less beat em up gameplay. There was a punch and crappy knee jerk which could not be considered an actual kick. The only play to be had was to awkwardly move and turn while tanking the damage, maybe making them miss when you ducked. I barely scraped past stage 1 at single digit hp (including the free 50% heal). At least the NES version had a skill based mechanic that could be used to not get hit. The enemies had guns and part of the objective was to loot them, but it was entirely random when they would drop a gun. The game got a little better with guns and I liked having separate buttons for shotgun and pistol, but the controls and relentless enemies made the shooting a nuisance rather than fun. There was no need to shoot their knees because every shot was somehow non lethal, as the pop up message loved reminding me. Then came the motorcycle driving part which was even worse and more pointless than on NES. It was a weird zoomed out isometric view with a compass saying where to go while traffic and enemies got in the way. At first I could not figure out how to turn until checking a walkthrough, and it was in the options menu at the title screen. You expect me to remember that from before the 1st stage though? So you had to press Y to turn onto a side street, and once I got that working it was not difficult. It boggles my mind why they put such unintuitive controls here. Then I did the house and it took forever to figure out I had to shoot the ladder to climb up, and again I barely scraped by on hp. Next was the mall where I found John without first finding all the artifacts. The enemies were even worse here with constant spawns of the T 1000, cops, security and random civilians getting in the way. By the time I figured out how to get John to follow me (in the pause menu), he was critically hurt immediately. This game was not anywhere near enough fun to play any further. Awful trash.

3.0/10