True Lies is one of the few SNES games that I remember renting. I didn’t own the system when I was a kid, and the only one who did was my friend Drew. We were best friends back in the day, and sometimes rented games when we hung out on the weekend. Most of them were PS1 games, but there was the occasional SNES game, especially before I got my PS1.
True Lies is one of the rare movie based LJN games that is quite good. It isn’t an amazing game, but it is much better than most of the other games LJN published. I would put it in the upper tier of games that they released. It is also one of the better movie based games because it doesn’t get too out there in terms of gameplay.
This isn’t a perfect game by any means. There are some frustrating sections, but it is an overall good game. Like many of the LJN published games, it is a little too ambitious. It has some similarities with Die Hard on the NES, which is another game I should take a look at sometime.
TLDR: A better than average game from a much maligned publisher.
Narrative
The story loosely follows the plot of the movie. There is more of a focus on action than actual story, which is common for this game’s genre. The developers do insert some still images from the movie in an attempt to tell the game’s story.
You play as Harry (Arnold Swartzenager), and you happen to be a secret agent. He’s trying to stop a Palestinian terrorist group from detonating a nuclear weapon. The stuff about your wife is cut out of this for the sake of keeping the game moving along.
The story is fine. It is based on a pretty good action movie from the mid 1990s, so the plot isn’t all that amazing. There were a few alterations to it, but none of the story is necessary to enjoy the game. The story is also explained as you get further in the game. Knowing about it beforehand might help you out, but it isn’t really needed.
Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to other top-down run-and-gun games. The game gives you a few guns and weapons to use, and you can fink health items in each level. There is an awkwardness to the controls that I don’t like, and there are a few things that break up the overall flow of the game.
There are nine stages to this game. Most of them are from the movie, which is nice. In some of the stages, you can’t just run and shoot everyone, which makes this a little different from other games in this genre. If you kill too many civilians, then you’ll have to restart the stage.
I love that there are multiple objectives in the stages. It makes this game feel more like an adventure game instead of a run-and-gun game where all you have to do is shoot your way to victory. The downside is that enemies are much stronger, and they have considerably better aim.
Having several weapons is pretty cool. Here is your inventory:
- Handgun – Unlimited ammo, but reloads every 15 shots
- Shotgun
- Uzi
- Grenades
- Mines
Most of your weapons have limited ammo, but you can find more in the levels. This goes along with health pick ups. While you have a big health bar, it can be drained quickly.
The stages are pretty big, there are a ton of enemies, and you’ll have to do some exploration to find your objectives. The controls are a little awkward at times. It is possible to strafe, which helps you out quite a bit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make everything else very good.
The gameplay is mostly good. There are plenty of little problems, and an awkwardness that feels like it is in most of the Beam Software games. Everything works in this game, I just wish it all worked better than it does.
Visuals
The graphics in True Lies aren’t really a problem. At times, they look very good, but they’re mostly average. The best thing I can say about them is that they don’t interfere with the gameplay.
You fight a lot of guys in t-shirts. Sometimes they have green shirts, sometimes they have red shirts. Occasionally, there will be a guy in a suit or red coveralls. While this sounds a little boring, it does help most of the civilians stand out, so you can avoid shooting them.
The player’s character looks good, the stages look decent, but the level design can be a little frustrating at times; it isn’t overly difficult to figure out. I didn’t really see anything terrible when I looked at this game. Because this is a more grounded game, there isn’t much flash to it.
The developers got a lot of still images from the movie into the game. These look very good for what they are. They also act as the cutscenes, which isn’t something that I enjoy. I would rather have had a cutscene with in game graphics than a still image.
Overall, the graphics are decent for 1995. At this time, developers knew how to get the most out of the system. They also had more options on the tech that goes into these cartridges. Of all the problems I have with this game, the graphics really aren’t one of them.
7.5/10. My memories of playing this game can’t overcome how I feel about it. It is a good game, but not one that I feel like returning to. It does a lot of things well, but nothing amazing. There are better games to play from 1995 than this one.
Pros
- Decent Graphics
- Good Gameplay
- Somewhat faithful to the movie
Cons
- Difficulty Spikes
- Awkward Controls at times
Conclusion
True Lies isn’t one of those forgotten classics or anything like that. It is a solid game that is much better than the others from LJN. The bar for these games isn’t too high to begin with. It felt like the developers who worked with Acclaim got better once they moved to the SNES.
This is one of the games that I remembered playing as a kid. It wasn’t memorable enough for me to go one and get it in the late 1990s or early 2000s, though. I got True Lies in the late 2010s when I briefly started collecting retro games again.
Going back to play this game was fun, but not enough for me to really care about the game. It was a memorable weekend rental, and that was about it. I’ll probably put this game back on the shelf and forget about it for another five to ten years.
If you liked this post, check out some of my others on LJN games. Such as Jaws or Friday the 13th.