True Lies is a top-view action shooting game 1994 film of the same title

True Lies

True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...

 that was developed by Beam Software and published by Acclaim

Acclaim

Acclaim may refer to:positive recognition*Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher*Acclaim Games, an online video game company based in California, USACars:*Plymouth Acclaim, a mid-size sedan...

 and LJN

LJN

LJN was an American toy company and video game publisher. It created toy lines and video games based on movies, television shows, and celebrities. It was headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and later in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.-Founding:...

. Four different versions of the game were released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

, Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear

Sega Game Gear

The was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....

, and the Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

. The home versions and portable versions were drastically different from each other, but featured similar play mechanics.

Home versions

The player controls Harry Tasker, who is tasked with the duty of foiling the terrorist plot of Salim Abu Aziz. Each stage has a particular series of goals that the player must fulfill before reaching the stage's goal. Harry's abilities includes the ability to keep his aim steady at one direction while shooting and a diving shoulder roll move that allows him to avoid enemy fire. The player has a health gauge and a limited amount of lives, with power-ups available that restores health. In addition to enemies, there also civilians that the player must not harm during shoot-outs. If the player kills three civilians, he will lose a life and will be forced to restart the current stage.

Harry starts each stage wielding only a single-shot pistol that has unlimited ammo, but must be reloaded after every 15 shots. In each stage Harry can procure three additional firearms (an Uzi machine gun, a shotgun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

, and a flamethrower

Flamethrower

A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

), as well as hand grenades and anti-personnel mines, which he can switch between at any point. Unlike the pistol, Harry's other weapons have limited ammunition (with a different maximum capacity) and individual ammo for each must be found if Harry runs out.

There are a total of nine stages, which consists of a chateau, a mall, a park, a subway, a dock, a Chinese city, an oil refinery, an overseas highway, and an office building. A password feature is available that allows the player to restart the game at later stages.

Portable versions

The portable versions of True Lies for the Game Boy and Game Gear are a bit simplified compared to the console versions for the Super NES and Sega Genesis. The Game Boy and Game Gear version are almost identical to each other, aside for the addition of colored graphics and the omission of a pause function in the Game Gear version. Although the play mechanics are similar, Harry's shoulder diving roll was removed due to limited controls, although all the weapons, except the flamethrower, are included. Only five stages (the chateau, the mall, the park, the docks, and the office building) are included and the level designs are completely different.