Total Recall

Crash reviewer Mark rated the game 94%. Richard rated the game 93% and believed players would love the game, saying "don't bother getting Rekall to remember it for you: go out and experience Total Recall for real!" Zzap! #71 (Mar 1991) rated the game C64 version of the game at 76%. Another Power Play reviewer rated the Amiga version at 33% and the C 64 version at 34%, criticizing both editions for having endless opponents and sloppy controls. Several reviewers rated the Amiga version of the game. CU Amiga rated the game 77% and said "It's by no means a bad game, just a little stale. It follows a very successful formula but fails to rise above it." Computer and Video Games #111 (Feb 1991) rated the game 62% and said "a very polished game, but one I can only recommend to very patient players who haven't become bored of Ocean's film license format, which is beginning to look pretty tired nowadays." Amiga Action rated the Amiga version of the game 78% and said "Total Recall wasn't on the top of my list for games I was looking forward to I must confess. However, it is in fact quite good." Amiga Format rated the game 77% and said "A solid, polished package, only its late arrival, due to slipping in the schedules, deprived it of a full review." Zzap! #72 (Apr 1991) rated the game 70%. The NES version was much more negatively received. A reviewer from German magazine Power Play rated the NES version 39% and questioned Quaid's intelligence, "trying to get rid of every bad guy on the right path and lure them into dark alleys only to offer a boring fight". He commented that these sequences "should not have been programmed at all, and that a lot of parts seem like a graphically strong, stripped-down Double Dragon". In Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), Steve Harris called it "a new low" for NES games due to its poor graphics and weak action, and Ed Semrad regarded it as a shocking disappointment given publisher Acclaim Entertainment's strong track record at the time. According to EGM, Acclaim pulled their ads from the magazine in response to the negative review. Amiga Mania rated the Hit Squad re-release of the game at 81% and said "It's all full of style and all the things you wouldn't expect to find in a normal budget game, from the way Quaid crouches and fires to the fact that there's even a car chase!" Amiga Format #40 (Nov 1992) rated the game at 79% and said "The overall impression is one of a competent game which doesn't push the Amiga to within a tenth of its abilities." Amiga Action #37 (Oct 1992) rated the game 78% and said "If you like your games to give you a challenge at an affordable price then this is worth checking out, but there are far better products out there." CU Amiga rated the game 63%. Amiga Power rated the game 41% and said "Nice graphics, not-very-nice gameplay. Total Recall? (Totally predictably) Total Rubbish, more like." The One gave the Amiga version of Total Recall an overall score of 70%, noting it as having 'limited lastability' due to its gameplay 'feeling the same throughout', but expressed that it's "inconsistent difficulty" provided variety. The One criticized Total Recall's graphics and sound, expressing that they are of 'inconsistent quality', calling the game's music "bland" and graphics "unspectacular" at times, but otherwise 'okay'. The One criticized the frequent disk swapping required, and further called Total Recall 'unoriginal', expressing that the game ought to have incorporated more elements from the film, and further stating that there are "so many better platform and race games [than Total Recall]". The game reached number 2 in the UK ZX Spectrum sales charts, behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1997 EGM ranked the NES version number 5 on their "Top 10 Worst Games of All Time". EGMs Seanbaby placed the NES version as number 15 in his "20 worst games of all time" feature.