The actors who originated the characters (Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1984's The Terminator and Peter Weller in 1987's RoboCop) did not reprise their roles in this game.

Upon discovering one of the Terminators has infiltrated the OCP building, RoboCop plugs himself into a console to reprogram the security, only to fall into a trap and be digitized.

Set a few years after RoboCop's invention, the story involves SAC-NORAD contracting Cyberdyne Systems on building Skynet.

Tim Wiliams who worked alongside him, stated that "At the time, I seem to remember there were more high-profile games at Virgin, like Aladdin, so there was a feeling that [RoboCop Versus The Terminator] was the ugly stepchild when I joined the team.

"[3] Williams and Botti began staying up at night playing Contra III: The Alien Wars, one of their favourite games, to find what made its gameplay addictive.

I enhanced it, making a linked-list sprite object that allowed these huge monster bosses at the end of some levels.

Mike Weigand, who gave it a 5, commented: "The comic book-esque cinema sequences are innovative and new, but the intensity isn't there".

[10] EGM gave the Game Gear version a 6.8 out of 10, with Weigand saying that it "holds up pretty well", though he commented that it suffers from slowdown, breakup, and difficulty which is slightly too high.