The Punisher is a comic book anti-hero. His family was killed by the mob, and he lives only to make criminals pay, shooting as many as he can. His future and outlook is dark, and so is this game. This was published by LJN, who oftentimes produced inferior product for Acclaim, a somewhat shoddy video game developer. The Punisher for NES however, is one of those rare few that escaped their meatgrinder of bad liscening and turned out pretty true to source and not bad to play. Its not pretty, to the ear or the eye, but I actually found myself liking this game.

This is a auto-scrolling shooter, but not with a light gun. You use controller for the aiming recticle with your d-pad or keyboard, which also move our hero left or right on the screen depending on how far you are pointing, and the two buttons shoot your gun or your wide-area grenades. I have played a few games like this, and its usually a clunky situation. This game would seem destined to be played on pc, but yet the NES functions very well here. 


Graphics: 5
The graphics are really dark and moody, starting with the title screen and moving to the narrative. He discusses each boss while cloaked in semi-darkness. The many stages you play on take place at night. The city streets you travel down (I think its supposed to be New York) are sometimes lit, but all the streets that branch off past your horizon lead to pitch black. Its a stylish choice, but also an easy way not have to draw too much busy background. In other games this would be a serious detriment, but when you are literally walking a shooting gallery of bad guys, the less distractions the better, actually.

Despite the weak background elements, the foreground is done well. The Punisher is always on screen, life-sized. Its an over-the-shoulder view you take, and the badguys can come out from all sorts of places. Most things you see can be shot, from storefronts and awnings, cars and crates - all these thing show limited battle damage- and it helps immerse you. These items will tear apart or break and sometimes contain power ups for you.

Compared to the gloomy scrolling stages, the boss encounters are single screen stark contrast events. The background is always a solid color, and the boss moves along it. There is no hiding behind cover for these bosses, this is an honest to goodness shootout. Some keep one pattern as the fire at you, otheres alternate between far away attacks and jumping to a close quarters hand to hand mode. You must fight them off with fists and kicks until they move back to the background again.

The enemies, and bosses are not well detailed, some look a bit crude. This is perhaps best detailed in the ninja boss, and the assassin, who are both feature little to no shading (black/red) and have almost no definition to them. I am tempted to see a bit of this as artistic liscence - perhaps the revenge-obsessed punisher sees his world in the muted details, the taste of vengance so strong he can see nothing but the evil boss he must defeat. But I also know LJN was not a great publisher for graphics, so this the real issue is probably just budgetary reasons.


Sound: 4
The sound unfortunately is a misfire, and I can't score it too high. Nothing is actually wrong with the music in the game, its just there is so little of it. The title music, the stage select, the overview from our anti-hero of the boss' crimes, all have somber, appropriate tunes. But the actual levels you play on, there is no music. The stages are multi-part levels, and are marked by short stretches of silence, marked by hails of gunfire. There is a bit of music, but it only lasts for about ten seconds, a saxophone player who appears once a level (its always the same guy, same short tune). You can shoot this over-zealous musical enthusianst and stop the music - but there is no other penalty.

Since the gunfire becomes your only source of sound, how does it stack up? Pretty well actually. The difference between the uzi and your assualt rifle is as different to the eyes as it is to the ears, the bullets fly fast and loud. Grenades are tossed and have a decent explosion sound. I would knock the game for not having broken glass or hit metal sound effects. Those should have been included as there are many windows you can shoot out, and cars, trashcans, manholes and other objects to hit.


Addictiveness: 8
The game may have limited graphics and sound, but the gameplay is really tight. The key to this game's fun is the perfect pacing. By allowing periods of short rest, the timing of the enemy appearances never feels unfair. The general speed of the cursor, scrolling, and enemy shots allow flexbility that could be hobbling if done poorly like in a lesser game. The Punisher showed me the controls are excellent, and while it doesn't try to do anything else but be a decent shooter, its focus allows it to make these elements a lot of fun. Having each stage have a boss and those bosses relevant is also a large plus.


Story: 7
This game does not have much story, but then neither does its source material. You play as Frank Castle, a former military man driven to become a self-stylized angel of vengance on violent criminals after his family was slain by the mafia. He does not want to capture, or incapacitate his targets like say, Batman or superhero would do. Frank Castle has become a cold-blooded, ruthless man, and fights any kind of criminals - not just the ones that went after his family, and with his iconic skull-faced shirt, he calls himself the Punisher.

The game makes use of the Punishers skills sets, his large assortment of automatic weapons and explosives, the remorseless way he deals with his targets, and also features many of the comic series' villians, such as Kingpin and Jigsaw (his wanted poster in game looks weird because his face is destroyed in the comic). The Kingpin was always the #1 target of the Punisher, so its fitting he's the last boss.
Even when you beat the game, the ending seems to fit the Punishers bleak outlook. His celebrations will always be temporary.


Depth: 7
For a shooting gallery type game, I am pleasantly surprised here. Many of the random items and enemies can drop power ups. These white outlined boxes do not offer anything groundbreaking, but very nice; two kinds of guns, one shoots a lot faster than the other. You can get health and armor (which extends your life bar), ammo and a bazooka upgrade for your greandes.

As far as bonuses (besides being able to interrupt the sax player), there is also newspapers you can shoot which give you hints. They appear at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds. And bonus levels, which you go to by shooting the hanging sign declaring where it is. They are both just optional little treats thrown in.

The Punisher has one thing lacking for a shooter - he has no quick defensive manuevers. You are standing in the line of fire at all times. He does move fairly fast, but cannot move at all while shooting. Some projecticles can be shot, but also have to weigh attacking while a bullet storm is headed for you. With no safe dodge implemented, you will have to absorb some hits, and fortunately, the health packs are fairly common.

The Punisher in the comic also has moments where he saves innocent civilians, or spies on his enemies - I wish some of those elements were in this game, but its understandable for the NES game why they are not, and I won't knock the score down for that.


Difficulty: 7
Each boss as at least 2 stages, then you will fight them one on one to the death. I was glad the duels were face-to-face and not a boss hiding behind a wall of endless mooks. I did not find the game very difficult, to me it fels like a high 6, but the length of the stages and having no sure way to prevent damage makes it rely on you finding armor icons to expand your life and health powerups. If you die, Frank falls down, then comes back up ( based on your extra lives) right where you left off.  The upgrade to the gun and grenades are nice, but not neccesary to beat the bosses.


Overall: 7.2
This was not the type of game I expected from LJN, it was actually pretty good! The subject is grim, but if you like playing as an anti-hero, and can be forgiving for the graphics and sound, the weakest parts of this game - try the Punisher.

Great review. Haven't played it yet, but adding it to the list.
Really liked your line about the possible artistic direction for the enemy design.
It sounded really nice, but you are probably right in saying it was a budget issue.
Sounds like we have a game that really only does one thing, but does it very well
And hey, nothing wrong with that.
There is a certain element in simplicity
and its a lot better than trying to juggle too many things, and messing them all up

baileyface544 : my feelings exactly. Thanks for reading