Developer: Sculptured Software Publisher: Capcom Released: 1994 Genre: Beat ’em up
Of the many beat em ups that graced the arcade the Punisher was one of my favorites. It might be because I am a lifelong comic book fan so seeing the Marvel characters alongside Capcom’s gorgeous art was a match made in heaven. It was also one of the few arcade games I was able to finish, a feat in itself. When a home port was announced for the Genesis I was ecstatic. But the reality is that this is a mediocre version of a great arcade game.
The Punisher was originally a CPS1 release in the arcade. As such it has a lot in common with their other brawlers at the time like Warriors of Fate and Final Fight. The game’s graphics were stunning, with larger sprites than even Final Fight and spectacular animation. The Punisher pulls from Marvel history with several cameos from a lot of his rogue’s gallery. With its huge move set and high production values the Punisher was one of the better brawlers on the market.
The Sega version is a shadow of that great game. The graphics are heavily downgraded and it is not the system’s fault. The backgrounds have been simplified to a comical degree. The overall color palette is dark and loses the vividness of its arcade counterpart. The replacements color choices are uniformly bad. Considering Final Fight CD and Sonic 3 released the same year this is embarrassing. The sprites are smaller and are missing frames of animation as well. Because of the color palette most enemy groups lack variety and are uniform in appearance which is lame. Other enemies have been redesigned such as the stage two Guardroid boss but for the worse. This entire port comes across as amateurish but the presentation is the least of its problems.
As either Frank Castle or Nick Fury you have a large arsenal of moves, one of the largest for the genre at the time. In addition to the standard combos you have a variety of different grappling moves at your disposal. The controls have been modified over the arcade version in some instances but they remain intuitive. Body slams, knee bashes, even izuna drops are all at your command. You cannot block attacks but you can roll in every direction and use the momentum to alter certain attacks. Limited move sets are my biggest pet peeve with this genre and the Punisher beats that handily. Lastly whenever enemies are packing heat both characters will pull out their guns for some shooting action. Bullets automatically target enemies so you can mash away although they do not always prioritize targets.
For the most part this home version retains all of that. They did remove a few attacks, namely the giant swing that could hit multiple enemies simultaneously. What ruins this home port are its sluggish controls. The overall feel is slow, from your movements to enemy reactions. The hit detection is also a problem. Attacks that are clearly a level above or below you still seem to connect which is frustrating. It also works in your favor but it shouldn’t be this way. Using any gun is a crap shoot as they seem to miss as much as they hit. The hit detection is suspect enough that you will suffer enough cheap hits that it might turn you off from the game.
There a lot of cut content that unfortunately affects the game as a whole. In simplifying the levels they remove a lot of the background objects that were also weapons. All weapons drop from enemies now and have few uses. The most damning is the removal of several enemies. Not only did they add visual variety but they also kept the game fresh. To compensate the game throws more enemy waves in your path, ruining the pacing. The Punisher already started to drag toward its latter half. Now it is an absolute slog as you fight the same four or five enemies for the length of the entire game. Pacing is one area this genre tends to falter and this version of the Punisher is egregiously bad.
In Closing
The Punisher should be better. It is not outright bad but it is not worth buying either. If the bad graphics, censorship, and missing content do not turn you away the sluggish gameplay will. There are better brawlers on this system.
