Developer: Beam Software Publisher: LJN Released: November 1990 Genre: Rail Shooter
We are currently living in a renaissance period where not only are comic book movies being released regularly but they are actually pretty damn good. The video game adaptations are not as consistent though. We are finally getting there but it wasn’t always this way. LJN thrived on movie licensed abominations so it makes sense comic books were next. Uncanny X-Men is one of the worst games on the system so anyone would be hesitant to look forward to their next hack job. Surprisingly the Punisher is one of their better titles. That being said it still suffers from major flaws that keep it from being a game that I can recommend without reservations.
Despite the awful Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie being released around the same time this is not based on it. The Punisher follows the overarching plot of his numerous comic series as Frank Castle has selected specific targets on his war on crime. There is an all-star case of his enemies such as Jigsaw, Hitman, Sijo, and the Kingpin. There is no grand plot but that is not what you came here for.
It would have been easy to create a Contra clone with Frank replacing Bill and Lance. Instead the Punisher is a third person rail shooter. It is similar to Operation Wolf or any other rail shooter in that the level scrolls along a set path as enemies stream in or appear from cover. Unlike those games Frank is visible on screen, giving you the chance to dodge enemy fire. It doesn’t quite work as well as it should but the implementation is respectable.
The Punisher is famous for having a wide arsenal of weapons thanks to his partner Microchip. Sadly you get a fraction of that in the game. The standard hand gun is slow and technically has infinite ammo. Once your clip runs out you only have one slow bullet per second. You might as well use it to commit suicide at that point. The more common machine gun is more effective, to the point it almost should have been the default. The rare rocket launcher has the largest spread but you will likely see it once. Grenades are not as good as you would expect and are most effective during the drawn out boss battles.
The rail shooting genre is a near perfect fit for the Punisher. As each level scrolls enemies pop out of cover, casually walk on screen or spawn from every corner. They get pretty creative with enemy placement at times but generally you can see them coming a mile away. In addition to enemies the environment is highly destructive. This is important as blowing up windows and such is where you will find items. The most important is ammo; you don’t want to rely on the hand gun. In addition to ammo you can find health and armor that increases your life bar. Occasionally you can uncover hidden areas that while full of danger will also award critical power-ups like extra lives.
The action quota in the Punisher is high. Unfortunately it has a number of crucial flaws that bring the experience down. The biggest has to be the pace. Each level is excruciatingly slow and highlights the fact that there are only four or five enemies in the game. Once you’ve shot the same guy thirty times per stage it gets old fast. The second is that each individual stage is far too long. Between the limited enemy variety and repeated background elements the levels drone on longer than they should. Considering each boss has two stages before their climactic encounter it is agonizing. If they chopped each level in half while maintaining the same pace the game would have turned out much better.
The difficulty is high like most rail shooters and can be frustrating. Frank Castle is a large target and moves slowly across the screen. Technically you can dodge bullets but it doesn’t work out so well in practice. If you see the enemies first you can move otherwise Frank is too slow to dodge a hail of gunfire. Unless you maniacally shoot everything in sight health packs are hard to come by and it will also waste bullets. The boss battles attempt to be interesting by being more than just a simple shooting gallery but fall flat in the attempt. Their life bars are entirely too long and any time they delve in to hand to hand combat it is awful. Prepare to lose lives in these encounters. To the game’s credit extra lives come frequently but its issues could easily have been resolved with a little more fine tuning.
In Closing
The Punisher is a decent with some rough spots but has its good points. Its flaws will turn some away but I can still say I enjoyed the Punisher overall. But that still makes it a hard game to judge overall.
