Eternally pissed.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: LJN
DEVELOPER: Beam Software
GENRE: Shooter
RELEASE DATE: November 1990
Frank Castle has walked a hard road. Vietnam tours are grueling enough, but finding your family murdered would put any man over the edge. Enter Castle’s alter-ego, the Punisher, and his thirst for bloody justice. Outside of some bare-bones origins, I know little about the Punisher. I’ve never read any comics nor seen any films. My only experience with the Punisher is, uh, The Punisher, by the unholy publishing/developing duo, LJN and Beam Software. Strangely, The Punisher is one of their better games, thanks to decent controls and unwavering action. Is it good? By no means. But it’s playable and, given this duo’s track record, that’s all I need.
The Punisher is an automatically-scrolling shooting gallery of thugs, lowlifes, and end bosses from the comic (I assume). On the menu screen, select one of three bosses you want to take down (Hitman, Jigsaw, Sijo, etc.). Each boss has two scrolling levels, filled with enemies, followed by one boss battle. In each level, the Punisher stands at the bottom of the screen shooting enemies that appear, while the screen slowly scrolls to the right; think Hogan’s Alley with more crack pipes. Enemies appear from the left and the right. They’ll knock out windows, they’ll jump down from the sky. Some shoot right away, others strut into the scene. Shoot ’em all and pick up any items that may drop, like rockets, ammunition, or health. Avoiding the enemies’ shots can be tricky, thanks to the Punisher’s slow movements. Learn each enemy’s shooting pattern and avoid their shots or move in for the kill accordingly.
The Punisher has terrible graphics, no music (except for the occasional guy on the saxophone), and repetitive gameplay strung out over twelve surprisingly long levels. Despite these negatives, the game is consistent. It does what it does – shooting, not thinking – well enough to make you see it through to the end. I might be disappointed with this brainless interpretation were I a Punisher fan. Please understand I was expecting torture, not harmless mediocrity.
C
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5 replies on “#492 – The Punisher”
This game gets an A+ from me just on box art alone, lol.
Other than for collecting reasons, I usually avoid LJN games like the plague! I remember the LJN NFL game back in eighties and it interested me because of the box art, but it really sucked. I haven’t played the Punisher all the way through, but the game-play is pretty good. Because of the game play, and box art :), I would give the game a C+ or B-.
@Steven Vickers
Yeah, it’s a solid average game. I didn’t hate my time with it, which is more than I can say about most LJN games.
The arcade Punisher game was outstanding. I am not sure what was up with LJN. I mean they were only the publisher and you would think they might have some sort of guideline as to what games to push out on the public. Guess not.
Sleepyweasel
It was one of the few LJN and comicbook games of the era that was playable all the way through. That and the fact that I was biased being a comic book nerd made me enjoy the game. B for me.