The Punisher (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of LJN's 1990 license-based shooter for the NES, The Punisher.

This Beam-developed NES cart, promoted as a tie-in with the 1989 movie starring Dolph Lundgren, was one of the first video games to feature Marvel's family man-turned-vigilante anti-hero Frank Castle.

It's an arcade-style rail shooter in the vein of Cabal (   • Cabal (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete  ) and Dynamite Duke (   • Dynamite Duke (Genesis) Playthrough - Nint...  ) in which you control The Punisher from an over-the-shoulder perspective as you blast your way through the bad guys with an on-screen cursor.

Before taking on The Kingpin, Frank has to tackle six auto-scrolling stages set in New York City, battling the likes of Jigsaw, Col. Kliegg, Hitman, Sijo, and Assassin along the way. The environments are loaded with objects that can be destroyed for power-ups, and entrances to bonus stages can be found by meeting certain conditions during gameplay, so there's always something to do during the lulls between enemy waves. For a good laugh, you can also shoot the random saxophone player that seems to be stalking you. The way he slumps over as you screw up his solo makes me laugh every time.

The gameplay is straightforward, though the controls can make things a bit frustrating. You control both Frank and the targeting cursor at the same time, but they move at different speeds. There's no way to lock the cursor in place as you move without wasting ammo, and Frank's slow movement speed makes it difficult to both dodge and return fire at the same time. The control scheme works, but it fights you every step of the way.

The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. The huge boss sprites are memorable standouts, and the regular enemies look good, but there's little variety between them. The backdrops are grainy and ugly but impressive in their detail and in how thoroughly they can be destroyed, and the entire game moves along without any sign of flicker or slowdown, which is pretty commendable given the platform. The sound is pretty poor, though. There's no in-game music, so the only thing you'll hear most the time is the endless drone of sampled gunfire.

As far as license-based NES games go, The Punisher isn't terrible, though if you're a fan of the character, Capcom's fantastic 1993 arcade brawler (   • The Punisher (Arcade) Playthrough - Ninten...  ) will serve you far better.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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