This game is one of my favorate comic book to video game adaptaion, beat em ups and one of my favorate video games in general. When this game was released in the arcades and made by my favorate video game company Capcom, it was a dream come true because I'm a fan of the Punisher series; and despite a major character for Marvel there really haven't been many Punisher video games made except for the NES, PS2, and the downloadable PS3 game which I though were all good in their own way but this arcade game I still think is the best one in my book.
It's sort of the typical beat em up video game but it's the execution (no pun intended) that makes it stand out and it's the perfect fit since the Punisher series is on seeing Frank Castle take out a multitude of bad guys. You have a soild combo system and when things get too harry you have a power move to take out multiple baddies as well as drain a big portion of the bosses life.
However what I really love are the use of weapons and this game is never in short supply of those from bats, knives, battle axes, katanas, flame throwers. On each level you will see different kinds of weapons pop up and essential uses as well as does damage in different ways, it's always fun to pick up and use these weapons almost like being a kid trying out and playing with a new toy. You also have another power move as you are armed with grenades, whenever you jump it gives you a momentary opportunity to throw down a grenade or two to take out multiple enimies and do severe damage to the bosses; and as you collect grenades it increases your attack power.
But the highlight in the combat is when you actually get to pick up and use gun. There is automatic aiming when your opponents get close enough you are able to freely pump their guns full of lead. There are also bonus stages that are really fun, I really love the one where your armed with the gun and you have to shoot and destroy as many oil barrels as you can. All these things really keep the game fresh and greatly contribute to the games pacing which is another strength.
The pace in this game is great is practically a break neck pacing each level consists of you going though one point to another makes it feel like your going though comic book pannels . Even like the graphics which I think are great I really like the character animation and some of the backgrounds which really look close to the art from the comic, but I really love how they incorporate the common action words like "Pow", "Wham", etc in this game. All these things make the game feel like the comic book come to life but here you actually get to participate in it which makes it an even more fun experience.
The Punisher arcade game hits the target.
Rating: 4 stars
