Punisher (The), 1993 Capcom (20 From '93 Part 7)
7Awesome, violent beat-em-up in the vein of Final Fight (which Capcom also made), featuring the titular Marvel Comics character (and other Marvel characters)! As Frank Castle/The Punisher and/or Nick Fury (head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and white here unlike the later incarnation) you punch, kick, ventilate and slice your way through fodder enemies and bosses on your way to take out the dreaded Kingpin. At some junctures you will whip out your pistol and shoot enemies (you'll have infinite bullets here), but for the most part you punch and kick them with rapid fire attacks-- and the fodder enemies are mostly quite easy. As in Final Fight you can break many objects for bonus items or energy-replenishing food. Also as in Final Fight, you get various weapons from broken items or defeated enemies-- here, they include knives, axes, swords, lead pipes, baseball bats, machine guns, and other implements of pain, some of which leave a nice spray of blood as you strike them! Yummy! You also have a special attack-- press jump and attack together to do a spinning ground kick (not quite like Chun Li's) or an aerial kick, that takes a bit of energy off your life bar. There is also a grenade attack-- jump and then press jump and attack in mid-air to drop a grenade. The grenade is SUPER helpful against boss enemies, but its use is limited (you get 4 per life and can pick up more from some defeated enemies or broken objects). 2-player simultaneous play is strongly recommended, since the bosses are MUCH easier in this manner. Plus, the dialogue between them is amusing as Nick Fury shows disgust at The Punisher's brutal ways. And thank God The Punisher is this way, since that's exactly how his comic book persona is presented. This is definitely one of the better comics-to-arcade games out there. HEY-YO!