Trio the Punch: Never Forget Me... (Arcade) Playthrough
230A playthrough of Data East's 1990 action arcade game, Trio the Punch: Never Forget Me...
Played through on the default difficulty setting.
Trio the Punch: Never Forget Me... has got to be one of the strangest games to come out of the 1980s. There's no coherent story to hold it together, nor is there any sense of logic driving its set pieces. It's inscrutably random, and that's what makes it such a memorable experience.
You have your choice of three characters: the bright red ninja Kamakura-kun flings shuriken, the psychotic street tough Santos stabs with claws and smashes things with a punching bag, and Rose Sub is a clone of Conan the Barbarian. This motley crew is supported by Master Chin, an old man who pops up after each stage with a roulette game in which you can win attack upgrades and health refills. He likes to yell, "Lucky! Cha Cha Cha!" when you win, for whatever reason.
The game begins with you fighting an animated statue of Karnov, Data East's mascot (the fat guy in red pants from Karnov, Bad Dudes, and Fighter's History) carried by four miniature Karnovs, making it clear from the outset that this was created by the same people responsible for many of the company's earlier hits, and that they had no intention of taking this seriously.
The short stages are presented in rapid-fire fashion, each one stranger than the last. You'll go up against a giant foot, a cursed sheep, Chelnov (the guy from Atomic Runner) carrying a huge mallet, Colonel Sanders, and a creepy face that announces, "Weebles fall down" before he transforms enemy ninja into attack frogs.
It's difficult to describe what it is like to play Trio the Punch because it so often defies expectation. It's a fairly mediocre action game, but its uncouth sense of humor makes it standout in a genre that's over-crowded by generic, half-hearted efforts.
You won't understand a thing that's going on the entire time, and that's a big part of the magic. Trio the Punch: Never Forget Me... is, if nothing else, impossible to forget.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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