Double Take: The Punisher

[Melf]

Marvel's brooding vigilante, the Punisher, has been striking fear into the hearts of criminals for more than three decades. After making the rounds in arcades via a stellar Capcom beat-'em-up, Frank Castle blasted his way onto the Genesis. The port has always been a title of controversy, due to how watered down it is, but there's a large portion of the Genesis community that loves it. We reviewed it a while ago, and now staff writer Christian Matozzo takes another look at the game in the latest installment of our Double Take series. Read the full article and lock and load!

[vintagegamecrazy]

Hey dude! Capcom didn't create Castlevania Bloodlines.

[Baloo]

Whoops! Did I write that? That should be TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist, haha. Sorry!

[retrospiel]

Konami again. You were probably thinking about Ghouls 'n Ghosts but that was ported by Sega.

Capcom did SSF2, Megaman: Wily Wars, Circus Mystery and Slam Masters (which was developed in Japan but released only in Europe and the US).

[Baloo]

Konami again. You were probably thinking about Ghouls 'n Ghosts but that was ported by Sega.

Capcom did SSF2, Megaman: Wily Wars, Circus Mystery and Slam Masters (which was developed in Japan but released only in Europe and the US).

Geez, what am I saying? Haha! That's right, Ghouls N' Ghosts was Capcom. SSF2 wouldn't be a very good example though, haha!

[vintagegamecrazy]

TMNT was Konami too.

[bohokii]

capcom never seemed to make crap at least on the genesis
(ok strider retarns blew)

i thought it(punisher) was as good as the arcade

loved their mickey game

[Splattervania]

this game isn't that 'easy' near the end..this is a hardcore beat'em'up that deserves more 'props' than it got in the article.

[old man]

I don't think this article was necessary. If the author didn't like the game he should have just commented on it in the review (which was referenced but wasn't linked to in the article ). This whole thing reeks of a personal rant attempting to discredit the previous opinions of others. It should have been a forum thread rather than an article. The blurb at the end about it still being "fun" tries to make it look like the game was given a fair shake, but the whole thing was obviously biased. I think a better choice for the article would have been a strict comparison to the arcade game without the reference to the review and reader comments.

[GeckoYamori]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere else that this port was outsourced, and not handled by Capcom internally?

[Melf]

capcom never seemed to make crap at least on the genesis
(ok strider retarns blew)

Strider Returns wasn't Capcom. You can wholeheartedly blame TierTex and U.S. Gold for that abortion.

Capcom can't really get credit for the Genesis versions of Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Strider, Forgotten Worlds, MERCS, or any other early release either. Those were licensed and ported by Sega. Capcom didn't do the programming for those on the Genesis.

That basically leaves the four titles christuserloeser mentioned (along with SFII: SCE) as the company's only output on the Genesis. It was definitely more SNES-friendly.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere else that this port was outsourced, and not handled by Capcom internally?

This port was done by Sculptured Software. More evidence of just how little Capcom thought of the Genesis. It didn't even bother to port the game itself.

It's telling that other companies have more Capcom releases on the Genesis than Capcom itself.

[Why-Disciple]

ARRGH! See, this is exactly what I've been saying, whenever I say a game is mediocre for being a bad port, (Strider/MK2 for instance) I get slammed because it's still a good game overall, but when I defend games like the Punisher, suddenly everyone else wants to slam it for being a bad port, regardless of how enjoyable the game is. When I bash MK2, I say how they left out so many sprites and made the controls awkward, but everyone says "it's worth it to have it on a home console," but when I say the EXACT SAME THING about Punisher, they say it's a shitty game because it's a bad port. WTF PEOPLE! BLARG!

[genesisguy]

Yeah the game was nothing like the arcade. But when this game came out I was an 11 or 12 year old gamer and was just happy to have this on the Genesis. I'm more inclined to agree with the original reviews.
I will agree that its too expensive on the used market.

[Mark Robert]

It's definitely a mediocre port. Despite this, it's still an above average beat 'em up on the Genesis. I just wish Capcom had done the port. That would have been incredible.

[djshok]

I pretty much can't stand anything that Capcom does, but I can honestly say that I enjoy this game quite a bit. It's not perfect, but the overall experience is fun.