The Punisher (1990)

Beat on slow mode. This was a rail shooter with the player character on screen moving left and right along with the crosshair. He moved slower than the crosshair and it was a big challenge to both shoot enemies and dodge their shots. Accurate shooting to kill enemies before they could shoot was generally better than focusing on avoiding getting hurt because most enemies would stick around to shoot again. I liked how they stuck around, came from predictable locations, and popped in and out of cover, making this game feel a bit more realistic. Enemy variety was quite limited with only 6 or 7 types of guys, the toughest of which did not die from 1 bullet. Those mini bosses with rocket launchers were tough to kill without taking significant damage. Had to focus on dodging the rockets while getting shots off in between. The background was destructible and often revealed power ups or bonus stages, though only lives carried over between stages. Armor increased max hp, hp kits healed and the rifle gave a better full auto gun. I only ran out of ammo for it during 1 early stage, which sent me back to the default gun. Ammo was quite plentiful. I didn't figure out that manholes needed multiple shots to open until the final stage. Grenades were the other button and could be shot while moving back and forth to hit directly across from your guy, regardless of where the crosshair was. They were awesome for tough situations, especially boss fights. The rocket launcher took priority over grenades, or at least I could not find a way to swap. It was like grenades only it went to the crosshair and prevented moving, so it sucked. Better off not picking up rockets at all or at least get rid of them before a boss. I died a few times during the final boss because his fast explosive shots left zero time to shoot back. I could barely shoot off all rockets to get to my 35 grenades before dying, which were lost upon death. I probably could have won without any deaths if I never had those rockets. The tank boss was similar. Some bosses, including the final, had melee where both shoot buttons became punch and kick. You had to hit the boss from off center then move to the side to avoid getting hit. This was way more difficult than shooting and it was tough to move across the boss safely after getting stuck at the screen edge. I did not enjoy these melee parts and felt they had no place in the game. At least no regular enemies forced melee. I did the stages in a slightly weird order, starting with 2, then leaving the tank for 2nd last since I thought the tank icon meant I had cleared the stage. This was a fairly fun game, especially for the NES. The stages were a bit repetitive and the melee sucked but otherwise pretty good.

7.0/10