What’s the story? I dunno, you’re Frank Castle and you’re in New York and there’s some baddies and so you murder dem fools. That’ll do. As the game is The Punisher and you are the Punisher, you don’t mess around. Everyone gets gunned down as you casually rail through levels blasting the crud out of throwaway enemies and battling bosses such as Jigsaw, leading up to you taking down the almighty KINGPIN. Standard. And satisfying!

I’ve already mentioned T2: The Arcade Game, so if you’ve ever played that on MD (or whatever), then yeah that’s exactly what you get here. If you have not played that, then the game is simply explained thusly: each level, you scroll left to right through a street, you aim Franks gun/body with the d-pad and cause pain through a hellfire of shrapnel via the all-important B button. That’s everything there is to it. As simple is as simple does, but enjoyable brain-dead fun all the same. Good gameplay doesn’t always need to be challenging, nor revolutionary – sometimes it just needs to be a fun experience, which The Punisher, for moi, is in spades. It’s entirely suitable style of gameplay for the source material it attempts to adapt (The Punisher line of comics), so why the heck not!? True facts, people. One addition that would have been wonderful, however, would be to make it a two-player outing. “BUT FRANKS SOLO”, aight. Cool. But the aforementioned arcade beat-‘em-up 2P could be rocking Nick Fury, so why not the same here? It may have been a bit frantic for the NES, but m’eh. Fun, darnit!
 
There’s three choices off the bat as to what location you set out in and who you’re hunting, which gives you a bit of mild variation in non-linear terms, but as previously mentioned there aint much of a story going on here as is, as whatever you choose you’re just mowin’ muthas down regardless. So, yeah. That’s that, I guess.As you progress you’ll be hitting papers and such that will give clues as to where it wants you to go and tips to get yourself a better highscore, not that you have much of a say on the matter. There is also numerous items to nab like the ever handy grenades, life and bullets, etc. Almost every part of the environment can be shot to pieces, which is genuinely a nice touch on the ickle 8-bit system. Who knew manholes and stop signs would equate to hidden power ups? Well, now you do. Yeah! Giving away all the knowledge!
 
Each chosen section has multiple stages, with the third of each being a boss battle. Once you’ve beaten the bosses of said sections, you’re treated to a screen with the poster (as that’s how the area select is shown) with a massive bloodied RIP written across it. Violence in a Nintendo game? In America!? Better call yo’ momma!! Speaking of momma, you get your shot at the mother of all crimelords (The Kingpin) once you’ve beaten the main three areas, as his poster appears on the selection wall.