The Bloody Video Game History of The Punisher - A Retrospective 

The man does a double dragon retrospective, and a week later, they announce a new double dragon game. Here’s hoping that lightning strikes twice!

The one scene in this game, where you rise up out of the coffin at a funeral and shred everyone still sticks with me… also the piranhas, we need more piranhas in video games

Got to appreciate that Capcom Punisher made a unique right and left facing sprite for Nick Fury so his eye patch would be over the correct eye whichever way he was facing in game.

As a fellow Punisher fan and hip-hop fan from The Bronx, it warmed my heart hearing you refer to Frank Castle as “Big Pun”. For those who don’t know, the “Pun” in Big Pun was short for Punisher. He used to call himself Big Punisher, but shortened it to Big Pun to keep from being sued by Marvel. R.I.P. to Christopher “Big Pun” Rios, a BX legend.

The 2004 game is so underrated. Its sore spot with me was mainly when they had to write the plot around tying it loosely to the film from that same time, but I really liked the weapin variety, especially the narrations by Castle for what each weapon did much like the Armory series of comics which is literally only focused on that. Lot's of cool fanservice like that

Loved The Punisher PS2 game. Tom Jane doing the VO as the titular character along with the mood set of the Welcome back Frank story from Garth Ennis is the best.

2:50 - Well, when you think about it, Punisher actually does plan out his attacks pretty carefully; it's the best way he's got to ensure that no civilians get caught in the crossfire and he doesn't damage anything that he doesn't actually want to.

There is actually an issue were Punisher fights The Reavers. Ironically The Reavers were trying to track the X-Men, but ended up finding Frank and Micro instead XD =) Jigsaw shows up when you're on the top of the elevator, he's dressed in green military colors, but he does blend in among the other enemies so he doesn't exactly stick out and it makes you forget about him.

The Edge (also known as Edge Games) is known basically because of his founder's (Tim Langdell) trademark disputes over A LOT OF THINGS that includes the word "Edge", and the reason why Namco renamed Soul Edge, Soul Blade on the western Playstation release. You can find a list of disputes here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_Games#Trademark_disputes

19:16 Jigsaw actually IS in this game, he's a miniboss that you face before Kingpin. The thing is, he's just a "soldier" enemy with slightly changes in the sprite and boss health. There's no intro for him (he just spawns like any normal thug) nor any unique defeat animation (just falls in the ground and dissappears).

Pretty Boy (the awkward robot man) and Bonebreaker (as well as the other Reavers) fought Frank (who wore power armor to defeat them) in "The Punisher" issues 33 and 34 in the early 1990s.

2004 Punisher was a game I played for months when it released. I absolutely loved it.

The punisher deserves another game or at least a remake for the 2004 game.

Worked a long god-damn shift, so a series about the best Marvel character whose superpower is being too angry to die is exactly what I needed. And the image of Matt romancing the Punisher has me cackling more than I should. Top work

Hey Matt, I wanted to say thank you for constantly putting out quality content and making my day a bit brighter.

It still feels so weird that The Punisher, the guy that started Capcom's relationship with Marvel, was never featured in the MvC series as a playable character.

The Punisher PS2 game was amazing with the uncensored patch added. I'd buy that remake in a heartbeat.

“Oh SHIT! It’s the fuggin’ Punisher!” lives in my head rent free

The Capcom beat-‘em-up holds a special place in my heart, one of my favorites as a kid in arcades.

Fun Fact: The Female enemy ninja character (Mizuki/ミズキ) from the Punisher Capcom game has a small, weirdly devoted fanbase in Japan

Bonebreaker has actually featured in at least 2 Punisher stories.. I clearly remember having the issues with both stories. He was a part of a group called "The Cyberpunks" which were hired by some mob boss to locate and eliminate Punisher. The Cyberpunks were a group of 4... Bonebreaker, some wierd cyborg dude with only his head still being human, a sniper and a heavy weapons guy..

35:25 Avengers Alliance was surprisingly great, they had a massive roster of characters and weren’t at all greedy on microtransactions like so many other titles at the time. It played like old-school Final Fantasy games where you’d assemble a party and go through waves of enemies to level up your team and unlock more skills, and they frequently had events that coincided with MCU film releases with loads of other content between. It was unceremoniously and suddenly shut down around eight years ago, if I had to guess why it’s probably that browser games ran their course and there were mobile games they wanted to give more focus to.

The Punisher game from PS2 will always be one of the coolest and most fun games I've ever played in my life

The punisher absolutely has been one of my favorite Marvel Characters. When I was a kid and found out there was a punisher game in arcades I was like "how did I not know this?" It was awesome IMo

My sister and I played the Sega Punisher game every day for like years. It was easy to beat. I still love it! Also the NES and 2000’s game are pretty fun times too. Thanks for this. It brought back good memories of a time long gone.

Would be cool to see the hands that shaped the Hitman games try their craft at a Pun Pun Run.

Love the retrospective, but I especially love the use of Madworld's OST throughout. So GOOD.

The abundance of Mad World backing tracks here is very appropriate, and very appreciated.

Shame on marvel vs Capcom for not having Punisher in those games 😠

Hey Matt, I just finished your 10 hour marathon of Double Dragon and I just wanted to say thank you. Got the original trilogy and DD Neon because of your love for it. Cheers. Now...on to Pun-pun kill chan!

The Punisher arcade game is an absolute classic. The Street Fighter II announcer saying "Say your prayers!" at the start is the greatest. I probably pumped a hundred dollars worth of quarters into that machine.

The 2004 Punisher, Love the game. One of the marvels best. The interrogation system and how you unlock certain memories based on that.

I was so proud when i managed to beat the nes punisher game by LJN as a kid!

I’m devastated there was actually a planned sequel to the 2004 Punisher game. With Saints Row and Red Faction, Volition had a great track record for fun, open world games and Punisher would have been FIRE

Dixon’s a wonderful Punisher writer next to Garth Ennis. The 1986 mini series is a great entry point

Matt being a Blackpink stan is always going to be one of my favorite bits of character development.

You always give a fair and balanced take on games. The 2004 Punisher game is one of my favorites and your assessment is (admittedly) spot on! You're one of the few RU-vidrs I watch somewhat consistently. Thanks for the entertainment!

Basically The Punisher NES was inspired by Dynamite Duke for Arcade, and it's amazing how it suits so well with Frank and even appreciate his trigger happy attitude against crime

I unironically love the 2004 Punisher movie.

So I have to defend the inclusion of the reavers, early in his first series they wanted to toss him against just some low-level superpowered villains to see how he would fare and give an idea of the power scaling. So for three issues punisher runs away through every means at his disposal. It's a great little run, and gives a cool idea of just how overwhelmed punisher most often is.

The robots with human faces are based on a specific character who appeared in one of the comic arcs Capcom was sent to use for reference! That’s Pretty Boy, of the Reavers! The boss Bonebreaker is also on that team.

I had Punisher for PS2 but I lost it years ago. I never got rid of the case because I'm silly like that. Last month I found the game in an old PS2 slim that was packed away for years.i was so happy lol what a great game

Endless respect for the Uncle Derek Nightshade clip. 8:45 Warms my heart.

To be fair, Punisher: Warzone is a perfect Punisher movie.

I am so glad you worked in the "family family family family...." joke. I literally cannot see Punisher stuff without thinking of that joke due to you.

The 2004 game is one of those underrated gems from the first gen Xbox era

16:10 not anymore. LFG!!

last time I came this early, I had to sleep on the couch

I've still have the 2004 game it is a really fun game

Another really good video. Wanted to share with ya'll too that for the Capcom arcade game, Yoko Shimomura (the composer of Kingdom Hearts and the Mario & Luigi games) also did some tracks for the game. You can really notice she worked on it on the first level, as the music does feel like it came from Kingdom Hearts.

Punisher goes up against the Reavers fairly early in his first unlimited run. I can't remember the two issue numbers but their out in one of my longboxes.

There are iconic superhero catchphrases and then there's the Punisher with AYEEWOUH AYEEOWOUAH

Frank in Slaughter Mode, with his two knives: "I gotta tell ya, this is pretty terrific."

Hate to be that guy...but the first Punisher comic book I bought when I was a kid was Punisher fighting....the Reavers. Micro accidentally hacks into the Reavers' Australian base (after they "killed" the X-Men). This attracts the Reavers to New York to battle the Punisher. It's issue 33 & 34. So Bonebreaker in the game does make sense.

I heard Marvel just shoved Castle into comic limbo, so I have a feeling it'll be at least a decade before we see him as much as cameo in a videogame.

Seeing Uncle Derek as HVGN and dropping an F-bomb is adorable

Castle got a pretty good run of games. I heard that Volition was working on an open world Punisher game but then turned it into Saints Row.

Marvel Avengers Alliance got shut down like 10 years ago and it was pretty fun! I got very into it, it was one of those "everyone is here" games like the mobile ones, but it wasn't as money grabby, which is why it got shut down in favor of the other ones. Frank wasn't exactly an intrinsic part, but he had a cool mechanic where he could change his class and abilities by switching guns.

Congrats Matt I would love to see more videos like this one. Amazing ♥

I appreciate the frequent usage of MadWorld music as backing.

Gotta appreciate the sheer quality of these episodes. I miss when RU-vid was this fun

Jigsaw is in the game but as a regular baddie, you fight him just before Kingpin in the elevator shaft

Bonebreaker and the Reavers were actually in a issue of the Punisher around that time.

I am eternally grateful for the coining of Pun-Pun Kill Chan those many years ago. It made watching season two of Daredevil incredibly fun as I could only refer to Frank by that moniker causing my friends to loose their mind every time he showed up.

Every time i hear about the crazy prices of pun pun on the genesis, I'm amazed how much of an impact the show had on prices. I got my loose copy around 2013-14 for like, 4 bucks

The Reavers actually have a relationship with the Punisher. They fought him in a couple of issues of his comic back in the 90's. Long story short, Microchip accidently hacked into the Reavers computer system and they went after him and Frank. The fact they were included in the Capcom game is a nice touch.

The Volition Punisher game became a whole different beast if you played it to get gold on each level. As well as avoiding getting hit you had to use as much variety as possible to keep the combo meter going so you were constantly mixing things up, throwing guns away and picking up new ones, using human shields etc. When you mastered a level it made you feel like a John Wick level badass.

I was cleaning up my subscriptions and this video just kept you here Matt McMuscles

35:20 Avengers Alliance was pretty neat. It started off as a tie-in with the first Avengers film. I remember it being pretty fun, but the PVP was some pay-to-win bullshit. It also had some interesting story ideas later in it's life. The standout was it's own variation of the Fear Itself arc, but some entirely different characters becoming Chosen, such as Luke Cage and Johnny Blaze. It died around the time Marvel cracked down on X-Men and Fantastic Four crossovers, which sucked because the creators clearly had more story to tell AND we had just gotten a playable Adam Warlock!

With Spider-man and Wolverine being worked on, I'm wondering if Insomniac would consider The Punisher next, that would be golden.

The NES game with a Game Genie is the best thing after a shitty day. Invulnerability and unlimited ammo just makes it so therapeutic.

Meticulously planning his missions was actually quite common for frank in the old days. The man couls spend weeks running recon before striking something even he pointed out.

I have to give you props for using Hugo's 3S theme, you always have magnificent taste in game tracks.

Omg this video made my day, thnk you!!!!

I marked out for the Raven reference at 9:51. I’m sure Raven would approve.

Ahh the Punisher a beloved character whose games are fun for the whole family family.....family...

Your 4:3 borders are always top notch Matt!

I’d like to see a What Happened to Last Guardian.

Funny you mention the edge, Larry Bundy Jr has a funny video about the founder Tim Langdell who basically tried to sue everyone who put edge in the name of their product. Well worth looking into for a laugh.

sadly avengers alliance shut down like a decade ago, but i remember having a lot of fun with that game. one of the few ACTUALLY good ones on facebook

Good call having Thomas Jane do the 2005 game voice. Frickin' knocked it out of the park.

I LOVE THE MADWORLD THEME IN THE BACKGROUND IN THE BEGINING OF THE VID

The Big Pun reference got u mad respect Big Matt

"He fucks off" Was not a line of dialogue I expected.

Punisher on PS2 is my first memory where I said, "I'm gonna play this game, and do my homework later." I was in about 4th grade, and I rented it from Blockbuster (with my parents accompanying me lol). Needless to say, it was the downfall of my bad homework habits, but I regret nothing. I got my Master's degree in game dev, and I make games today. That said.. uh... make sure you do your homework, kids.

"Raven-esque promo" nice touch

The 1990 NES version of The Punisher had a truly innovative and immersive mechanic. Beyond the fully destructible background and ability to kill NPCs, the movements used physics. The heavier the weapon you had, the slower you moved, and vice versa. This made having a rocket launcher during the boss fights a bad idea, in most cases, especially when they were melee heavy fighters that you needed to dodge.

That arcade game is great. My favorite part is going out of bounds in the elevator in the Kingpin's building. It makes you invincible, lowers enemy health to 1, and you can hit them from anywhere on screen. It does make Kingpin a poor loser who jumps around trying to attack you during the ending but he can't touch you because collision is turned off because it's the game's ending.

Revenge-Man was one of the first comics I ever purchased. Great Stuff, as always.

Yay someone else talkin about beam software other than me 🤘great job matt! The Punisher is an awesome character. Was great to see him get some love in the (kinda) recent T.V. series

I feel like SNK could’ve made a fire ass Punisher game if it played anything like Metal Slug

I enjoyed the 2004 game but I do like the idea of having another game like that but with more polish in it's mechanics.

They should do a version of the Thomas Jane movie where you move fake fire hydrants to earn the bad guys parking tickets.

Loved the shoutout to Beam/Krome. Super inspirational game developer.

Used to play the Capcom beat 'em up religiously in the 90s. Wish it could be brought back outside of that weird Capcom logo arcade stick that came out a few years ago.

The Amiga Frank was out there looking like Hank Hill

It's honestly surprising to me that they never made a Run & Gun side scroller during the 8/16 bit eras or another FPS during the modern era. One would believe those are the most obvious ideas for a game featuring the character. Great retrospective, Matt.

The ps2 punisher game was so fun as a kid and even now it plays good. Me and my brother loved interrogating everyone we could❤

Yeah there definitely should have been a Contra style run and gun. A pun and gun.

The Punisher on the NES was the first game I beat on the system when I was a kid. One of my great memories starting off been a gamer as child