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Sprung from prison by the mysterious Trust, The Punisher has but one mission in life. Protect the innocent and punish the guilty. As the lavish (if rather condensed) comic included with this game goes to show, The Trust aren't quite the law-enforcing vigilantes they claim to be. In fact, they turn out to be just the opposite...

You adopt the role of The Punisher (no surprises there), taking on the scum of the city on the road to the final showdown with the mysterious members of the Trust. What this generally entails is screen after screen of Operation Wolf-style gameplay, with The Punisher protecting the innocent with his trusty Uzi and ACP Pistol. As the saying goes, if the going gets tough, the tough produce an M68 Fragmentation Grenade and blow the opposition away - and The Punisher is no exception!

At various points in the game, The Punisher may enter his disguised van and choose a new mega-powerful weapon for the end-of-level shoot-out - and he'll need it! If the common punk packs a sawn-off shotgun, who knows what the Trust have in store for our vigilante hero!

It pains me to say this, but The Edge have completely fouled up any potential this licence may have possessed. The gameplay is just so sluggish, completely destroying any chance of some decent playability.

And on top of that daunting handicap, it has an absurdly high difficulty level which really seals its doom - inadvertently kill just one innocent bystander and it's game over *with no second chance*!

The visuals may capture a smidgen of the comic's menacing atmosphere, but the jerky atmosphere completely destroys the effect. The sampled sound effects are short and unconvincing (sometimes just a garbled noise issues forth from the Amiga) and the music sounds more like a C64!

Sorry, Punisher fans, but this simply doesn't make the grade. A tragic example of the finished product not living up to the limitless potential.