Punisher, the 1993 arcade game, has a pretty complex control scheme. It took me quite some time to figure out how to do certain moves when I first started playing. I didn’t even know you could roll until I almost beat the game!
I will help you by going through all the controls so you know what each button does and tell you how to perform complex moves using combinations of buttons and directions.
Punisher Arcade Buttons
- 8-way Directional Joystick – Forward, back, up, down. Diagonal directions include forward-up, forward-down, back-up, and back-down. These move the character but they will help with combos that I will go into detail later.
- Attack Button
- Jump Button
There are only two buttons but there are a lot of combos that the game does not explicitly tell you about that allows you to perform more complex actions.
Summary of Punisher Controls
Basic Attacks – Attack Button
Jump Kick – Jump, then Attack in the air
Special Attack – Jump and Attack at the same time
Roll – Double tap a direction
Air Grenade Combo – Jump, then Jump and Attack at the same time in the air
Read below for more details on these controls.
Punisher In-depth Move List
These are the controls and moves for the 1st player slot, the Punisher himself. The 2nd player is Nick Fury. Most of Nick Fury’s controls are identical or very similar to the Punisher.
Basic Attacks – Hit Attack once to jab, hit it twice in a row to do a second punch, and a third time to do an arc kick that knocks most enemies down.
Jump Kick – Jump in the air while moving in a direction and press Attack to kick down in that direction.
Rebound – Move the directional stick Back after getting hit.
Grapple – Simply walk into an enemy to grab hold of them. From the grapple position you can move around, press Attack to knee them, or move in a direction and press Attack to throw them.
Item Pickup – Press the Attack whale standing over an item to pick it up. Some weapons can be picked up and used until they are out of ammo or you get hit. Press Attack after picking something up to use the item or throw it at an enemy.
How to do Special Attacks, Rolls, and Combo Attacks in the Punisher Game
Special Attack – Press Jump and Attack at the same time
The Punishers special attack is called the Sliding Tornado Sweep. You lose energy from the lifebar if you hit an enemy with a special attack. You will not be able to use this move if you do not have enough life. If you do not have enough life and you have a bomb then you will perform a duck and cover grenade instead.
Roll – Hit the direction you want to roll twice and hold the joystick in a direction to continue rolling.
You can roll around the ground like this for a few seconds but you will stop eventually.
Air Grenade Combo – Jump, then while in the air press Jump and Attack at the same time.
You must also have a bomb in your inventory to perform this move. It will throw a grenade straight down and damage enemies in a large area.
Further reading: Dig Dug Controls and the Strange Scoring System