The theme behind The Punisher is one of the oldest in literature: pure, simple revenge. Except it's gone so much further than that. So very much further.
You may have seen the film adaptation which had John Travolta as the villain receiving his just deserts by being set on fire and then towed around behind a car. Perhaps this upset you. Perhaps you found this excessive. If so, you should stay away from the original.
Oh boy. Every episode of the original Marvel comic book is an orgy of excessive violence from the moment you open the cover until you close it again, sweating. It is utterly shameless in its approach. The formula is simple: these are evil men meeting true justice in the worst way possible. We shall simply not bother wasting pages on justification.
Cryptologic's adaptation of the Marvel comic book doesn't cram quite as much graphic violence in your face as you'd expect if you've read the book. Instead, they've found a good balance between delivering a game that's hugely entertaining to play while staying true to the art style of the original comic book – this isn't a movie tie-in.
Cryptologic's The Punisher is a five reel, nine pay line video slot title. The graphics are classy, reminding me more of early punisher edition than anything else. The symbols have cool sound effects attached to them, and tend to animate when they form part of a winning combination.
On the reels you can expect to see the Punisher logo (of course), frag grenades, his jacket, cop lights, shotgun shells, sniper scopes, dog tags, stogies, and more besides.
Obviously, The Punisher is Wild. He substitutes for any other symbol to complete winning combinations, except for scatter symbols. Incidentally, two or more scatter symbols (the Punisher's skull logo) anywhere at all results in an instant win. There's also a cool Bonus game where you get to shoot at gangsters for cash.
The game has three progressive jackpots which start seeding at $50, $500, and $5,000 respectively, with no theoretical top limit. Understand that these progressives are growing and being contributed by every instance of The Punisher at every Cryptologic casino worldwide and waiting to be hit whether you are playing or not – somebody is going to win them and it could be you!
In terms of the game's official pay table, the smallest coin you can play is 5c, and the biggest is $5. The biggest winning combination pays out 5,000 coins. Assuming you were playing $5 coins, you'd see a return of $25,000 if that ship came in.
Slot data and features
- 5Reels
- 9Pay lines
- $25,000.00Max cash jackpot
- YesWild Symbol
- YesMultiplier
- $0.05 - $45Betting Range
- 0.05 - 5.0Coin bet range
- 1Coins per line
- YesProgressive
- 5000Max coins jackpot
- 9Max coins
- YesScatter Symbol
- YesFree spins available
- YesBonus Game
- NoBuy feature