Weird Gaming: Trio The Punch

Among the mass of classic games are some that are just well...weird.
On
April 14, 2008
Welcome to what I hope will become a series of articles here on retro junk, Weird Gaming. We are all familiar with classics such as Super Mario Bros. Pac-Man, and the like. But what I want to focus on are obscure games you have probably never heard of and to kick it all of is a personal favorite of mine, Trio the Punch: Never Forget Me.

Released to Japanese arcades in 1989, Trio the Punch is an old fashioned side scrolling action beat em up that pokes fun at such titles as Double dragon, Rastan, and Ninja Gaiden. And to start the parody off is its characters, three stereotypes of the genre ripped straight from the three games mentioned above. You have a Ninja, a barbarian, and a fighter.

The Heroes

Shedder


Conan


and Chance Sundance?


The game starts buy having you select a character and then off to battle. The first stage pits you against a giant statue of a fat guy laying down who proceeds to shoot toe jam at you, at least I think its toe jam. The oddest aspect of the game, you can jump off of enemy projectiles.

At the end of each stage there is a wheel with numbers on it. Each number will light up momentarily and pressing the action button will cause the light up number to stop giving you a bonus such as a stronger attack, a weaker attack, and extra life, or the option to change characters. Off to the side will be the Trios sensei, who you will fight later on in the game.


The Trios Sensei


Through out the game you will fight parts of statues, a foot, a hand, a leg etc. and the statues minion, Karnov. That's right, Karnov is the goomba of Trio the Punchs world. And just like Karnov, Trio is made by Data East, (explains a lot) but how Karnov became enslaved by these statues is anyones guess. And why did they clone him? If I was going to clone some minons I think I could do better then to use a fat guy who doenst know any better then to walk around shirtless. Other bosses you'll encounter include a totem poll, a happy cat, a weresheep, who if you're not careful will turn you into a weresheep as well for a level or two, and Colonel Sanders. I am not joking, you really do fight Colonel Sanders as he throws chicken at you!



Trio the Punch: Never Forget me is a game you won't be able to forget, no matter how hard you try. Its a very strange game, if you dont believe me look up game play on youtube and you can see what I mean. Its a hard game to describe, I wanted this article to be funny, but the game is strange enough on its own and I have to try and describe it straight faced or you may read this and think I am making it up. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this, and maybe I will do another edition of Weird Gaming in future.


In 2007 Trio the Punch: never forget me was ported to the PS2 on the Oretachi Game Center label. If you can play import games its worth checking out.

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