Volzzilla has had an opportunity to work with Mugen creator Apocalypse on an interview concerning a character that we have all been waiting for: Punisher! We have seen a version of him in the Eternity of Heroes game from Infinity Mugen Team and it only made me want more. This article is a gift to everyone who wants to know more about this character for mugen. Volzzilla's questions and comments are bolded and Apocalypse's comments are unbolded. I thank them both for their time.
In a true shotgun spirit that even Frank Castle would be proud of, Apocalypse and I were able to get together and put this article together for you quickly. I truly appreciate the time he took with this because The Punisher *IS* the most anticipated character release for the majority of the community that follows Marvel/DC Mugen.
1) So how did you decide upon bringing The Punisher to MUGEN?
The idea for The Punisher in all honesty wasn't even mine. My best friend Wags, who has a shared interest in Mugen, gave me the idea when we were playing Freeplay and talking about what characters need to be MUGENized. I was working on a SNK Natuto character at the time, but he told me one of the smartest things I’ve heard when it comes to creating.
"If you wanna really leave a mark in the community, you have to build a general character that has never been attempted before and can appeal to the public (from what we had believed) and who better then Punisher".
Smart man... and with that follows additional projects of "Angel" and Image's "The Maxx" as intent to help raise the bar for Mugen Creators.
2) So tell the readers what bases you are using for the character and for the various moves themselves.
The majority of the base for Punisher is obviously Cable, peppered in with a little Cyclops and Captain America and believe it 
or not, used a refab'D Ryu as a base. The moves however have been custom engineered by Wucash with my original beta design. Currently about 20-30% of his moves show similarity to Cable, with the other 70-80% being quality custom moves.
3) How is the progress going on The Punisher?
Great. He's definitely found a place in my roster as a character with plenty of replay value to it. Great all around character, Long distance, Aerial Rave, Special - to - Hyper combinations. I think I’m more exciting to see people having fun kicking @$$ with my character, then the people excited for me to release him publicly.
4) Can you tell us how the members of the ‘Punisher Project’, you, Excursion, and WuCash got together?
This can get long but I’ll try and be brief about it. The Punisher Project was originally a two-man (Excursion and myself) operation when Excursion had mentioned to me that he had a brother (Evil_Rock81) that was working on a Punisher character with the exact same base, that he had temporarily suspended while he was not creating. I should have figured someone had already tried making Punisher before, but the coincidence to a collaboration with Excursion of the Infinity Mugen Team (I currently hadno ties with any team at that time.)
In exchange for the sprites originally designed by Evil_Rock81, it was said that the sprites would only be released if my Punisher character wasn't going to be developed in vain. Apparently there were just as many people who said this character actually have potential as there were people doubting him, criticizing him as nothing more then a "Cable Clone.” But the two brothers (Excursion and Evil_Rock81) liked what they had seen and opened full rights for me to edit his sprites as we saw fit. As you play, you'll see animations such as the intro jacket toss, the bandana winpose concept, the shotgun, knife throw, and grenade throw attack as just some of the contributing factors from Evil_Rock81 that make Punisher what he is today.
Wucash was inducted as a third member of the Punisher Project after he expressed interest in him, to Excursion over PMs. Wucash and I never met previously but it was noted by Excursion that Wucash was so interested with what I was doing for Frank Castle, that he signed up just to shadow my work. Wucash and Excursion had both agreed Punisher would serve no justice under a typical Cable base, so Wucash had taken it upon himself to redesign all the basic attacks. From there, he and I exchanged contact info and began designing new moves side by side, while Excursion was given the new moves to code for the EOH platform. (Infinity and Scruffy Dragon/Unlimited working side by side, a milestone in the right direction for both forums in quite some time.)
5) What has stood out the most during the creation process in a positive manner? What has been giving you the most trouble?
Coding and.... Coding. LoL. Actually seeing how to adapt and incorporate different sprites at different angles and transform that into new moves would be that most creative move in a positive direction. But coding would have to be the most troublesome. I'm the kind of guy that likes to break things down to put them together again, so I like to know how things tick, and coding (as fun as it can be) was been the most troublesome because of that belief.
6) Please explain more about Symbiote Punisher. Was he initially supposed to be a second mode and then branched out into his own creation? Will he still be a part of the main Punisher character?
The Symbiote Punisher was actually a spur the moment idea I wanted to incorporate with the first release of the EOH project Punisher. It came about after reading up
on the Punisher: War Journal story and the World War Hulk era. I wanted to surprise everybody with a fully alternative form of gameplay - an alterbeast move, fully functional with it's own set of attacks, specials and hypers. He had one of these two "What If" hypers that were incorporated with him at the time. But after the EOH Christmas release, it became evident that the current coding was hosting too much and conflicted with it's animations and was seen best to only use it as a straight foward grapple hyper and not the original 2-in-1 character originally seen with the first release.
The future for The Symbiote Punisher is that now going to be a spinoff special separate character with his own set of specials and hypers set to release in early 2010. I'll definitely keep the world informed as more news of that comes about.
7) Please tell us some of the weapons we will be blowing up opponents with soon? Are there other move concept not involving weaponry that you would like to share with us about?
Pistols pwn'N, Desert Eagle .50 uppercut'N, Saw'D off Shotgun blastin', Uzi sprayin' AK-47 Bustin', M4a1 head shoot'N, G36c, MpNavy SMG, Mini Gatlin gun, and knives - lots of knives
Just to kind sum it up.
8) Did I hear something about fatalities? If so please explain more.
Not a fatality, but something I was thinking about dubbing "PUNISHED". A special KO effect for hypers only activated when you perform a hyper as the final move. I still want to add some "dropping bones", splatter blood and stuff (MK-ique, but Capcom styled). Just like the symbiote hyper, I wanted to incorporate one last time to turn some heads and raise some eyebrows. I'm still currently working on molding the code more efficiently, so we'll see if it makes the cut or not. Anything and Everything is always subject to change.
9) Do you have any special plans in regards to intros/exits with any other characters?
Currently I plan to have a special intro featuring Team Unlimited's Deadpool but it still is on the development table between their team and me. (Team Unlimited, if you see this watch this video and let me know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clDPv2jtTPY
I was also recently contacted by JasonTodd to do a special intro with Punisher Vs Spider-man. JasonTodd and Acey currently have that all in the works.
Wucash has recently offered to design a special intro with Punisher vs. Ghost Rider, so expect to see more Apoc./Wucash colab.
10) Can you give a possible timetable on a beta to release and/or a goal for the full release?
Beta: Sooner then more people know. Full: It's too early in Phase 2 to tell…
You can follow the progress of The Punisher at:
http://www.infinitymugenteam.com/Forum_345/index.php?topic=8627.0
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Apoc can't sprite for crap and it's best somebody more experienced like those at the SD team handle a killer character like Punisher
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