Trio The Punch: Never Forget Me... (トリオ・ザ・パンチ) is a side-scrolling action platformer game developed by Data East and released in 1990 for arcades. It was ported in 2007 to the Sony PlayStation 2 by Hamster Corporation as part of their Oretachi Gēsen Zoku series, and was released digitally in 2022 on the Sony PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives line.
Overview[]
In Trio The Punch players can choose between three characters: Kamakura-kun, a ninja, Santos, a brawler, and Rose Sub, a barbarian. Each of the characters has its own unique attacks and characteristics. Each character has a melee attack, as well as a special move which can only be used once per level but can hit various enemies on screen at once. After every level the player gets a spin on a roulette, and depending on the number obtained the player can get a power up to the main weapon or special move, be able to change the character, replenish life or, in the case of a bad draw, have its weapons powered down a level.
Levels are generally pretty simple and short, with mostly waves of enemies coming at the player from both sides as the player moves forward. Some enemies drop yellow hearts upon being defeated; the main objective during the levels is to obtain a certain number of these hearts, at which point the boss of the level shows up. Some of the levels don't require collecting hearts as the boss will show up right at the beginning of the level.
Trio The Punch's main characteristic is its entirely nonsensical structure, being clearly intended for parody. The game presents many absurd situations unique to each stage, along with crazy enemy types such as multiple variations of Data East's mascot Karnov, a giant bronze fist and a giant bronze foot, zombies riding on carts, Chelnov carrying an oversized mallet, a parody of Colonel Sanders, etc.
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