Zsolt, the managing director for ZEN Studios here! I’m sure you’ve been keeping up with this blog, so you’re probably familiar with our upcoming title, The Punisher: No Mercy, inspired by Marvel Comics’ rich Punisher comic book history. Needless to say, I’m back and I come bearing awesome news for all you true Punisher fans!

It’s been a long time coming, but today our studio has finally confirmed that this PSN-exclusive is set for release on July 2, 2009. If that’s not enough, we also nailed down a price that should get all you virtual vigilantes foaming at the mouth. Come the 2nd, you’ll be able to pick up No Mercy exclusively through the PlayStation Store for only $9.99.

For those new to the game, No Mercy is an action-packed first-person shooter! You can fight alongside or take on an eclectic mix of Punisher allies and villains in online arena-style multiplayer matches that feature a variety of solo and team-based missions with up to eight players (We’ve written about it here a few times before).

In addition, No Mercy also boasts a single-player story mode where you can unleash your vengeance on hordes of villains while unfolding an original storyline and unlocking new additional content. Beautiful art by Mike Deodato too!

Until next time, I leave you True Believers with a few never-before-released screens, but be sure to stay tuned for more details and exclusive content as it becomes available at www.punishernomercy.com.

The next Marvel game coming your way is Zen Studios’ The Punisher: No Mercy – and as you probably know, it’s a PSN exclusive…and it’s coming very soon. If you’ve been reading this blog over the past few months, you know the basics. But here’s something about the game you might not know…

As an arena-style first-person shooter built on the Unreal engine, No Mercy sports a lot of in-game taunts and other dialogue from all eight characters — close to 400 in total. Many of these lines were written exclusively for the game, but the rest? Well, one of the most important responsibilities we have here at Marvel is making sure our characters are, well, in character — and what better way to ensure this than to rip them straight from the comics?

So, that’s what we did. I can personally attest that work isn’t so bad when your job is to pour through hundreds of pages of comics.

Want some examples? Well, here you go. Just click on the images to hear the words on the page come to life — just like you’ll hear them in the game.

A defining character line from Silver Sable (Ultimate Spider-Man #87).

You’ll hear Finn Cooley tell you this if he kills you (Punisher MAX #12).

Jigsaw does his best Rambo imitation (The Punisher, Vol. 2 #38).

As if those lines weren’t enough, I challenged the guys at Zen Studios to create situational taunts. For example, if it’s the Punisher against Bushwacker, the guy with the skull on his chest has a thing or two he only tells the assassin with a gun-arm who used to be a priest. Something like this from War Journal #13:

There’s all kinds of stuff like that.

I leave you with our favorite foul-mouthed Punisher enemy, Barracuda. In order to keep this a family blog entry, this panel from issue 34 in the MAX series is one of the few I can show you (it’s heavily cropped), and it’s attached to one of the few sound clips we can play for you.

To answer your question…Yes, his teeth really do say that in the game.