by Back in 1991, Data East acquired the license for Captain America and The Avengers. They went on to make an interesting mix of a beat ‘em up and shmup for arcades, which was then ported to the SNES and the Sega Genesis. There were also Game Gear, Game Boy, and NES games by the same name. I’ll be reviewing the latter at a later date.
The game has a simple premise: The Red Skull is out to take over the world, and you have to stop him. You do this by fighting your way through a series of progressively more difficult beat ‘em up and shmup stages as one of 4 Avengers: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, or Vision.
So, is Captain America and The Avengers a smash, or should you avoid it like kryptonite? Let’s find out.
Gameplay
Let’s start with the controls. The D-pad controls character movement, the Start button pauses the game, the A button jumps, and the B and C buttons attack. However, you can customize the controls in the menu, which is a nice feature. If you press the attack and jump buttons at the same time, you will do an Avenger attack, which is different depending on the character you choose. Your attack button can also pick up various items to throw, such as rocks, soda cans, barrels, and more. There are also two types of jumping attacks, which are dependent on how high you’ve jumped when you hit the attack button. On shmup stages, A, B, and C all attack.
You have access to 4 Avengers: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Vision. For the most part, they play very similarly. Probably the biggest differences are that Captain America’s Avenger attack, his shield, hits both coming and going, and that Iron Man and Vision don’t have a normal high jump attack. Instead of kicking, they use their lasers and shoot them at a 45-degree angle.
The gameplay is actually pretty good. The controls are responsive, and it is satisfying to fight off all of the various enemies you’ll face. There is some decent variety, and I loved seeing so many lesser-known comic villains as bosses. Sure, you get The Red Skull and Sentinels, but you also get Whirlwind, The Klaw, The Living Laser, and more. You also have other Avengers show up to help now and then, too. Characters like Quicksilver, Wonder Man, Wasp, and The Sub-Mariner show up, each contributing in their own way.
One unusual feature of the game is its health system. You don’t have a health bar, but with a simple number of 100 that decreases as you take damage. However, you can go above that, which incentivizes smart play over button mashing.
A couple of aspects of the game are rather janky, but they are due to the game being a pared-down port of the superior arcade version. For example, when you hit enemies with punches, they won’t recoil like in the arcade; they’ll just stop moving, and you’ll see comic book text like “PLAM!”. Also, when you get hit, you always go flying, even from the slightest touch, which takes away from the feel of being a powerful superhero. None of these are game-breaking, but they do take down the score for me by 1 point.
I give the gameplay a 7/10.
Graphics
The graphics are pretty good. The character sprites are converted pretty faithfully from the arcade version, and those were already good. There are comic book panels at the opening of each stage, and those look great, so do the larger boss sprites like the Sentinel.
These aren’t the best graphics the system had, but they are above average and are a lot of fun. You will be fighting a lot of the basic robot enemies, and there are a lot of recolors, but there is more than enough variety to keep things interesting.
I give the graphics a 7.5/10.
Music and Sound
The music is good. It’s got this upbeat, heroic feel to it, with a trumpet fanfare serving as the base for most tracks. Unfortunately, this causes some of the tracks to feel a bit too similar.
The sound design is a lot of fun. Lasers, explosions, little clinking sounds when you hit robot shields, and even classic villain laughs. The cheesy, voiced dialogue adds a lot of charm to the game, as well.
I give the music and sound an 8/10.
Difficulty
The game starts with a rather easy difficulty level, but it ramps up pretty fast. By default, you have 3 lives and no continues. Given how short the game is and its arcade origins, it’s not surprising how brutal it can be.
If you want an easier or harder time, you can adjust the difficulty. There are Easy, Medium, and Hard modes, as well as the choice between 3, 5, and 7 lives.
Final Score
Overall, I give Captain America and The Avengers a 7.5/10. It’s a fun and cheesy superhero game with a lot of charm. If you want it for your collection, it is about $21 loose right now.
I should also mention that these scores do not apply to the SNES version, despite the fact that it is a port of the same game. The SNES version was ported by Mindscape, and while they handled the graphics well enough, they botched the gameplay. They also replaced one of the voice lines that is in both the arcade and Genesis versions. Data East was directly involved with the Genesis version, and it shows.
