Captain America and the Avengers
Arcade
Even though I’ve never held this game in quite the same regard I have for other beat ‘em ups like X-Men or the TMNT games, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Captain America and the Avengers. My first memory of playing this game came from when I was a kid. Our family was on the way home from a trip to the Wisconsin Dells when we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. This restaurant had a couple of arcade units hanging out near the entrance, and this game was one of them. I remember playing this game and making it through the first level on one quarter. This was enough to get me hooked, but unfortunately for me I was pulled away from the game to join the family at the dinner table.
I’d encounter this game a few more times in my life, but I can’t remember if I was ever able to beat it or not. I did try giving the Super Nintendo version of this game a crack about five to ten years ago, but I found things too insanely difficult to even be able to make it past the first level. Talk about a broken home port!
Anyway, after playing so many beat ‘em ups lately, I am curious to see how this game stacks up. Let’s go ahead and find out!
Story:
The Red Skull has gathered together a group of the world’s most dangerous supervillains in an attempt to defeat the Avengers and conquer the planet. It is your job to stop them. Battling your way through a handful of stages, you take the fight to the Red Skull’s moon base where you square off against him in an ultimate showdown.
That’s really all these is to this game’s story. Story sequences are shown through comic book-esque still images in between stages, which is kind of cool. But don’t expect a whole lot of depth here.
Gameplay:
I’ve been playing SO many beat ‘em ups lately. Final Fight, The Simpsons, TMNT, Turtles in Time, Double Dragon 2, the Ninja Gaiden arcade game, etc. Do I need to explain yet again how they work? No. I don’t think I will.
Instead I’ll tell you what this game does differently. You have a choice of four characters – Hawkeye, Iron Man, Captain America, and Vision. Each one handles pretty much the same. You have two buttons: attack and jump. Both buttons do exactly what you’d think they would do. If you jump and then hit the attack button, you perform a jumping attack. Imagine that! If you hit jump and attack at the same time, your character launches a powerful projectile at your enemies, with no associated health drain attached (which is nice). This game does a great job at giving you things to pick up and throw at your enemies. Remember, you are playing as a superhero so you can easily pick up things like phone booths and vending machines.
You battle your way through the game’s stages, fighting a boss character at the end of each stage. Standard beat ‘em up stuff. One thing that I found refreshing is that these boss fights aren’t too much of a grind or a war of attrition. You can whittle their health bars down pretty quick if you know what you are doing! This game also has a couple of side-scrolling “shooting” levels. You control your character as he flies through the air, firing whatever projectile it is in front of you. Maybe it is just because he’s the titular character, but I’ve always preferred Captain America and his shield for these segments of the game.
Aside from that, this is going to be a pretty short recap of this title’s gameplay. It’s a beat ‘em up. It doesn’t really do a whole lot different from its peers. I don’t know what else to say.
Graphics:
This game definitely does not look as good as its beat ‘em up contemporaries. The Simpsons and TMNT games completely blow this one out of the water when it comes to graphics and visual style. Not to say this game looks bad, but it definitely has issues crafting its own living and breathing Marvel world. There are some nice touches, like billboards you see in the background. The game is colorful, I can give it that. But the characters just flat out don’t look great. They’re small, they’re puny looking, and they look flat. A lot of the characters don’t even look like their comic book counterparts. The biggest offender is Juggernaut. Seriously, WTF is this:
Sound:
The graphics may not be the best, but at least I can say this game sounds pretty good. The heroic stage music is fantastic. The voice acting, while cheesy, fits the tone of the game perfectly. I just love when the announcer guy says “The Avennngers!!” It makes me smile every time. So does the Red Skull's evil cackling. Good stuff.
Overall:
This is a perfectly fun and playable arcade game. What I like about Captain America and the Avengers is that it doesn’t seem like its out to rob you of all your quarters before you even hit the third level of the game. You’re not constantly dying. The enemies don’t feel cheap. It actually feels like you have a chance. And if you do happen to die – hey perfect opportunity to switch your character and give someone else a try.
I’m not going to lie and say that this is some kind of groundbreaking or revolutionary title. Everything you see here, you’ve seen a million times in other games. And you know what? It’s totally okay. I still had a fun time. I’d put it a notch (or two or three) behind a few of my other favorite titles in the genre such as Turtles in Time or The Simpsons, but this is still a good game. Play it if you have the means!
Overall:
B
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