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Captain America and the Avengers -Data East (1991)
Summary “Avengers, gather together in a cohesive group!” My Thoughts
Captain America and the Avengers was one of my favorite arcade games when I was a kid. I can’t count how many quarters I dumped into that machine that should have been reserved for a college fund. Sigh... those were the days. I’ve played through the Genesis translation about a dozen times, but there’s nothing like firing up the much superior ROM version. You take the role of Captain America (of course) and up to three other Avengers represented by Iron Man, Vision, and Hawkeye. Congratulations to Hawkeye who has made more arcade appearances than the much cooler Iron Man! To add some extra heroes to the mix there are other Avengers that only appear in cameos. Quicksilver drops off a health pack once in awhile, The Wasp acts like a superhuman missile, Wonderman drops off Sky-cycles to the non-flying characters, and Namor… well he kind of points to where some of the bad guys go at one point. Thanks a lot, jerk. Unlike other arcade brawlers the characters are rather small in stature, but look pretty good. This smaller size lets you jump a lot higher and allows for a few more enemies to appear on screen compared to other brawlers like Spiderman: The Video Game. Each hero has a move set that has a few different punching/kicking attacks, a dash attack, two jumping attacks, a throw, a useless defensive move, and a long range move with the best being a satisfying shield throw by Captain America. You can also pick items up in the game like wrenches and boxes to toss them at baddies. More pleasing is picking up a random bad guy and walking around with them in your arms before tossing them at a foe. It was blast giving the Red Skull a face full of lackey. Some of the Avengers most evil (and crappiest) foes populate this game. The aforementioned Red Skull is behind an extremely weak plot to take over the minds of many of the Avengers’ foes to use for his own nefarious purposes. It’s a real trip to fight punching bags like The Living Laser and Red Tornado before getting to a major league badass like Ultron. You’ll also find yourself fighting a giant robot that looks a lot like a Sentinel from X-Men comics and another insidious robot that’s named “Mechanical Taco.” Unlike biological tacos this guy isn’t as fun or yummy. You'll also fight Juggernaught from the X-Men that, for some reason, has mutated into a living olive. The regular enemies consist of the typical group of robots with a little variety. You’ve got one that shoots, one that explodes, and one robot that just loves hug yet tragically doesn’t know his own strength. To break up the button mashing fury, there are several levels where the heroes get to fly and the game becomes a quasi-shooter. You fly in a city, in space, and underwater and they are all pretty much the same thing. They still provide a nice break in the action that most other games of this type don’t have. With most arcade games the music is a throwaway. While it isn’t particularly spectacular, the tune that plays throughout Captain America and the Avengers is catchy, fitting the super hero setting perfectly. It’s about on the same level as the tunes found on the X-Men arcade game. The sound effects are also pretty good with highlights including the Red Skull’s maniacal laughter and the squeezing sound of the hug robots.
One of the things that really makes this game especially entertaining is bad/odd English translations and the campy voice acting. Hearing such classic phrases as, “You will be the one escaping!” brings back a lot of happy memories. The most disappointing aspect of Captain America and the Avengers is its super short length. While it’s a breath of fresh air that you don’t have to fight in too many of the same locals, the game is over before you know it. However, Captain America and the Avengers is one of those arcade games that you can play over without it feeling like all the fun was drained out the first time through. Score: 8.5 -Paul
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