Nerdicus NES Review #112 : Captain America and the Avengers

Title : Captain America and the Avengers

Publisher : Data East

Genre : Action Platformer

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1991

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $20-$25

Captain America..the TRUE American hero. Just look at that pose. He is the ultimate bad ass. Red Skull can shove it up his Nazi arse. No one is a match for his shield of justice! When I first saw this game on the NES, I thought to myself, "OH, SNAP! It's going to be the same as the one in the arcade!"

Um...no.

I'm sure you've played it before. It was a classic beat 'em up staring some of the Marvel characters from the Avengers team. Up to four players could have played simultaneously on the arcade version, so it really was meant for the multiplayer experience. Think of the TMNT games, the Simpsons, heck any beat 'em up you can think of, that what Captain America and the Avengers was. I only played it a few times in an arcade over at Great Adventure in New Jersey, as it wasn't easy to find.

Lo and behold the game is released for the NES. I got my hands on it, popped it in, and my jaw just dropped. WTF was this? This wasn't a beat 'em up! This was some lame platformer. Data east tricked me into buying some BS Captain America Platformer! Note my rage here....my lust for an arcade experience on the NES has been shafted! Then again, it still is Captain America....and sometimes the platformers are decent....and there is a 2 player battle mode.....

Okay, I'll give it a shot. What the hell.

Throw the name of the game out the window. This isn't Captain America and the Avengers that we've grown to love. You can't even choose from the same characters anymore. Now you've only got Captain America and Hawkeye. Seriously, who's going to be Hawkeye...come on....(sorry, I hate him)

You'll see a 1P game mode, and battle mode. Hell, I want to relive my arcade experiences, so hopefully the multiplayer battle mode could offer me some of that. NOPE.

Battle mode is some crappy platforming fighting game. Player one chooses either Captain America or Hawkeye...again...while player 2 chooses one of the bosses...and you just fight as if you would in the actual 1P game. This is the closest you'll come to Super Smash Bros on the NES. I laughed...I actually laughed. Played this for two seconds...on to the 1P game in hopes that it could redeem itself.

The story of the single player game is that your fellow avengers have been kidnapped by good 'ol Mandarin. The only ones who are left to save the day are Captain America and Hawkeye. Not the strongest of the bunch..but hey, Captain America is a bad ass like I said so he's sure to save the day.

Your thrust into a typical cookie-cutter action platforming world, with only the skins of Captain America and Hawkeye and some other Marvel faces to prove to you that you are in the Marvel Universe. I'll say one thing, it's not a bad platformer. It's just that it's practically the same as every other platformer you have ever played before on the NES. At least you have the ability to switch of between characters depending on which ones are where on the world map. Hell you can even switch between the two characters if they land on the same map, which is helpful. At least Captain America and Hawkeye have somewhat different abilities that to help for certain levels. Not much..but they help.

You'll kill baddies, collect power ups in the form of little bronze UFOs, and occasionally fight bosses. And these bosses will just kick your ass, much like everything else in this game. Seriously, this game is beyond difficult. 

The difficulty level of this game is where the real problem stems from. You're completely outmatched most of the time against the simplest of goons, and you always seem to be playing catch up with your health meter. The problem is, your attacks aren't powerful enough, and there aren't enough special abilities to help you in your battles. I mean your super heroes. Normal minions shouldn't be a problem but they are.

But wait, there's more. The controls are also one of the crappiest you'll find on a platformer. Everything feels stiff, from the movements of your characters, to the way you attack. I feel like I'm struggling to get my poor little Avengers to move. This isn't helpful when I'm trying to make annoying jumps, or avoid enemies. 

Bosses remind me of Mega Man bosses, but you never have an edge with your weapons. Instead, you just get pummeled. Constantly.

Despite it's similarity to every other platformer out there, and it's difficulty, it's still not bad. Decent...but nowhere near being memorable. I'd much rather be playing the arcade version....damn you, Data East..damn you for tricking me.

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until next time. Keep on gaming!