Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner and even though its been a while, we return back to classic gaming with Captain America. In 1991, Data East, who's formerly known for producing brawlers like Night Slashers released another one using Marvel's characters. It's titled Captain America and the Avengers and got released first in the arcades in 1991. Of course, when it comes to license games from the arcades they will eventually get a console port of some kind. Cap's game would see a release on both the Super NES and Sega Genesis system as well as the 8-bit consoles. The theme comes from the older comics where it's based on instead of following a movie. Funny enough, as mentioned before, Cap already had a solo film before the MCU and the movie saw its release in 1990. It's fortunate that Data East had enough common sense not to use that horrible film to make this game. The theme is about the Red Skull mind controlling a list of villains including Mandarin and Juggernaut to take over the world. Cap and the Avengers of Iron Man, Vision, and Hawkeye team up once again to stop the Red Skull. Gameplay Nothing from the original game hasn't been changed when Mindscape brought the license to the Super NES. Unlike the GBA Hulk title, it's nice to go back to decent gameplay with multiplayer. The mechanics play in a traditional brawler way where the players goes from point A to B mowing down enemies and then facing a boss at the end. There are five levels as some will have both ground and scrolling portions that takes the Avengers to the skies. In the scrolling portions, it plays like a typical shoot'em up and basically you shoot enemies down. Along the way you will find healing items that upon touching them heals your health. Even helper superheroes like Wonder Man, Quick Silver, Namor, and Wasp will assist the player by either giving health or being used as additional attack. Only Wasp was the only one to give any good help as Wonder Man and Namor were one-time cameos and Quick Silver drops a health item. Wasp is only used for the scrolling portions and she acts like a batter ram. I can tell these come from the old comics because I never heard of Wonder Man or Namor until now. One thing about the arcade to console ports is that they are either a hit or a miss. Unfortunately, this version for the Super NES was another miss as the studio got many things wrong unlike its Genesis counterpart. The first issue is the way the enemies follow the players too close as if they were like those crazed fanboy stalkers. It's even a problem for the bosses as they stay too close. Its clear that someone at Mindscape didn't properly program their intelligence. I mean it's like the studio studied Double Dragon on Genesis (that also suffered that same problem) to get ideas for programming. On the Genesis, that version doesn't have this issue since Data East the originally studio that made this game, ported it. Another issue is how the enemies are also placed at the edge of the screen just as the players move to the next area. Unless you played this many times is the only way you will know they are coming on the next screen. It's like Mindscape didn't stop with their incompetent programming as there is one more problem. When you damage a single bad guy, this will stun them for a second. However, they will then become invulnerable for another second giving the opposition a chance to strike the player unfairly. That made facing a swarm of them tedious and I had to always use the projectiles instead of striking with short-range attacks. The programming also wasn't like this in both the Arcade and Genesis versions so these developer didn't do their jobs. By the early 90s, Sega and Capcom were setting new standards for the brawler genre as seen in Streets of Rage and Final Fight. It's too bad this game didn't follow that standard which is truly surprising giving the history of Data East. Each character has the same attacks of punching, throwing, and shooting projectiles. There's no attribute system like in Streets of Rage with each character having strengths and weaknesses. I guess Data East relied too much on their Double Dragon formula from the 80s. The last thing Mindscape could've considered was adding a couple of additional levels exclusive to this version. They should've considered Konami's example with the TMNT Arcade port for the NES that did the same thing I'm suggesting. With games costing nearly $60 back then and only offering five levels seems like a waste of money. Rating: 6.9/10 Graphics/Presentation For once this studio finally puts some effort into one game as the graphics are above average for the system. The console's massive color support helped incorporate darker elements on the environments. The sprites also seem as broad as the arcade version which again is thanks to the system's large color palette. Of course, like any console port will always see cuts on many things such as animation and backgrounds. In the second level, the city scene on the background got replaced with a starry night sky. Even some animation frames have gotten removed from the sprites as they appear stiff in their movements. Mindscape presumably had terrible designers if they couldn't take advantage of the Super NES's power by 1993. Between its high quality sound chip and the support of 32,000 colors should have made it evident the Super NES had power behind it. They could've used that power to add special effects which clearly are not present like fire blazing on the buildings or wind blowing on the trees. The only thing they manage to get right is the voice over clips and the comic strips of the events that take place in the game. The comic strips were oddly missing on Genesis, so I'll give them props for keeping these images from the arcade. Another nice effect is the words that appear from the comics when you strike an enemy. It definitely creates this classic vibe and its something the original studio tried to emulate. The Super NES version did have more colors and broader detail; however, there were also some parts that lacked additional features. In the first level, Whirlwind blows up a hole in the wall as only the shadow of the inside becomes visible and the structure barely gets destroyed. Yet on Genesis, the wall gets destroyed with a larger hole showing the inside and its debris. It's even the same thing with Meca Taco (an octopus mini boss) as four tentacles are missing leaving only two on the thing. That's purely laziness on Mindscape's part that they couldn't add in the simplest of features even for a sprite. I'm pretty sure they could've taken a few days to design some extra details for the levels. Of course, there's not enough enemy design since they were all reskinned from the first level. That falls on Data East's shoulders and its a surprise when this studio always designed different types of enemies. The music came off generic in many ways and sounded off even compared to its Genesis Counterpart. It's true that the Super NES's sound chip was of superb quality but that doesn't mean a studio will take advantage of the capabilities. You know studio is doing a terrible job when the grainy sound on Genesis possesses better quality results. The overall color use might be more but the developers seem to get this wrong as well. The environments look dull and uninspiring often, despite the Super NES supporting over 32,000 colors. On Genesis, the colors are more vivid and fit the theme of a comic with only using 512 colors at once. The theme was mostly taken out of older Marvel comics from the 70s, and it's about the Red Skull trying to conquer the world. He has brain washed a list of villains such as Mandarin, Juggernaut, Ultron, Grim Reaper, Cross Bones and Whirlwind. For once, a studio actually uses the main bad guys of the Avengers instead of third-rate villains no one cares about. However, at the same time the theme felt generic considering by the 90s, Marvel started changing their concepts to a darker tone. It's obvious the target demographic was towards kids which I find odd when the company was going in a darker direction. The art style truly feels outdated and each character was using its design from the 70s. Marvel even changed its art direction with their characters during the 90's to a more modern appeal. It truly puzzles me why Data East and Konami with Marvel would use these outdated costumes. I also would like to point out some oddities and why the hell is Vision walking with his arms placed on his chest as his animation. Even weirder is how he flies in the scrolling sections and shoots lasers out of his crotch. It's bad enough he walks odd and is nearly half-naked but to shoot lasers out of his crotch?! For anything else, why does Juggernauts have a big gem on his face and he's yellow instead of being dark red-orange? Better yet, why is he rolling like sonic as his attack? His power revolves around super strength and being close to a behemoth like the Hulk. Perhaps the original studio should have stayed on other franchises when they can't use Marvel's properties right. Rating: 7.2/10 Features/Content There are not that many features included here since its main selling point is the two-player co-op gameplay. Sure you could play single but it's an obvious standard among brawlers. At least Data East got this right unlike Capcom with its Final Fight Super NES port. You could increase the difficulty to three settings and expand the live stock to 7 in Options. If only Data East gave some differences between the four characters with different strengths. By designing the game this way would've created replay value because of the differences in attributes. Like I said, a title like Cap and the Avengers is often made to sell you a quick playthrough. Its only purpose is to engage players for a short time, so they could move on to the next game. That's usually how arcade places or areas that had these machines would act for gamers. Of course, this studio could've added some exclusive heroes like the Hulk. The studio also could've added two more levels only exclusive to the Super NES version. Rating: 7.0/10 Final Rating Compared to Data East's port on Genesis, Mindscape didn't do so well to bring this title to the Super NES. Most of the gameplay mechanics were actually retained with no differences from the original experience. However, the enemies and bosses would follow the players too close behind and making it hard to attack. Even when striking the enemies, this will cause each one to become invulnerable for a second and giving them an unfair advantage. The graphics in any console port will always receive a downgrade but I can't say that this studio did a horrible job. Are they terrible at programming? Yes as the only experience they ever have is bringing over education PC games like Mario is Missing to this system. However, the graphics managed to stay above average as most features are still retained in this version. In comparison on Genesis, everything looks rather dull here with the use of dark colors. The villains was something good for once as Cap and the Avengers' main antagonists are all here. The features stayed true to the arcade system as there weren't that many options aside the co-op. Overall, this title wasn't that special for what its design is often intended to do but nevertheless it was still a decent game. Gameplay: 6.9/10 Graphics/Presentation: 7.2/10 Features/Content: 7.0/10 Final Rating: 7.1/10 Solid
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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