Captain America and the Avengers

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Captain America and the Avengers
Image:Captain America game flyer.png
Developer(s) Data East
Publisher(s) Data East, Mindscape, Inc
Designer(s) Hidenobu Ito
Platform(s) Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy
Release date 1991 Arcade, NES 1992 Genesis 1993 SNES, Game Gear 1994 Game Boy
Genre(s) Beat 'em up, platformer, Action
Mode(s) Up to 4 players simultaneously
Input methods 8-way joystick, 2 buttons
Cabinet Upright
CPU 2x ARM6 9.3333 MHz, HuC6280 4.0275 MHz
Sound Yamaha YM2151, (2x) OKI MSM6295
Display Raster resolution 320x240 (Horizontal) Colors 2048

Captain America and the Avengers is the title of a beat 'em up coin-op arcade game released by Data East in 1991 based on the Marvel Comics' series The Avengers.

Players can choose to play one of four superheroes - Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, or Vision - as they battle through New York City, the underwater world of Atlantis, and eventually into Red Skull's moon base, which has a giant laser cannon pointed at Earth for destruction. The game comes in both two and four-player cabinets. In the two-player version, each player chooses the character they want to play whenever they start or continue. In the four-player version, each character is assigned a specific coin slot and set of controls. The program can be switched between two and four-player modes via a dip switch setting.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

Screenshot of the Arcade version
Screenshot of the Arcade version

Gameplay is similar in format to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat 'em up arcade games, as well as other beat 'em up arcades developed by Konami. Each character can attack and jump, and also pick up and throw certain objects positioned in each level, i.e. bricks or barrels. Attacks are accompanied by comic book-style sound effect words such as "THWAK!," "WHAM!," "KABOOM!," "KRAK!," etc. Each character also has a special projectile attack, and the ability to block certain shots. The players battle their way through hordes of relatively weak enemies who die after only a few hits, then must face and defeat more powerful boss characters at the end (and sometimes in the middle) of each level.

The boss characters in the game include Klaw, The Living Laser, Whirlwind, the Wizard, the Grim Reaper, the Mandarin, The Juggernaut, Ultron, Crossbones, and Red Skull. Other Avengers such as the Wasp, Quicksilver, Wonder Man and the Sub-Mariner make cameo appearances. Interestingly, the giant robot seen in the second stage resembles either the Sentinels or Master Mold.

[edit] Errors

Some of the dialogue was mistranslated. One example is during the battle against Klaw and the Living Laser, where in response to the villains' demand, "Don't disturb us", the player's character replies "Why should it goes well?"

[edit] Versions

Cover artwork of the Super NES version.
Cover artwork of the Super NES version.

Data East originally released a home version of the game for the Sega Genesis. The game was later licensed to Mindscape, who released their own ports of the arcade game for the Super NES, Game Boy and Game Gear. The versions published by Mindscape were developed by Realtime Associates. [1]

Data East also released an NES version which is drastically different; the only playable characters are Captain America and Hawkeye; their mission is to save the Vision and Iron Man from the Mandarin. The game has a map with various locations (similar to the NES version of Bionic Commando), representing different levels and super villains that the player must battle through. Rather than a port, this was simply a different game with the same name.

In the North America version of the arcade machine, when a player's character died, the game prompted them to continue by saying "AMERICA STILL NEEDS YOUR HELP!" This line was removed in the European and Asian versions of the game.

[edit] References

[edit] External links