Captain America and the Avengers on NES (1991) Review

This review is for the Captain America and The Avengers game released on Nintendo in 1991. Though the game shares the same name with the popular Arcade game and it's Super Nintendo and Genesis ports, this is it's own game entirely and worthy of attention.

Story : In this game you assume the role of Steve Rogers A.K.A. Captain America or Clint Barton A.K.A. Hawkeye. Your goal is to rescue you team mates Iron Man and Vision who have been captured by The Red Skull. Story isn't anything to write home about, but it shouldn't be.

Graphics : The graphics for the era are very well done. The sprites are wonderfully animated for the two main characters and the rest of the characters are animated excellently as well. The backgrounds are colored brightly and are pleasant to look at without being obtrusive to game play.

Sound : The music pieces in this game are few in number, but all are extremely catchy. The tones are great sounding and once again there's nothing obtrusive to block you from enjoying the game in the music. The sound effects are solid enough and get the job done appropriately.

Game play : The two characters are very unique and have several differences from each other. Captain America can dash, latch onto ceiling fixtures during jumps, use his shield to loop and strike behind him, land on top of his shield to attack and block himself from harmful substances below, and block attacks with his shield. Hawkeye cannot do any of those, but his arrows go the entire screen where Captain America's shield throw only goes about half a screen. Hawkeye may seem weaker over all but he makes certain points in the game much easier.

Another cool element is you can take Captain America and Hawkeye with you together and switch them at will, enhancing the game play tactics quite a bit. Another really interesting feature is the ability to level up and strengthen your characters. You can collect power stones all over the game, which give each character more health points and also makes them do more damage. Along with this, you can additional abilities. Hawkeye's arrows turn from traditional arrows into exploding arrows, and Captain America gains the ability to loop his shield behind himself, destroying any enemy behind him.

The henchmen in the game look nice and there's an appropriate number of them. There's great looking villains in the game who are all animated well and are a joy to fight. Included are Wizard, Ultron, Mandarin, Crossbones, and the final enemy The Red Skull. They all have appropriate attacks and when you encounter them it really gets your blood pumping. The levels are appropriately long and none of them get too tedious. Most levels are also not linear, forcing you to search the level for an ''Exit Orb'', which enables you to leave the level.

There are some negatives, however. The game has no password system so when you lose, you have to start all over. This is very unfortunate, and I feel it's really the game's only flaw.

Re playability : The game is very re playable. I play it once every few years and always enjoy it a lot.

Overall Score: 9/10. Great game play, great music, tons of fun. Unfortunately having no continue or password system hampers the game's fun but it is very enjoyable regardless.