There are few things as patriotic as Captain America. He literary has America as his surname and once punched Hitler right in the face. As one of the pillars of the Marvel universe Captain America has done it all, from beating up Nixon, quitting the hero gig a number of time, becoming a werewolf, getting addicted to drugs, getting airbags installed into his suit, becoming a Nazi, most recently going evil again, and being drawn by Rob Liefeld.
All that aside, the one thing America’s poster boy has never been very good with is video games. The character has appeared in a number of game, but only a handful of times has been the main focus of a game. And this is coming from a Marvel universe that gave Howard the Duck his over video game. The only rule we for this list is that his name must appear in the games title (of which there are only 5) as he tends to pop up in most ever Marvel title like a bad penny. With that let’s dive into the many appearances of Captain America in video game form.
Captain America in: The Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann
We kick things of with Captain America taking on one of his most nefarious and legendary of enemies. No, not the Red Skull, not Crossbones, Not Zemo or A.I.M. or even Hydra, but Dr. Meglomann. The game is pretty ingenious in that you guide Captain America through the titular Doom Tube which is the base of Dr. Whoever. The Doom Tube is a long tube that is itself inside another tube! So essentially this is Captain America Escapes The Hamster Display at The Pet Store.
Odds are you never heard of the game as it released back in 1987 (I was only 2) and even then by U.S. Gold. You’d think with a name like that it would be an American company, but they were a British company that released rather crappy games over in the U.K. Captain America in: The Doom Tube of Dr. Mega Man 7 came out on the 8-bit home computers of the day, but it did manage to make it to the Commodore 64 computer. Oh, and it also came on cassette tape, so there’s that.
Spider-Man and Captain America in Doctor Doom’s Revenge
After his life and death struggle with Dr. Melanoma and the Tube Patrol, Captain America teamed up with perennial teenager Spider-Man because Spider-Man always sells. The game would see you switch between the two character after every mission while battling a number of super villains that people actually know. I can’t help but think that the last game got their Doctors mixed up in the planning phase as Dr. Doom (while not a major villain of either character) is far more recognizable than Dr. We Never Read A Comic Before.
The game did get a major release, well, major for 1989 and being on the Commodore 64 and DOS platforms. The game did fairly well receiving average scores from the press at the time with the big knock being it played pretty slow. Marvel seemed pretty behind the project and even included a special comic book that was only available in the game’s box.
Captain America and The Avengers
Captain America and the Avengers is probably the first game on this list that most people will actually know and remember, even if it’s only for the terrible voice acted into of Captain America screaming THE AVENGERS! in really low quality. The title started as an arcade title that I lost a lot of quarters on. This wasn’t because the game was hard, but because the game was kinda of shit. It wasn’t until the advent of MAME in the late 90s that I actually managed to beat the game. Captain America and the Avengers was a side-scrolling beat ’em up in the vain of Final Fight. Data East is a hit and miss company and their take on the genre was pretty weak with this one.
Still, most people online regard this one as God’s gift to Marvel fans, but it just really isn’t all that good. It got a number of home ports to the major consoles of the time and those only mucked things up even worse. Data East would also release the game on the out-of-date NES, and if you are think how they could cram the game onto a NES cart, well, they couldn’t. It was a traditional sidescroller with Cap and Hawkeye (the other heroes must have been on vacation) and it was and alright sort of thing. At least Data East would try something different with their next take on the Avengers in a fighting game that nobody remembers.
Captain America: Super Soldier
It would take 20 years before Captain America was taken out of cold storage for a starting role in a video game. Captain America: Super Soldier is an average third-person action game that came out on PS3, 360, and Wii consoles to bank off of the film. It wasn’t a terrible game, or at least that’s what my roommate at the time kept telling me, even when I didn’t ask. Gameplay saw Captain America exploring a huge castle and could use his shield to dole out American justice!
He also thought he was Daredevil and was super into acrobatics for some reason. For whatever reason the PC and PSP versions of the game were canceled, but the iPad did see a release. SEGA was in charge of the game and after their terrible Iron Man games for Marvel, this one is probably their best, or so my old roommate is probably screaming from wherever he is. Reviews of the day said the game was pretty fun, but suffered from a dull story that failed to live up to the one from the film.
Captain America the Winter Soldier: The Official Game
Here is a game that even passed me by when it released. This isn’t surprising as it was only released on iOS by Gameloft. It looks like a standard beat ’em up, but with it being on the iPhone one never really knows. It would be safe to assume that every third punch requires coins that you can buy with real money in stacks off 100, or pester your friends on Facebook to join you Avengers team for just enough coins to keep you addicted. I have no idea is either of those things are true, but odds are in my favor one of them is at the very least. At the very least if you squint really hard the game sort of looks like Jet Grind Radio.
Happy 4th everyone! Here’s a picture of the first person (Reb Brown) to play Captain America in a movie to get your through the weekend.
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