While this NES port of Captain America And The Avengers bears the same title as the arcade version, it really doesn’t have much to do with it in terms of gameplay. Sure, The Avengers are in it but you only get to play as (and switch between) Captain America and Hawkeye since Iron Man and Vision somehow got captured by The Mandarin.

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The real Mandarin, not Trevor.

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There are some other similarities with the arcade version, including the silly dialogs and the fact that Red Skull is the main villain.

 

That’s about it, though.

 

The game is not a beat ’em up but a side-scroller in which, initially, Cap runs around a DuckTales-style setting throwing his shield at bad guys.

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There are gems to find pretty much everywhere, again, sort of like in DuckTales

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The trees have exit signs on them, you’re fighting an army of robots and you have a bow and arrow (or a shield). None of this makes sense. Embrace it: it’s a video game.

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Playing as Captain America is a lot of fun since he can not only boomerang his shield at enemies but run super fast and use his shield to bounce on the heads of baddies like, well, Scrooge McDuck and his trusty cane. Hawkeye is a little more generic, which begs the question: why not have Iron Man or Vision instead as main characters?

 

They fly, shoot laser beams…

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Plus it would have made more sense for Hawkeye to get kidnapped. Just have him run out of arrows or something. Was Tony Stark drunk-flying again? Even then, playing as a wasted Iron Man sounds infinitely more fun.

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Sorry Hawkeye, it does!

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There are lots of bosses but you tend to fight them in front of surprisingly psychedelic backgrounds. It's as if Dr. Strange himself set the stage. This is more distracting than it is stylistically pleasant, frankly.

 

The bosses in the game include the likes of Crossbones and good old Ultron, who is sadly not voiced by James Spader here.

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He’s actually pretty easy to beat in this game since his flight pattern is rather predictable. During the boss fights, I’ll admit, you do wish you were playing the arcade version as it was crazy fun when it came to all-out face punching action. The music, the sound effects, the pacing, it’s all missed here.

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The final boss is, of course, Red Skull and, this time, you don’t get to fight him in his normal state and then his “Mecha Red Skull” form like in the other ports. Instead, he uses a bunch of gems to become…

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You ready for this?

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ALMOST NAKED MUSCLEBOUND RED SKULL.

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Suddenly, the Red Skull can perform flying kicks, spin kicks and has a six pack like he’s Zangief from the Street Fighter games or something.

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This is the best ending the NES could have ever given me and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

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This all reminds me of that dude from Samurai Zombie Nation.

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I guess we know who stole Red Skull’s red Speedos…

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(hail Speedos)

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A few more things I like about the game include the idea of an Avengers-themed Mount Rushmore.

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Mount Avengersmore: now there’s a Disneyworld attraction I could get behind.

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I’m not sure who built this but I’m guessing Tony Stark probably had something to do with it. The man’s got an ego, and a bank account, the other three just don’t have so I think it makes sense.

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Actually, forget about Disneyworld. It’s a great idea for an actual place and we should Kickstarter this beautiful bloody thing right now.

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Another cool thing about the game is the map: it’s quite simply one of the most adorable maps I’ve seen in a game full stop.

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It’s also incomplete and inaccurate, I should point out. Just in case you’re ever in Tampa looking for some giant disembodied Captain America head.

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Finally, there’s the stinker dialog and oddly worded writing throughout the game.

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Is “making resistance” really a phrase people say?

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So anyway, that’s my review of the other Captain America and The Avengers: an underrated NES side-scroller that’s a solid challenge and a lot of fun, especially if you’re a Marvel fan. It’s a bit of a cop-out to have two playable Avengers instead of four and the game lacks some of the energy and, obviously, the vibrant graphics and colors of the arcade port but it’s still well worth playing.