Captain America and the Avengers

For the Sega Game Gear game, see Captain America and the Avengers (Game Gear).

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Captain America and the Avengers
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Data East (Japan, US) Sega (Europe)
Developer: ISCO, Opera House
Distributor: Tec Toy (BR)
Licensor: Marvel Entertainment Group
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Developer(s) of original games: Data East
Sound driver: Terpsichorean (Hitoshi Sakimoto) (68k port)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1992-12 $54.9554.95 T-13056 EU 1993-04 1087-50 EU (Classic) 1994-08-26 1087-50 PT 199x MDJ1087 UK 1993-06 £39.9939.99 1087-50 AU 199x BR 199x 044560 KR 199x GM93023JG
Non-Sega versions Arcade Game Boy Super NES

Captain America and the Avengers is a beat-'em-up developed by Data East. Ports were made to the Sega Mega Drive as well as the competing Super NES. Despite being developed by a Japanese team, it never saw a release in Japan.

Story

The Red Skull has assembled an army of supervillains and other henchmen in a plot to take over the world.

Gameplay

The game is a belt-scrolling beat-'em-up that can be played with one or two players. Players can choose to play as one of four members of the Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Vision. Characters walk with and and move backwards and forwards in the plane with and . They dash with and , which can be used to attack enemies. Each character can fight hand-to-hand with or or use a ranged special attack with + or +. Captain America throws his shield, Hawkeye shoots arrows, and Iron Man and Vision shoot energy beams. Characters can guard attacks by holding down or . Characters jump with and can perform a special aerial attack by pressing or during the jump. Captain America and Hawkeye perform diving kicks, while Iron Man and Vision fire their energy beams at a downward angle.

Stages contain rocks, barrels, tires, scrap, and so forth, which can be picked up with or and thrown. Opponents can also be grabbed and thrown. Other Avengers, including the Wasp, Quicksilver, Wonder Man, and Namor the Sub-Mariner appear in the stages to assist the players.

Some stages feature autoscrolling sections that play like a shoot-'em-up. Iron Man and Vision fly on their own, while Captain America and Hawkeye wear special equipment. During these sections, the character can move in any direction with the D-Pad and shoot with , , or .

Characters have a life scale that starts at 100 and goes down as they take damage from opponents. The scale can be restored by collecting special items (and can also go higher than 100). When characters runs out of life, they are defeated, and the player must use a credit to continue. Players share credits in two-player games. After being defeated, the player can choose a different hero to play. The game ends when the players run out of credits.

The main game can be played cooperatively with two players. The second player can join at any time during gameplay by pressing  START . Players can choose the difficulty level (Easy, Normal, or Hard) and starting number of credits (3, 5, or 7) prior to starting the game. There is also a competitive Training mode where players can fight each other.

Characters

	Captain America
	Leader of the Avengers. A one-man army created as a result of the experimental "Super Soldier" project during World War II. His special ability is throwing his nearly indestructible shield.
	Iron Man
	Weapons inventor and president of Stark Industries. His steel suit of armor gives him superhuman agility and strength. He wears a mechanized suit of armor that can shoot plasma beams from his hands and travel underwater or into space.
	Hawkeye
	An expert marksman trained by Captain America. He has supernatural sight and is skilled with any thrown or aimed weapon.
	Vision
	An artificial being who draws his power from light collected by the gem in his forehead. He can fire this stored energy as a solar beam from the gem.

Items

	Small Life Disc
	Increases the life scale by 10 points. Appears in the shooting segments.
	Large Life Disc
	Increases the life scale by 20 points. Dropped by Quicksilver on some stages.
	Wasp Item
	Summons the Wasp, who protects the player for a duration. Appears in the shooting segments.

Stages

	The Avengers
	The Avengers battle the Living Laser, Klaw, and Whirlwind and receive help from Quicksilver.
	Target Town
	The Avengers battle the Giant Robot (Sentinel) and the Grim Reaper and receive help from Wonderman.
	Challenge from the Bottom of the Sea
	The Avengers battle the Wizard, Mech. Taco, and the Mandarin and receive help from Namor the Sub-Mariner and Quicksilver. The name "Mech. Taco" comes from the Japanese word for octopus, tako (タコ).
	The Giant Laser Cannon
	The Avengers battle Juggernaut and Ultron.
	The End of Red Skull
	The Avengers battle Crossbones, Red Skull, and Mech. Skull and receive help from Wasp and Wonderman.

Music and sound

The music was arranged by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who is well-regarded among Sega Mega Drive composers.

Versions

The PAL version appears to have been optimized in both music speed and gameplay.

The Super NES version has more detailed graphics, but has control issues and lacks voice data. It was not ported by Data East but instead by Mindscape. The Sega Mega Drive version is also closer to the arcade version's stage layout. However, the game uses an unoptimized color palette, with details getting lost due to neighboring colors having a too similar shade.

Production credits

• Producer: Mentaiko
• Planner: E.Nishiyama, H.Iwano
• Graphics: T.Ishiro, T.Sawajiri, Yorokin, H.Sasaki
• Software: S.Miki, H.Fujiwara, Y.Mizutani
• Sound: S.Shougo, Tom.Satoh, Ymoh.S
• Marketing: K.Nakamura, S.Miller
• P.R.: S.Takeuchi, D.Saitoh
• Arcade Staff: H.Itoh, K.Miyazawa, H.Ohnuki, T.Haga, M.Tokoro
• Special Thanks: M.Nakamura, K.Yokoyama, H.Yamaguchi
• Director: E.Nishiyama, T.Ishiro

© 1992 Data East Corporation

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Captain America and the Avengers/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #41: "December 1992" (1992-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Game Informer (US) #8: "January/February 1993" (199x-xx-xx)
• Sega Visions (US) #11: "February/March 1993" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Game Champ (KR) #1993-11: "xxxx" (199x-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Game Champ (KR) #1993-12: "xxxx" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Hacker (HR) #5: "03-04/1995" (1995-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 35

	35
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 30 Cool Gamer (RU) 30 Computer & Video Games (UK) 31 Digitiser (UK) PAL 40 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 78 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 10 (RU) 80 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 67 Game Power (IT) 60 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 83 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 46 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 80 Joypad (FR) 72 Joystick (FR) NTSC-U 50 Mega (UK) NTSC-U 62 Mega Force (FR) 64 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-U 27 MegaTech (UK) NTSC-U 57 Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-U 67 Player One (FR) 25 Play Time (DE) 28 Power Up! (UK) 60 Power Play (DE) 40 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-U 61 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 37 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 41 Sega Zone (UK) NTSC-U 52 Sega Force (UK) PAL 82 Supersonic (FR) 78 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 32 VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) NTSC-U 60 Video Games (DE) PAL 54

	54
Based on 31 reviews

Captain America and the Avengers

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US (Collector's Pin)
Cover
Cart Manual Collector's Pin

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU (Classic Mega Drive)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, PT
Cover
Cart Manual EU Manual

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, KR
Cover

Technical information

Main article: Captain America and the Avengers/Technical information.