Who can resist the good ol’ red, white, and blue?
Developer: High Voltage Software
Publisher: SEGA
Release Date: July 19, 2011
Score: 2.3/ 5
I’m speaking of Captain America of course, a true red-blooded fictional American. Is he as heroic in a game as he was in the comics? I had the opportunity to test that very question in Captain America: Super Soldier.
You are thrust into a World War II era bunker with two soldiers, when suddenly Hydra soldiers appear with some high tech weaponry obviously not dated for WWII. In comes Captain America (Steve Rogers) to save the day. You are given the mission of beating the snot out of any and all Hydra and Axis soldiers with the use of your trusty indestructible metal round shield. This was a little disappointing, considering his very first shield was triangular.
Throughout this mission you are given helpful tips on fighting and using your shield, and the difficulty of enemies increases with each area. You are also introduced to a couple of secondary missions which grant your more experience stars used to increase your stats. Each level has mini boss and boss fights, as do most super hero games, but be prepared for a little bit of a lengthy story line.
There are challenges that allow you to gain more experience to upgrade Cap, and there are also opportunities to unlock two additional costumes for play. One you get by beating the game, and one you get by collecting all the relics in each stage.
As you progress through the story you meet with some of Captain America’s more memorable enemies, including Baron Zemo, Iron Cross, Baron von Strucker, Arnim Zola, Madame Hydra, and Red Skull. The appearances of Baron Zemo and Red Skull are minor in this game, however, though I am left to believe a sequel will be in the works.
Throughout the game you are also given several “puzzle” type problems that you must navigate through in order to advance through the game. In the beginning they are pretty simple, but as you progress the puzzles get a little harder and the camera angles are unforgiving.
I enjoyed the control style and the slow motion power finishers Captain America gives to enemies. I did, however, find a few things that really irked me. The camera angles are predetermined and can only be adjusted by moving Captain America into different positions. This made most of the difficult fights even harder (even on the “easy” difficulty setting). I will say that the camera angles for the boss fights are spot on, but the many inconsistencies didn’t balance this out.
Admittedly, I am a sucker for graphics and this game does lack a bit. Captain America’s body seems disproportionate in areas and many of the enemies looked like they were copied and pasted with a different color scheme. I understand that Wii graphics are not the best, however with this type of game I would have hoped for slightly better stylization and artwork.
When all is said and done I had to dock this game quite a bit, simply for the camera angles. There is no way of changing the camera angles even when using the Wii Remote during play and it’s extremely frustrating. The fighting however is solid and redeems Captain America: Super Soldier slightly.
Thanks to SEGA for providing a review copy!
