Game #1145: Captain America - Super Soldier

  Aye, aye Captain!

 Well, of all the things Captain America: Super Soldier could have been, an Arkham Clone wouldn't have been my first guess, but hey, it works well!

 I've never been much of a fan of the shielded Avenger, so I don't know if the game covers the first movie's plot, if it's a sequel or what have you, but I do know the plot is nothing special, it's just the Captain infiltrating a Nazi base and coming across baddies such as Madame Hydra and Zola. The voice talent from the movie is here, Chris Evans doing an adequate job as the Captain. The game's setup takes after Arkham Asylum, as most of the game takes place inside the same Nazi base, and you can unlock quick access to every zone through the sewers, but unless you skipped a collectible, there's usually no reason to backtrack. Playing through the game you can unlock two alternate costumes: Ultimate Captain and Classic Captain, and, to be honest, I didn't like any of the Captain's featured costumes. There are also 10 challenge scenarios to unlock.

 Fighting takes after Arkham too, Captain will pummel enemies with the square button, but you have to look out for orange lights in order to press circle to dodge and incoming attack. Unlike Arkham, there aren't many enemy types against which you need to use different tactics, at most, you have to dodge over shielded enemies to punch them from behind. There's a fairly weak counter attack too, but it's pretty much optional, and you can press L1 to block instead of dodge, but timing a block can deflect bullets which is pretty satisfying. You can use R2 to shoot your shield, and you can continue your melee combos as it ricochets around which was pretty neat. Landing attacks fills a tiered Super Gauge that you can spend on a Critical Attack, that deals a ton of damage and heals you, or spend twice as many energy bars to use an armed enemy's weapon against other enemies.

 As you battle enemies and collect items you earn experience points which can then be used to obtain nine upgrades. Besides increasing the number of times your shield ricochets between enemies I don't think I ever used them. Combat is pretty decent all things considered, but the Captain just doesn't fly from enemy to enemy like Batman does, which coming from Arkham, takes a little getting used to. You'll point against another enemy and press Square only to have the captain punch thin air. Yeah, Arkham's isn't very realistic, but Batman flying from enemy to enemy makes the combat flow more gracefully, the Captain feels like a bit stiff in comparison.

 As for the exploration, there aren't many puzzles, but there sure as hell are plenty of repetitive minigames. You have to match two numbers from two scrambled number grids, or hold two cables close, but not too close, etc. There are a few platforming/parkour segments, but you can get through most of them just tapping X as soon as the Captain touches the next pole/edge/what have ya. Pretty simple stuff.

 Besides the game showing its modest budget with its somewhat ugly character models, the game's performance, at least on PS3, is a bit spotty to say the least. The game is very playable, but the framerate is all over the place, with some zones running uncomfortably smoothly considering how wonky the framerate is most of the time.

 Considering I don't really like Captain America, and I always felt the first movie's look was silly... I had more fun than I'd like to admit with this game. It's quite clearly a budget take on Arkham Asylum, but I think it's a decent game and I was surprised to discover it was made by the same developer that made Luigi's Mansion 3, which is pretty neat!

 7.0