Captain America Super Soldier Review

Formats: 3DS, DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Format Reviewed: 3DS
Publisher: Sega
Developer: High Voltage Software
Made2Game Captain America Super Soldier Review Score: 6/10

High Voltage Software aren’t particularly well known developers, from previous experience they’re known for releasing unimaginative rubbish such as Tournament of Legends and the Ironman 2 movie tie in but they do have their moments. The Conduit and its sequel aren’t as bad as many would have you believe and I would say Captain America Super Soldier is another effort that has a few things going for itself.

Ok, so I’m not saying this is the most imaginative of titles, after all it is loosely based on the Captain America film which is coincidentally set around World War II much like everything else available on the market. However Captain America Super Soldier does have a few tricks up its sleeve, they’re not new tricks but they are familiar and enjoyable tricks, like the type Paul Daniels would do rather than the wizardry and sorcery more akin to Dynamo.

Dishing out Justice
Being an all around patriotic bringer of justice you’ll naturally spend much of your time smashing skulls together and saving everyone else’s butts because that’s what Americans do. A good portion of Captain America Super Soldier is spent battling against the various Nazi-like super villains and Hydra forces which can be done with the odd bit of stealth but more often than not in all out brawls.

"Knock Knock" "Who's there?" "Justice"

Combat offers a nice mixture of punching, blocking, throwing and counter attacking, everything you’d need to take down the evil Hydra forces which coupled with Cap’s (as everyone insists on calling him) trusty shield make for some satisfying if slightly simple battling. Combat does get stale at times but new enemies and challenging boss battles do help keep things fresh.

In between the pummelling you navigate through linear platforming sections which don’t require much skill or timing, there were only a couple of occasions where I found myself missing jumps throughout the whole game. That’s not of course counting the times where glitches would make Captain America fall through the floor back down to the bottom of the room.

These glitches were annoying to say the least and would usually take a re-load to progress, this infuriating problem also spans to the puzzle or more appropriately “hit all the switches” segments of Captain America Super Soldier. When the “hats” (pretty good abbreviation, no?) segments do work they’re quite similar to some of the puzzles that the Zelda series has recycled over the years with cap’s shield used to hit multiple targets at once or reflect beams and bullets to destroy fuse boxes.

They don’t come more German than Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker

Hitting switches will also uncover new routes which often hide the various collectibles, the red skull bombs and troops to liberate; uncovering them will give you concept art and exp to upgrade Captain America’s skills with new moves and more health. Each level also has a number of challenges courtesy of Dr Zola whose timed special missions have you collecting tokens or defeating a number of enemies with a certain move. The Zola challenges are perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Captain America Super Soldier as they offer a healthy challenge that takes skill to complete within the time limit.

Hero to Zero
In spite of the enjoyable gameplay Captain America Super Soldier falls short of being heroic when you take a glance at the presentation. Super Solider is certainly in the top half of 3DS games graphically with some nice character models however looking at the environments you can see why I refused to say this is imaginative. There are plenty of long, dull corridors with only the occasional bit of villain chatter coming from the loud speakers to keep you entertained as well as identical rooms that feel very limited in design despite Super Soldier’s Castle setting.

The animation leaves a lot to be desired as well, Captain America looks and moves more like a stretch Armstrong than a comic hero. The frame rate dropped far too often and at times completely slowed down Captain America’s movement, usually leading to falling off ledges when the speed reverted back to normal. One boss battle in particular was very frustrating due to the instant deaths suffered from falling off a small area with the help of the dodgy slowdown.

Here’s one of the many HATS Puzzles, see? Easy

The strangest design choice of all though just shows how much High Voltage rushed through the presentation, nearly every destructible object, be it metal locker, glass cubes or steel walkway sound like falling timber. This is a small problem that’s more comical than annoying but it does undo some of the good work from the appropriate voice acting courtesy of the Chris Evans (the films star not that ginger bloke you used to see every morning).

As an action adventure Captain America Super Soldier does nothing new but the core gameplay mechanics are done well. In spite of the sloppy presentation and lack of any real challenge Captain America Super Soldier can be enjoyed by anyone, comic fan or not this has enough depth with the various collectibles and missions to satisfy any gamer, certainly anyone with a 3DS
given how few titles are available could do much worse.

Words by Daniel Murphy (Twitter: @treesmurf11)

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