Arcade: * 3/4
Sega MD/Gen: 1/2
NES: 1/2
Sega GG: 1/4
SNES:
Game Boy: *

Data East is often remembered and mourned as this special studio that made constant bangers and because of that we forget their mis-steps (not named Dashin' Desperados). This game and it's various platform releases are a key example of DE missing the mark. It's okay tho we all have howlers

Still a better Marvel media release than Ant Man and the Wasp tho

Like many old brawlers, Captain America isn't all that deep as an action game, but coasts on personality. The dialogue, the sound effect lettering, the Saturday morning synth music, and the simultaneously stiff and exaggerated movements all contribute to the atmosphere.

There's no question the arcade version is the best, and to be honest the NES version should be a separate listing altogether. It's an entirely different game that just shares the same dev and IP. Among the 16 bit home ports, the Genesis version is definitely superior. SNES version was outsourced and feels off.

Bad. Enemies just kinda magnetize to your Y position and it feels hard to do much against them without spamming divekicks. Even the unlimited ammo projectiles don't do much to ease the credit-feeding.

This game gets brought up in the SNES vs Genesis debate sometimes but the whole thing's superficial to me, it's a bad game either way and the differences in gamefeel don't really matter bc like, y'know. I guess it's at least funny and charming, and the Genesis OST goes way too hard relative to how cheap everything else in that port feels.

Jenny and I couldn't get the fucking debug mode on the arcade version to stop pissing all over, so we both streamed it separately. Actually insane how bad the environments in both console versions look compared to arcade.

I played the Genesis version a while ago, so refer to that review for my overall feelings - it all still applies. This version is slightly better, being the original and on superior hardware. Normally I would grouse about the painted art being scanned in for the backgrounds, but I think it actually works quite nicely here and makes it seem a bit like you're playing across the pages of a comic book. Nice! Everything else still right on the edge of incompetent, though.

Also: good villains in this. Deep cuts. Look for my hot new list coming soon, "Superhero Video Games Ranked by How Good The Villain Lineup Is". Hoping to drop this year.