Taking the role (and donning the ridiculous costume) of Captain America, it's down to you to combat evil Dr Megalomann. The Doc is about to wreak a terrible revenge, although it's not clear what happened to him in the first place, and North America will shortly be contaminated by a deadly virus if you don't locate and destroy the missile silo from which the bug-bearing rockets will launch.
The CIA have located the rocket base and it's your task to venture where countless Government men have been and never returned and destroy the base.
Obviously, things aren't as easy as the synopsis leads you to believe. Dr M's base in one confusing place. It's like two tubes, one inside the other, forming a number of chambers around a core. Each room has a level number and a number to indicate at which point around the tube it sits.
You're limited to only entering chambers whose radiation levels are lower than your immunity level and you get to them using the Orbital Whatyacallit and can then step inside.
Each room has an ante-chamber guarded by two rather pathetic shooting robots which glide up and down poles, firing across the screen. Using your trusty shield as a discus, you knock them out and enter the main room through the white door on the right.
You have only a limited number of shields. If you fire them all off randomly, you'll find yourself defenceless, and shortly afterwards - dead. If you hit your target, or press Fire again quickly enough after you realise you're off target, the shield will return. Keeping a degree of control over your firepower adds to the strategy points and forces you to think a bit instead of just blazing away.
Once you're inside the main room, you'll be attacked by more of The Doc's henchmen. Using your shield once more, you can despatch the nasties and then go about getting hold of the ying-yang; a mysterious substance that provides immunity from the toxic radiation in the base, thus allowing you to explore later levels.
Once you've got past this little lot and you find yourself inside the room, swanning around having beaten the first rank of guards, you'll be assaulted by various 2nd brigade thugs who are virtually impossible to beat. But strangely enough while this became thoroughly frustrating, the point at which I thought "stuff this" was a long time coming. In short, it's a seriously addictive game.
Graphically, it's good but I've seen better. The characters aren't particularly large, but the screens are interestingly designed. As for gameplay, there's a modicum of strategy in the room selection process, and the action is fairly gripping.
Captain America doesn't offer much that you won't have seen before, but the 'toughness' of the gameplay seems to have been pitched at the correct level to provide a challenge.
Label: Go!
Author: Adventuresoft
Price: £8.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas