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The armour-clad Dr. Doom is an East European dictator with a fist of iron, literally. The metal monarch of Latveria has swiped a US nuclear missile, and is threatening to blow up New York unless the USA surrenders and becomes a colony of Latveria! Naturally, the President and his men object to this proposal, and call on those two patriotic superheroes, Spider-Man and Captain America, to help.

The two heroes must enter Doom's castle complex and stop the missile launch. Not that difficult a task it seems, but in addition to numerous robots, Doom has enlisted the help of a large array of supervillains including Batroc, Boomerang, Oddball, Electro, and the thick-skinned Rhino, each having different superpowers/weapons.

Of course, apart from punching and kicking, the amazing Spidey can cast webs (although he has a limited supply) while Cap can throw his indestructible shield. Having split up, the characters take it in turn to beat up an opponent and, sometimes, dodge a trap such as fireballs or a hole in the floor! Spidey and Cap each have an energy bar which must last the entire game - when either hero's energy reaches zero, the other is also strangely defeated, and New York is nuked!

Purchasers of the game get a free collector's comic (the first part of the 'Dr. Doom's Revenge' story), although C64 cassette owners must send away for theirs (It's too big to fit in the smaller box!).

Superheroes would seem perfect material for computer games, but with the exception of Batman most have been dire, and Captain America has now starred in two of the worst.

His latest is basically a beat-'em-up with a few subgames and comic strip screens dividing up the sections.

These add-on bits may seem interesting, but turn out to be not worth the loading time, not even on the Amiga. That leaves the beat-'em-up sections, which have good potential due to all the different supervillains, but are crippled by unbelievably slow response to the joystick.

The C64 game makes the best use of the host computer, but loading times are bad. The tape version is a nightmare, with loads for each section, plus the comic screens in-between. Dying once results in rewinding to the start of a massive tape!

Whatever has happened to my favourite comic heroes? Both Spidey and Cap have developed severe limps and, on the Amiga, move incredibly slowly - perhaps they've lost all their superpowers. In fact, I must wonder if this was programmed by a devious supervillain, as it's enough to make any Marvel devotee cringe with embarrassment.

Both C64 and Amiga versions feature jerky animation and appalling horizontal scrolling plus some very heavy disk accessing (or a superslow tape multi-load too awful for words). And, as in many other poor beat-'em-ups, you can succeed by repeating the same moves over and over again as the supervillains aren't exactly super-intelligent!

The only consolation is the comic, but that hardly makes up for this coma-inducing game.

Presentation 60%
Excellent manual with superhero/villain biographies, free comic offer, but horrendous tape multi-load.

Graphics 68%
Detailed backgrounds, attractive sprites, but poor animation.

Sound 40%
Sparse FX.

Hookability 42%
The beat-'em-up action is over-simple with too few moves available to the heroes.

Lastability 52%
A fair-sized challenge, although the villains are too easy to beat.

Overall 48%
A big disappointment for Marvel fans.

Presentation 52%
Lots of slow disk accessing, but the free comic and good manual are some consideration.

Graphics 40%
Mediocre characters and backgrounds, jerky scrolling and poor animation.

Sound 30%
Sparse spot FX.

Hookability 24%
Horrendously sluggish response ruins unoriginal gameplay.

Lastability 32%
Tougher than the C64 version, but less enjoyable.

Overall 26%
Superheroes turned into geriatrics!