Captain America: Super Soldier was seen by many as a solid Batman: Arkham Asylum clone and not much else when it came out in 2011. Some of those points are valid as the game was clearly inspired by Rocksteady’s efforts, with the MCU movie license also limiting what the devs could add.
Despite all of that, Super Soldier does deserve credit for making the Arkham formula feel right at home with Marvel’s First Avenger. In fact, the game is even better these days thanks to Xbox 360 emulation.
As we mentioned earlier, Captain America: Super Soldier is clearly inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum. Like Arkham Asylum, Super Soldier takes place in one big location where people are being experimented on to become a monstrous army for an evil psycho with a colorful face. The First Avenger also fights with a rhythmic combat system that feels great against a group of foes or taking them on one-on-one.
On paper, this is just an Arkham Asylum clone with higher production values than previous SEGA Marvel games, but Super Soldier adapts the formula incredibly well to make you feel like Captain America (ugh).
While Batman feels light but strong, Cap feels like a tank from the get-go with heavier attacks that feel weighty. It can take Steve a bit longer to position his strike against multiple foes, but those punches and kicks feel a lot stronger. This is emphasized by the satisfying Crippling Strikes, which lets Steve take down most foes with the touch of two buttons.
Captain America: Super Soldier also makes great use of the character’s iconic shield. Steve can use it as a long-range attack that can take down foes who are further away. The shield is also great for melee encounters, stunning enemies with a simple throw before Cap clocks them with an enzuigiri. More importantly, Cap can parry foes with his Shield, which always feels satisfying.
Super Soldier also deserves credit for ditching stealth entirely, differentiating it somewhat from the Arkham games. It would have made sense since Steve is infiltrating a nazi castle, but the devs decided to focus on combat and exploration, which was a good choice. Combat is the best part of this movie tie-in and the devs focusing on that instead of stretching themselves thin was an important choice to make.
Next Level Games developed Captain America: Super Soldier for SEGA, so the game being quality isn’t too surprising. These developers would later make Luigi’s Mansion 3 for Nintendo, showing that they excel at simple gameplay in one-area settings.
Like Luigi’s Mansion 3, Super Soldier also has fun with its physics, though it’s not as refined. Captain America can break statues and make oil cans explode with ease, usually leading to exaggerated ragdoll physics from the enemies. This is a lost art since seeing these Hydra goons limp around is hilarious and players can keep messing with them once they’re corpses.
Despite all this praise, Captain America: Super Soldier isn’t a perfect experience. Because this game was released in the PS3 and Xbox 360 generations, fans can expect many areas to be grey and brown. The game also has quick-time event-style platforming to give players a break from fighting and they aren’t good. It would have been better if these were done Tomb Raider-style, but we imagine the devs didn’t have enough time since this is a licensed tie-in.
Gamers who played Super Soldier at the time also know it didn’t perform well on PS3 or Xbox 360. The game aimed for 30 FPS but could barely hit them, likely due to the rushed nature of its development. It performed better on Xbox 360 and was still playable on PS3, but no one could ignore the amount of frame drops in either port.
Luckily, emulation has come a long way and this game performs really well on the Xenia Xbox 360 emulator. I completed the game on Steam Deck via Xenia and it mostly ran at 50 FPS. Cutscenes looked like they were on fast-forward because they were designed for 30 FPS, but gameplay was smooth as butter.
If you have an Xbox 360 copy of Captain America: Super Soldier, it’s easy enough to dump the rom on a computer and play it on the Xenia emulator. Gamers who don’t have a 360 copy can probably find one by themselves. We can’t tell you how to do that, but most gamers probably know how to.
Gamers who want another superhero experience after the Arkham and Spider-Man games should give Captain America: Super Soldier a shot. With Marvel 1943 looking to bring Cap back into video games, they could do worse than use this underrated title as a blueprint for what to do next.