The basic premise of this cart is that you are either Captain America or Hawkeye and you must rescue your fellow Avengers, Iron Man and The Vision, from the clutches of the evil Mandarin. This task is accomplished by criss-crossing around a map of America to find your trapped comrades. While you visit cities like Tampa, FL and Montgomery, AL, Cap runs into some of his old nemesis (you become Hawkeye if you lose all of your lives as Cap) such as Ultron, Crossbones, and the Wizard. In between clearing out various levels you get treated to a "red alert" scene where you are attacked by androids firing missiles and power blasts or soldiers pelting you with ammo. If you happen to catch up with Hawkeye you may then switch between the two heroes depending upon the needs of the situation. That is how the cart works but the problem is it doesn't work on any level. Let's look at some of the real bad points.

The map of the U.S. is horrible, as it looks nothing like the U.S. I know. Furthermore, the icons of Cap and Hawkeye you use to move around look exactly the same, except Cap has an "A" on his mask and Hawkeye an "H". As you play you'll notice Captain America fighting in Tampa is set up the same as Hawkeye fighting on the banks of the Mississippi River. The graphics are exactly the same except for the colors and item location. This is the same for many of the areas in the game. I will say that Cap and Hawkeye look O.K., but not great. My next bone of contention is the cinematic intermissions that are supposed to give you hints to help find the missing Avengers. The Wasp gives the same message to you whether you're Cap or Hawkeye and they give the same exact reply: "Roger, Wasp!". I mean c'mon, guys! Give us a break!

One bright spot in this cart is that there is a challenge level where one gamer can be either character and another player can be one of the master villains. The first player to get three wins takes the contest. This was good only on a strictly slugfest level.

On a whole I was really disappointed with every aspect of this game. All Data East had to do was release an NES version of the coin-op and they'd have had a hit. Instead, this cart seems rushed and is a bad combination of Double Dragon and Contra. After playing this you may wish the Mandarin had kidnapped you instead of the Avengers.