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"You have inspired me, Captain. Your powerful symbolism. How your inferiors follow you like sheep..."
Arnim Zola

A 2011 video game adaptation based off the Marvel Studios film Captain America: The First Avenger. It takes place during the film, expanding on the adventures of Captain America against HYDRA. The gameplay is deliberately styled after Batman: Arkham Asylum, with most of the fun relying on the fact that you play as the shield-slinging Captain.

Notably, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, and Hayley Atwell reprised their roles for the game. Evans was so impressed by the gameplay that it inspired him and Joe and Anthony Russo to give Cap a more dynamic fighting style in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The game itself is not canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite being an adaptation of The First Avenger.


The game contains examples of the following tropes:

  • Canon Marches On: The events of the game cannot be canon with the MCU proper, which has since introduced drastically different versions of Baron von Strucker, Baron Zemo, and Madame Hydra. It is possible that the figures in the game are previous holders of the titles related by blood or that the modern versions have simply chosen to follow in the footsteps of their forebears.
  • Continuity Snarl: A mild one. The Red Skull has broken with Hitler in the movies and formed a third faction in World War II. Here, he's shown to be a member of the Nazis still. The game appears to be set in the midst of the events of The First Avenger, after the breakout of Bucky and the formation of the Invaders but prior to the events of the film's climax. Hydra has yet to completely split from the Nazis, as they do later in the film.
  • Cool House: Baron Zemo lived in a castle which was also refitted to be a massive Nazi military base.
  • Dark Action Girl: Viper is one of the harder villains in the game to fight. Armin Zola lampshades how formidable she is, only for Steve Rogers to say, "You haven't met Peggy."
  • Elaborate Underground Base: Baron Zemo's Castle is built over one of these.
  • Elite Mooks: The enemies Captain America faces have backstories as Zola created them in order to be this for the Third Reich.
  • Foreshadowing: The game sets up a number of plot points related to Captain America: The Winter Soldier without meaning to. First Zola is able to synthesize the Super Soldier Serum from Rogers' blood. This explains how he's able to treat Barnes with his own version of the Super Soldier Serum which allows Barnes to go toe to toe with Rogers in the second film. Second, the helicopters that Hydra uses at the end of the game are reminiscent of the Quinjets S.H.I.E.L.D. uses. They can both hover in a stationary position and their primary armament is a minigun supplemented with rockets, which hints at how Hydra infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. over time. Finally, Zola's plan to use Falsworth as a brainwashed weapon against the allies is exactly what he ends up doing to Barnes's character. Using him as a weapon in the service of Hydra. Also Zola in the games has started to experiment with technology that allows him to transfer his mind into machines. Something that he does successfully 40 years later at Camp Leheigh.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The extra combat challenges are set up as the antagonists rounding up Cap and various combinations of enemies and making them fight for everyone's amusement and/or research benefit, gladiatorial-arena style, somewhere in the castle. Obviously this never happens in-game, but the fun part is in listening to them comment on Cap's performance.
  • Gas Mask Mooks: Nearly every enemy in the game. Perhaps only justified in the Madam Hydra fight, as she tosses gas canisters around the arena.
  • Gun Fu: Madam Hydra's martial art involves a lot of fancy shooting and gymnastics.
  • Humongous Mecha: The fruit of all of Zola's plans and the last boss of the game. It really is humongous. Also, The Sleeper.
  • Large Ham: Everyone, but Zola takes the cake. Falsworth also has this gem;
    "Rogers. Carter. This is Falsworth. We heard your transmission. Are you certain you took out '''aaaaall' the long range guns?"
  • Mad Scientist: Armin Zola is shown to be one of these. Notably, he's a lot more vicious and sadistic in his notes than he appeared in the movie.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • A primitive 1940's version of Zola's robot body from the comics appears (complete with monochrome face-chest-screen!). It eventually turns out that the real Zola has not, in fact, put his mind into this body (after all, he was still human at the end of the movie!); it's just remote control.
    • Both the classic and Ultimate versions of Cap's costume are unlockable.
    • Pretty much every single early-era Captain America foe is mentioned or shows up in this game, including The Sleeper, a giant robot built by a prehistoric civilization!
    • When Falsworth is captured by Zola, he plans on turning Falsworth into a brainwashed version of Union Jack. The name is never said, but it's heavily implied.
  • Nazi Gold: Uncharacteristically, Captain America can steal this. Maybe he intends to return it to its rightful owners.
  • Nazi Nobleman: Baron Strucker and Baron Zemo make an appearance, or at least the former does with the latter appearing in diaries. Notably, the game subverts the usual portrayal of these as it's shown both men are weird for being both nobleman and Nazis. Baron Strucker is derided by Baron Zemo for betraying his class by joining the Nazis and deferring to the Red Skull. Baron Zemo, by contrast, can barely stomach working for the Nazis, who he considers inferior. He's only doing so because, otherwise, they'll kick him out of his castle when he's close to recovering an alien artifact buried underneath.
  • No-Gear Level: After Cap is captured by Strucker, he wakes up without his shield and has to retrieve it.

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