As you might have guessed, Captain America: Super Soldier has little to do with the movie that it’s based on, apart from the likeness (and vocals on some versions) of star Chris Evans, though it apparently takes place in the same universe. As the movie goes into great detail showing off a puny Steve Rogers came to be the First Avenger and takes on the villainous Red Skull, the videogame must take place sometime just afterwards, as you’ll control a fully bulked-out Captain and the main antagonist here isn’t the Red Skull. The plot centers on guiding Caps and his team as they investigate the advanced weaponry coming that’s been shipping out from Castle Zemo in the Bavarian Mountains, no doubt at the bequest of the terrorist organization Hydra that’s being funded by the wealthy Baron Von Strucke.

Unlike its home console counterparts, Super Soldier on the DS is a strictly side-scrolling affair, albeit with polygons, as you’ll command the first Avenger across several changing gameplay styles that include such standards like action-platforming, switch-pulling, and even speed-run challenges that have Caps jumping across chasms while avoiding Hydra soldiers and collecting medals. At the helm is frequent DS developer Griptonite Games, who certainly know how to craft a great superhero game on the platform, their best being the excellent Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions. While they make an admirable attempt to bring some much-needed variety to the portable superhero genre, too many parts seemed trapped in the past.

Cap’s got an arsenal of moves and powers befitting any self-respecting Super Soldier, with an entire assortment of punches, leg sweeps, uppercuts, jumps (and super jumps) to take down the sea of anonymous Hydra henchmen that continually flood the levels. But it’s his shield that grabs the attention, and for good reason; the game wouldn’t be much fun without it. With its boomerang-like return and the ability to plow through said henchmen with ease, Cap’s shield isn’t just for offense, but also serves as a gameplay device, helping reflect bullets to take out machines and triggering switches when the need arises.

That said, it’s a shame that you’ll probably opt for using the shield to power through most of the baddies you’ll encounter throughout, and not because it’s more fun to do so (though it is). Cap’s own repertoire of moves, while varied, often isn’t enough to adequately slice through them. Simply lobbying the shield over and over easily does the trick, but unfortunately makes what could have been a clever superhero action game into a manic button-masher. There are several ‘stop-gap’ moments where you’re reduced to just pummeling waves of baddies to continue, and rather than feel fresh and inspired, they tend to bring whatever momentum the game might have had to a screeching crawl. And they happen a lot.

Also not helping are the Super Soldier’s super-slick controls, which work perfectly fine when he’s blazing straightforward and dealing damage, but can seriously trip him up when the gameplay demands a more subtle approach; it’s too easy to miss a platform or over-jump in tighter spaces. While the game does try its best to compensate by making ledges and walls ‘sticky’ (love the Mario wall jump) it’s just not where it needs to be.

Another gripe is the ill-placement of many of the game’s checkpoints, which are often placed just before major cut-scenes and difficult boss battles. They can’t be skipped, which means having to endure them again and again, which just seems like bad game design in this day and age.

The game’s highly-detailed 3D backgrounds are about as good looking as anything I’ve seen on the DS, with layers of detail that cinematically comport themselves when they have to. It’s a shame that the Cap and most of his Hydra foes have been relegated to such tiny polygons, which can make some of the exact platform jumping in later levels more harrowing than it need be. It’s not difficult to see why; whenever the game zooms in for a closer look they become a muddled mess, and given the touchscreen is only used for superficial purposes, it’s an adequate compromise to keeping the action on one screen.

The movie’s impressive soundtrack makes the cut, which is about the only thing that does from its big-screen namesake, and sounds suitably epic throughout, though none of the copious spoken dialogue is actually from stars Chris Evans or Hayley Atwell.

Captain America: Super Soldier on the DS unfortunately never rises much about mediocre, despite some attempts to inject some much-needed variety into the gameplay with Cap’s shield and some fun speed-run moments. Practically nothing from its blockbuster movie namesake is present here, which is par for the course in games like these, though there are some moments that showcase what could have been had developer Griptonite Games not opted for the path of least resistance. If you simply have to guide the First Avenger through his best videogame adventure, opt for the superior and genuinely decent version on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, whose most impressive achievement is being a movie-based superhero game that isn't entirely terrible.