Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty

Okay, there's a bit more to it than that. But for all intents and purposes, Sentinel of Liberty, the second gaming tie-in for Marvel's latest character to make their cinematic debut plays like a straight texture swop of EA's iPad title.

The choice isn't a bad one to make, and means that this Disney Captain America tie-in is better than the console version published by Sega. But just marginally.

Bit of background. Captain America was the creation of Timely Comics, Marvel before it was Marvel, and in the comics the buffed Steve Rogers was used as a one-man weapon of mass destruction during World War II against the Nazi threat. Off the page he served as a great political icon, a symbol crafted by his co-creator Jack Kirby who thoroughly despised the actions of the Nazis.

He's still active in Marvel today, one of the line's most prominent figures alongside Iron Man and Wolverine, and thus was optioned as a potential character for movie. Today that movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, is released in cinemas. This is the game of that movie, dealing with Cap's WWII exploits.

And as we said, if you enjoyed EA's iOS version of Mirror's Edge you're in for a treat.

Through 24 levels you will be jumping, running and punching your way past legions of bad guys lead by the Red Skull (Marvel's take on a power hungry bully with a German accent) who for some reason seems hell bent on taking over the world.

Much like in Mirror's Edge you are spared the frustrations of a virtual joypad. Instead you swipe your finger across the screen to run, jump, slide, kick, punch and pull off surprisingly elaborate combo moves.

It all works surprisingly well, and if you've been staying away from platform games on touch devices on account of the limitations of the controls, you owe to yourself to try the game for this reason alone.

If you've taken the liberty of glancing at the score, you may have noticed that it's not glowing. There are a few reasons for this. The most fundamental thing is that we've seen it all before in Mirror's Edge, while the differences between the levels are so few that it's hard to swallow the re-use of characters and backdrops, in spite of the brilliant mechanics. The art style of Mirror's Edge lent itself brilliant to the concept of skyscraper roofs against blue skies - the same can't be said for muddy fields and dull grey buildings.

Worst of all is the audio. The same few basic lines of dialogue, and that bombastic hero theme is repeated throughout the 24 levels of the game to the point of overkill. There is no other recourse than to simply turn the sound off. It really affects the overall experience, and it's a real shame.

There is a degree of replay value as each of the 24 levels have 5 books hidden in them, and these sometime require a bit of backtracking and exploration. These in turn unlock a bunch of artwork from the comic books and four versions of the Captain America suit, and fine reasons to replay the levels. That said, there is not a lot of challenge to be found and you will be able to run through the levels on offer in a couple of hours if you refrain from exploring areas off the beaten path.

On the newest versions of Apple's hardware the game looks very pretty, but if you're stuck with last generation hardware (the original iPad or iPhone 3GS), you will experience stutters in the framerate from time to time. A real shame and something you won't experience with Mirror's Edge. If you really want a super hero game, Spider-Man: Total Mayhem, is still your best bet on iOS, and a better overall game than Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty.

Sentinel of Liberty is still an enjoyable platformer, and makes great use of the license, and if you've already enjoyed Mirror's Edge and you're looking for something to enjoy alongside the film it's not a bad choice.