Iron Man

Repulsors

The controls are another cause for concern and, while the general layout is pretty good, flying and targeting can be a major pain.

The general controls are OK – left analogue stick is used to move, right to aim, D-pad re-routes power for extra bonuses, right bumper and trigger fire weapons and the left triggers are for flying. By holding the left bumper you can gain altitude vertically and by holding the trigger half-way you can hover on the spot. The left bumper launches you straight into full-fledge flight mode, but means you’ll have to constantly readjust your bearing because of the insane speed and sensitivity involved.

Balancing is perhaps the major concern for Iron Man though as, even without all his upgradeable power sources and weapons, he’s still more than a match for almost anything he comes across. Just two auto-targeted shots from the repulsors can take down most tanks and helicopters, making the more powerful repulsor blasts incredibly pointless for most enemies.

Then again, even the lightweight repulsor blasts are mostly redundant – Iron Man needs only three punches to explode a heavily armoured tank and can enter into a quick time sequence to rip tanks and helicopters to shreds whenever he wants.


Enemies meanwhile fall into two distinct categories; pointless and frustrating. Most missile launchers and planes pose no more threat than a common infantryman, which makes their incredible numbers and variations more of a chore than a satisfying encounter. Occasionally though, you will hit a more difficult enemy who will hand you your titanium-covered behind on a silver platter, over and over.

Some of these bosses are so tough to fight that they can strip you of all your lives in a matter of minutes, which is a real pain since the save system is flawed and will often kick you back to the start of the level.

Here’s an example. The second level of the game sees Iron Man trying out his new suit when suddenly soldiers storm his offices. He takes the fight to them and, after twenty rather dull minutes of blowing up what seemed to be constantly spawning enemies, a boss helicopter appeared.

Naturally, I tackled it head on and tried my best to destroy the robotic drones it was spewing everywhere as well. Unfortunately, the Stark Industries helicopter was more than my equal and roundly trounced me, sending me back not just to the start of the action, but all the way back to the start of the level. Fifteen minute tutorial sequence included.


I sighed, swore, told Tim I was going to send the game to a freelancer, acquiesced and started it all again, only to again be killed. In fact, I only managed to defeat the boss on the fifth time because of a glitch – the helicopter somehow ended up upside down, bouncing backwards and forwards between two sky scrapers while I hovered above it and shot it until my finger ached.

Conclusions

That last little mini-story pretty much sums up our experience with the Iron Man game.

There’s nothing wrong with bad graphics in a game. There have been plenty of games in the past that have proved you don’t need billions of polygons to make a best-seller – look at Pac-man or Tetris for crying out loud. Likewise, glitches and bugs didn’t completely spoil games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and might not have proved to be the end of Iron Man.

Hell, you don’t even need to have a great new mechanic or fantastic new idea to make a great game. Beat ‘em ups have been spinning the same tricks ever since International Karate +.

There is something wrong with a game that combines all of these with a total lack of shame. This isn’t a game that is even remotely good, this is a game that someone hoped would make a lot of money and it’s a perfect example of why movies and games just don’t mix for the most part – Iron Man: The Game is little more than a bucket of broken promises and rust.