Iron Man
Has some wrinkles…
Tags: Iron Man Categories: Reviews, Xbox 360 Reviews
Posted by Mark "MadMup" Zwolanek on May 13th, 2008
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
With every big budget action movie there’s a good chance there’s going to be a licensed videogame to go along with it. When the movie in question is based on a comic book character, it’s even more likely. With Iron Man already starting the summer off in a big way at the box office, it’s a good thing there’s a game to go along with it. Or is it?
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Tony Stark, a multibillionaire who made his money creating and selling weapons, is injured and captured. He is being kept alive by an electromagnet, which keeps shrapnel from entering his heart. His captors want him to make weapons for them, but instead he makes the prototype Iron Man suit and escapes. His eyes opened to the the horrors his weapons have caused, he decides to get out of the weapons-making business. His eyes are also open to how cool the Iron Man concept is, and he works to make it better so he can use it to destroy the weapons he’s made.
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The game loosely follows the plot of the movie — VERY loosely, in the sense that Iron Man is in both and so are three of the other main characters, and one major plot point of the movie is shared with the game. As is normal with licensed games, though, the movie never seems to have enough info for a whole game. Thrown into the mix are a crime family and business rival of Tony Stark’s that he feels compelled to bring down in his efforts to clean up the mess made by the weapons he’s sold for years. Along the way are a couple of classic Iron Man foes for good measure.
This game is a mixed bag. It really has a lot going for it, and there’s a lot it does right. First off, having three of the four main actors voice their characters from the movie gives weight to the experience. Those who’ve seen the movie know that Robert Downey, Jr. IS Tony Stark, and his performance in the game is an extension of his work in the movie.
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Secondly, the controls work well here: flight, hover, repulsors, auxiliary weapons – it does a great job of making the player FEEL like Iron Man. Hovering in the air, catching a missile, and throwing it back at the tank that shot it is a great, almost iconic, feeling.
Third, the story makes sense and flows well with the movie storyline, almost like the game is made up of scenes cut from the movie, but still strong enough to stand on its own.
Sadly, there’s enough wrong with the game to take a bit of the shine off of the suit.
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Missions consist of “fly here and blow stuff up” almost exclusively. The boss fights against other metal-suited people are still “fly around and shoot things,” but with the added frustration of a radar that doesn’t give an indication of height at all. The wonky radar also frustrates during regular missions, as the jets speeding through and dropping missiles are hard to spot and even harder to aim at and shoot. With ground-based troops, helicopters, and jets all shooting at Iron Man pretty much constantly, there is a lot going on — frequently it’s TOO much, and the constant flight-jarring explosions are maddening.
Then, too, are the mission objectives. Iron Man earns money by completing missions and objectives, and the money can be used to upgrade the Iron Man suit. Unfortunately, many of the objectives are spoken by JARVIS during the course of a mission, and with the constant explosions, it can be very difficult to ascertain what the current objective is.
Along with the storyline, there is the option to replay specific missions to try to complete the side objectives and earn more cash. Strangely, there’s the opportunity to earn way more cash than is needed to upgrade the suit to its highest abilities, and there’s nothing else to do with the money once the suit is fully upgraded.
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The One Man Army play-type has players defeating a certain number of enemies in a certain amount of time to open up new Iron Man suits – Hulkbuster, Silver Centurion, and a few others. Once the main storyline has been beaten, these suits can be used in replaying the levels. Certain achievements are based on specific pairings of suits and missions, so it’s worth the effort.
All in all, it’s a good effort, and a good first game for the character. Since there are sure to be more movies in the series, there are sure to be more games, and it will be interesting to see if they can be tweaked into great games.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Most of the actors from the movie reprise their roles here + Being Iron Man is pretty much awesome + Retro suits are great unlockables |
6.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Bad radar - Unclear mission objectives - Constant barrage of enemy attacks is frustrating |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Definitely worth a rental, especially for fans of ol' Bucket Head, but there's a long way to go yet. | |
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Tags: Iron Man
Posted by Mark "MadMup" Zwolanek on May 13th, 2008 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox 360 Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
