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Iron Man Review for the PlayStation Portable (PSP)

Iron Man Review for the PlayStation Portable (PSP)

This Iron Feels A Little Rusty

The translation from comic book hero to video game protagonist has not had the most illustrious past. One need only bring up titles like Aquaman and Superman 64 to make others recoil in horror. Movie-based games share an analogous past. Rarely are they decent – the basic mechanics are usually broken, yet digital recreations of actors and set pieces from the film are done in painstaking detail. This arises from the nature of the production process: these kinds of games have to be out the same week the movie starts hitting box offices. The marketers figure they can get people to shell out for a game while the movie is still fresh in the public mind. Now, given that these two areas – comic books and movies – make for a terrible historical record, it should not be surprising that Iron Man falls short of expectations.

Iron Man screenshot

The game, much like the movie, follows billionaire playboy/weapons developer Tony Stark, who is captured by a terrorist group and forced to build a devastating weapon. Determined to turn the tables, Stark uses his captor’s resources to build a suit of armor which not only protects his damaged heart, but also allows him to deal out a superhuman amount of damage. Disgusted with his unscrupulous business tactics in the past, Stark turns into a philanthropist hero-for-hire. His goals are simple: divert his company’s resources from weapons development to peaceful technologies while destroying any of his weapons caches found on the black market. It’s a shame the gameplay can’t match the story.

Mission structure isn’t the game’s strength. Every level in the game has a very similar pattern: follow the way points to targets and then destroy said targets. That’s it – that’s as deep as it gets. Most of the time your objectives are the same as well: you destroy weapon caches while taking out the bad guys. To mix things up, the developers put in a leveling system for Iron Man. After every level, you’re awarded points toward certain parts of the suit – you may up your armor defense or increase beam damage. Unfortunately there’s no way to decide how to spend points – the game simply auto levels Iron Man’s suit, and that’s it. It would have been nice to have the ability to customize the point spread, but that functionality is simply not there.

Iron Man screenshot

Perhaps the biggest slip-up is in the game’s control department. Iron Man should be a joy to fly around, but instead he’s the exact opposite – just moving him around each level is a trial. This arises because of the button mapping. Almost in a homage to the way first person shooters on the Nintendo 64 played, the developers chose a wonky setup – the analog nub moves Iron Man, but the face buttons control the camera. This makes your primary goal in the game not really playing Iron Man, but being his camera operator. You’ll constantly be adjusting the direction of the camera while trying to get him moving in the right direction with the analog nub.

Obviously this control scheme is a drawback, but its defects are compounded by other strange design choices. For example, there is no auto-target button. With the immense amount of enemies on screen and the fact that you’re flying most of the time, the omission seems strange. However, all is not lost – there is an attempt at a half auto-target idea: when you center your aim on an enemy and gently hold it there, Iron Man tends to relay his shots to that one location. But pull away, and suddenly you’ll have lost the target.

Iron Man screenshot

The flight mechanics are a little screwy as well. To acclimate you to using the analog nub paired with the face buttons as well as holding down the L trigger, the game includes a tutorial during the second level. It’s too bad it reminds one of Superman 64 – you fly through a bunch of color coded rings, trying to adjust to the mechanic. Flight tends to work okay most of the time but suffers from hiccups. You tap, then hold L to make Iron Man fly straight ahead, but sometimes the game misinterprets this, and you merely boost ahead for a couple feet and stop.

Iron Man screenshot

Underneath it all there are some interesting design choices that play out well. During any level, Iron Man can divert power to any of his three core areas: weapons, armor or thrusters. You can take a balanced approach and spread out these values (by pushing the left or right directional buttons) in an even manner or go all out in one direction – throw it all toward armor and boost your defenses or unlock more powerful lasers like the unibeam. There is also a heart reboot mini-game. If you take too much damage during any mission, you’ll have to jump start Iron Man’s heart. An EKG screen pops up, and if you time button presses correctly, Iron Man will get back into the action. This is a nice feature, as you can utilize it multiple times – it essentially allows you to have a plethora of in-mission lives to spend before you are thrown back to the start of the level.

Even though the game is running on a portable platform, the graphical budget seems like it could have been spent better. While the game does have decent pre-rendered cutscenes, the actual in-game 3D graphics leave much to be desired. There is a considerable amount of environmental draw-in during the outdoor levels, and the scenery is rarely different – you’ll see plenty of enemy bases and barren mountains. To help balance the presentation equation the audio is much better. The score does an admirable job, there’s plenty of decent sounding weapon fire, and the voice acting is better than one would expect.

As you progress through the game’s monotonous missions, you’ll continually unlock bonus content. This content is split into three areas: armor selection, videos, and mini-games. The armor selection is a missed opportunity for sure. Instead of allowing these different suits to give Iron Man new abilities, it’s more cosmetic – they’re merely a color swatch. Unlockable from the beginning, the videos section feels self-congratulatory. It’s just an assortment of trailers and clips from various Marvel properties. While the mini-games section should hold the most promise, it’s not great either. There are two kinds of games: speed kill and death race. The former has you going through previously played levels killing as many enemies as you can before the time runs out, and the latter has you flying through rings while enemies attack you – neither a mode you want to actively pursue.

Iron Man represents the latest in the line of failed movie-to-game adaptations, but there is an alternative consumer route: take the money you would have spent on this portable mishap and purchase a ticket for the theatrical release of the movie. You’ll have a great time at a fraction of the price.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.5 Graphics
Even for a PSP game the polygon count seems low. Throw in an ample amount of draw-in, and it’s not a pretty picture. 1.3 Control
Probably the worst part of the game – piloting Iron Man is a chore. 3.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The score does a decent job, as do the explosive sound effects. 2.3 Play Value
The majority of missions have you destroying weapons and taking down terrorists. The bonus levels are just rehashes of things from single-player. There’s little to hold your attention for very long. 2.2 Overall Rating – Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • A DEVASTATING WEAPON: Iron Man alone battles armies of fighter jets, military tanks, armored Super Villains, and more.
  • POWER CONTROL: Players will direct power to different parts of Iron Man’s suit, creating a variety of unique attacks.
  • CHAOTIC BATTLEFIELDS: Open-ended battlefields create adrenaline-packed combat filled with unpredictable challenges.
  • BEYOND THE MOVIE: The game includes additional plot lines and characters from the Iron Man Comic Universe that are not featured in the movie.
  • OPEN WORLD: Players have complete freedom to move anywhere in the environment and make seamless transitions between ground combat and open air flight.

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