Iron Man Hands-on

Apr 8, 2008

We're going to go out on a limb here and assume we weren't the only people caught off guard when the Iron Man movie trailer came out and didn't look like complete crap. Don't get us wrong, we love Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau -- but comic book movies tend to bomb four out of five times, so you never know what you're going to get when that first trailer pops up.

Sadly, that feeling of impending doom is only intensified when you're dealing with a comic book movie-based game, but like its big screen brother, Iron Man seems to be set on defying the odds.

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Last week, SEGA dropped by the IGN lair and showed off Shellhead's exploits on the PlayStation 2 and PSP. Now, before you go getting your Marvel Underoos in a bunch, we're telling you upfront that we're combining our two hands-on sessions into one preview because the games are pretty much identical when it comes to missions and features. You want to hear about all of the missions we played without having to go to separate articles, right? OK then.

A third-person action game, Iron Man will pack 13 missions into your platform of choice, and while SEGA and A2M draw from it, the tasks won't be limited to the film. Whiplash, Iron Monger, the Controller, the Dreadnought and Madame Masque's minions will all be along for the ride to make Tony Stark's life a living hell. Downey and Howard are onboard to lend their voices as well.

Our first mission was on the PSP and actually followed Stark's escape from the prison made famous by the film's trailer. Decked out in his original gray super-suit, Tony has to blast through a plethora of villains before he can escape the fortress and get his life back. The first thing we noticed about our limited time with Iron Man was that the game seems to keep the environments fresh. We started in the ordinary cave, blasted out to a stalagmite-filled room, ascended some steps and made it to the outside.

On the PSP, Iron Man works like a lot of the third-person games you've played in the past. The analog nub moves Tony's body, while the face buttons rotate the on-screen crosshairs and screen POV. When he's on top of an enemy, the right trigger lets Iron Man melee. When's he's back a bit, the right trigger fires whatever weapon Iron Man has selected via the D-pad. Tap and hold the left trigger to hover or double tap and hold it down to kick on your afterburner and tear up the sky. Although the layout is different on the PS2, the controls are fundamentally the same. The analog sticks control movement and your POV, while hover, the afterburners and weapon fire are assigned to individual shoulder buttons. Triangle changes which weapon you have armed and square is your melee attack.

Both control schemes use the D-pad as an energy manager. Seeing as how Tony Stark's such a badass when it comes to tech, it makes sense that he'd build a suit that can reroute its power on the fly. Need more speed for your boosters? Reroute the juice to your propulsion circuits. If you're out of ammo -- which can be picked up via crates in-level -- make it so that your energy-based repulsors are packing mega-damage. If you suck at the game, give a bonus to your armor until you can get to safety. When you start a mission, the energy is evenly distributed and swapping it means your other powers are going to be lessened until you return to the default.

The tradeoff is welcome, though -- especially when going up against enemies such as the Dreadnot. A gigantic tank with multiple turrets and weapon positions, the Dreadnot can fire off EMPs that render Iron Man's suit useless and leaves him vulnerable. When you're up against something that can take you down so easily, it's best to supe-up your weapons and take care of the behemoth as quickly as possible.

This need to take down bad guys as quickly as you can won't go away in Iron Man. When we swooped in and began an assault on the Maggia Compound, we were met with a cornucopia of guys who wanted to kill us. Some were simply mansion guards on the ground with machine guns, but there were also armored bunkers packing missile launchers, laser-shooting turrets and a couple of tanks with big time firepower.

Just like every action game worth its salt, Iron Man makes use of quick-time events. When we crashed to the grounds of this Spanish-titled mansion -- if you drop from the air, Iron Man lands with a thunderous shockwave that takes out villains -- we started a frontal assault on one of the tanks prowling the grounds. Once we wailed on vehicle to the point where it was falling apart, a button prompt appeared on screen. We tapped along, and Tony tore off the cannon before slamming it back onto the ride for a sweet explosion. A similar button game popped up when we were out in the desert and tossing some Jeeps, but the gameplay tactic shines when Iron Man falls in battle.

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Getting the hang of flying, hovering and fighting all at once can be a bit stressful, and as we took on some of the later-level foes, their bullets and bombs brought Tony to his knees. When this happens, a blue sidebar crops up on the left side of the screen. In it is a number of extra lives and Stark's heart monitor. See, Iron Man's heartbeat is flat-lining and you need to press a displayed button to restart it. If you hit the buttons correctly, Tony gets his pulse back and you keep on playing. If you screw it up, one of the continue slots is sacrificed to get him back into battle. If you're out of continue slots, you've just killed Tony Stark.

Captain America is avenged.

Of course, Iron Man uses a regenerative health meter so if your suit starts flashing red -- your cue that Tony's ailing -- you can just grab cover and heal up. On the weapons side of the suit, the more you use them -- ballistics, repulsors and explosives -- the more experience points you earn to unlock upgrades. As you play, you'll gain access to the multiple versions of Stark's duds such as the Mark I, classic and so on.

If you decide to pick up the PSP version of Iron Man, you'll get access to a few more suits and two types of minigames. Death Race has Tony flying around levels and trying to get through a set of rings as fast as possible, while Speed Kill wants you to exterminate every enemy as fast as possible.

Whatever version you decide to get, Iron Man seems like it's armed to fight whatever comic book/videogame curse you want to throw at it. The action is fun, flying feels smooth once you get the hang of it, and when we were wailing on bad guys, we felt like Iron Man. Will Marvel's golden boy be able to pull off a quality game come May? You'll have to tune to IGN to find out -- same Stark-time, same Stark-channel.