Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 is the next game after the movie spin-off, Iron Man. The first game got very poor reviews for its clunky controls, boring plot, and ugly visuals. Iron Man 2 is a fairly standard third person shooter with a fresh plot that breaks away from the movie itself—although its unclear if it happens before or after the movies. This makes it an improvement on the original game, but unfortunately, Iron Man 2 still has a long way to go.

Vanilla Game Play

Iron Man 2 has a few points that offer exciting game play. The bosses require a little bit of strategy in order to successfully fend them off. This usually involves shooting specific parts of the villain in order to win. Many of these villains are familiar flashbacks in the universe, which can also be nostalgic and fun.

The rest of the game is unexciting. Iron Man must punch and kick his way through a map to get to the boss, which is made easier than the previous game through a series of checkpoints. Unfortunately, combat is mostly the same and it just feels grindy and repetitive as time goes on.

Ugly Visuals

The CG in Iron Man isn’t done well. This includes everything from the explosions from fighting to the cut scenes, which are supposed to be sharper than the actual game play. This makes fighting your way through each level even more disappointing, since the villains you are fighting against don’t even have the decency to blow up well.

The characters themselves are so badly done, it calls into question whether the developers couldn’t get permission to use the likeness of the actors in the movie, and had to do something entirely different. With how grainy and poorly done the rest of the game is however, it could just be the graphics are that bad.

Very Short Game

The whole game can be played through in just 4-5 hours, and there isn’t much incentive to play it again. Although there is significant opportunity for a co-op mode, the game never delivers, keeping the game entirely offline. This combined with the price tag of a full fledged game, makes the shortness of this game a particularly weak part of the whole thing.

Minor improvements to the first Iron Man

As depressing as this game is, it actually does improve on the first one to a certain extent. The game allows some armor customization, which is fun, and improves on the controls from the last time. Unfortunately, these perks aren’t enough to carry the whole game, and it shouldn’t have to.

Pros:

• It’s an improvement on Iron Man

Cons:

• Poor Quality Graphics
• Unexciting game play
• Very short game

Many people forget that games like Iron Man 2 exist. This was the early days of the MCU, and Sega actually had the license, and they made a series of games based on the first few movies, with this one here being the last. This was the dying days of pretty much every major movie getting some kind of video game license. Granted, there are far better superhero games than those that make up this small collection, but at the very least, we can say that this one is far better than the first Iron Man game!

Going Beyond The Movie

When it comes to the MCU, I would say that Iron Man 2 is one of the weaker entries in the series. It has some cool moments, such as Whiplash at the race track and the introduction of characters like War Machine and Black Widow, but it is certainly not one of the better efforts from the MCU. The game is actually set after the movies, and it features a story that revolves around A.I.M. and the creation of the iconic Iron Man villain, Crimson Dynamo. To be fair, it is a decent little superhero story and certainly one you could have imagined being part of the MCU during those early days.

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang

The first Iron Man game that Sega made was pretty rough, but Iron Man 2 is much better. Granted, I am specifically talking about the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions here, but this one just has more polish. To start with, you can play as both Iron Man and War Machine; both can be upgraded, and Iron Man actually has several variations of his suit that he can wear. You can fly around, blasting enemies, and you can also get up close and personal, too. In all fairness, I think that the game does a decent job of making you feel like you are Iron Man. It is just that this is a very short game, one that you can beat in just a couple of hours, and there is pretty much zero replay value here.

Good For What It Is

The presentation of Iron Man 2 is pretty much what you would expect from a multiplatform movie tie-in game of this era. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are the better looking titles, but even they are a little on the muddy side and not all that impressive if I am being brutally honest. The cinematics, though, are pretty decent, and it is very impressive that they managed to get Samuel L Jackson to reprise his role as Nick Fury and Don Cheadle to reprise his role as War Machine. Now, the first Iron Man game had Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, but they could not get him back for the sequel. However, they did the next best thing, and that was getting the guy who voiced Iron Man in what was then the current Avengers animated series.

Sega Avengers Assemble!

Before I bring this to a close, I do want to talk a little more about Iron Man 2 and Sega’s Marvel games that they made during the first phase of the MCU. In addition to Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Sega also made The Incredible Hulk. Captain America: Super Soldier and Thor. To be fair, none of these are horrible games; sure, they are a product of their time, the classic 7/10 movie tie-in game, but if you are a Marvel fan, they are worth checking out. Plus, the handheld systems of the time got their own versions. Thor on the Nintendo 3DS was actually a game I had a lot of fun with. If you are a Marvel fan and a game collector, these make a great little sub-set to have in your collection.

Pros:

• You can play as both Iron Man and War Machine
• The voice acting is pretty spot on
• Gameplay wise, this is mindless, but still kind of fun
• I liked how the story was set after the movie

Cons:

• Later superhero movies completely eclipse these Sega offerings
• The Wii and handheld versions are pretty inferior