Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2

PS3 / X-Box 360 / Wii

“What's the point of owning a race car if you can't drive it?” Tony Stark (Iron Man 2 – The Movie)

2008 put Iron Man into the general publics mind with an excellent film. Sadly, the game of the film followed the typical “cash-in” game rule and was a bag of rubbish. 2010 saw Iron Man return to the big screen (with Iron Man 2) and a chance for Sega to “make it right” with another Iron Man game (aptly named Iron Man 2).

This time around there is the chance to play as two different characters, Iron Man (agile) or War Machine (brute force) and comic scribe Matt Faction has been pulled in to weave a storyline. Weirdly, said storyline happens after the films plot…and if you’ve not seen the film it may ruin a few plot lines for you.

This time around comic villains Crimson Dynamo (think Russian Iron Man) and Ultimo make appearances, which is an improvement over the mafia level villains from the last game. Sadly, the repetitive “helicopter/tank” enemies have been retained.

The games controls have slightly improved from Iron Man (2008), but are still troublesome and most players will probably find themselves just pelting the trigger buttons rather than trying to get to grips with melee combat. Speaking of things that are hard to grasp, could Sega have made the “module/weapon” upgrade section any more complicated? The option to choose classic Iron Man armours is great, but to then have to outfit each one with weapon selections, then ammo selections and ammo modifications is just too much.

Graphically…Sega what the heck are you playing at? This is something the original Playstation could probably have pulled of. Scarlett Johansson probably sued after seeing a square version of Black Widow that looked blockier than 1994’s Virtua Fighter models. Even the cut scenes look horrible. When you’ve got games like God of War III, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Star Wars Force Unleashed propelling the story through cinema level cinematics…well, lets just say they make Iron Man 2 look like a poor VHS pirated copy of the film, when a nice Blu-Ray edition is available.

Then there is the camera. The camera that decides that hiding behind walls, turning to face away from enemies and just generally being a pain in the bum, is a good idea. In other words, the camera work is shoddy.

Finally, there are the glitches. The main one being a major flaw in the final fight that sees the game restart the whole PS3. My control nearly went through the TV.

If you can put up with complicated flying controls, poor camera and bad graphics, give Iron Man 2 a chance (it should be very cheap by now). If you’re after seeing impressive armour, Scarlett Johansson looking like a woman (and not a butch man) and great camera work, then watch Iron Man 2 (the movie).