Aw yeah, it’s Iron Man time! I enjoyed the first game on the DS and the gameplay was pretty unique. This is one of the bigger Marvel movie tie ins and also one of the final ones since they don’t seem to make them anymore. It’s a pretty fun game and while I can’t say that it was great, it was pretty good considering that this game probably didn’t get a huge budget.

The plot is pretty different from the movie and I can’t really say that it was very memorable. You get to fight big names like the Crimson Dynamo and Ultimo while helping SHIELD get through some serious situations. All you need to know is that the villains keep trying to steal Tony Stark’s data and we can’t let that happen. I would have a better picture of the story, but when I played through it the second time around, I decided to skip all cutscenes. The graphics just weren’t worth it and the story is decent if I recall correctly.

The graphics are pretty good for the game. Surprisingly good! It seriously doesn’t feel like a movie tie in game and the animation is pretty good even considering that the PS3 can have some excellent graphics. The cutscenes don’t look quite as smooth, mainly due to the human designs. Still, while you’re blasting away at enemies, it all looks pretty realistic. That’s probably one of the biggest pros for me.

The gameplay is your standard 3D shooting game. It plays out like War For Cybertron, but you have unlimited flight which helps. (Can’t be Starscream all the time in War For Cybertron) Firing your weapons and engaging in hand to hand combat can both be pretty fun and you have a good selection of weapons. Using Ironman’s lasers in combat is a must and everything becomes much easier. Maybe the lasers are overpowered, but they’re still fun!

The gameplay isn’t all fun though as the controls can be a little tricky. It’s very tough to change directions while flying and you’ll wish that you hadn’t flown more times than not. Usually, it’s better to just dash where you want to go. Setting up your weapons system is also a lot more complicated than it should be. There’s a reason why I didn’t even know about the lasers until way after I had completed the game.

The customization can be pretty cool once you get the hang of it. You can unlock various Iron Man suits, which range from Extremis to Ultimate and it’s fun to switch around. The weapons can also make quite the difference in battle. It may not be a very extensive customization, but you get 4 weapons per armor and you can use your exp points from battle to create new gadgets. It’s a decent addition and I’ll take what I can get to make the gameplay deeper and more fun!

The trophies in Iron Man 2 aren’t unreasonable and I managed to secure the Platinum. Basically, you just need to defeat a lot of opponents and be prepared to face the game on hard mode. You’ll be okay if you have the lasers at the ready. Playing as War Machine can be more than a little difficult, but his gameplay isn’t as bad as you may think. Trophies don’t really affect the game’s score, but they’re still nice to have around. I typically give a game a second look if it has some nice trophies.

The game has 8 levels and I admit that this isn’t a good thing. 10 levels is the absolute minimum amount for a video game and anything lower than that is pretty unacceptable. One factor that tries to disguise this is the trophy system and the upgrades that you acquire through the levels. They help the overall replay value, but you should still be warned that the game won’t be lasting very long. You’ll be done with it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything to do aside from Story Mode. A few bonus modes would have been nice or at least a wifi option/leaderboard. Story Mode is basically the only thing here so I hope that you enjoy those 8 levels.

Still, in the end, gameplay is what counts the most. I found it to be pretty enjoyable and it does beat the gameplay that we got in the first Iron Man as well as the Thor video game. I doubt that this will help in Marvel’s battle to surpass DC in video games, but it’s a start.

Overall, this was a pretty fun superhero game. It’s definitely on the short side and I wish that we got to have more missions where you don’t have to worry about protecting something. The gameplay is what you’d expect from any movie tie in, but it’s a formula that always works. The soundtrack was above average and the graphics were downright impressive. I recommend this game and it’s a bit of a step up from the first game. (Albeit that I own the first for the DS) It looks like Iron Man 3 won’t be getting a true video game spinoff so that’s more reason to get this one. I wouldn’t recommend it to you if you don’t like games that are too short, but considering the price….I’d say that it’s worth it. 8 levels is under the 10 level standard, but going back for the Platinum helps the overall time right? I say go for it!

Overall 7/10