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IGN Review of Iron Man
Whatever effort Secret Level put into its open-world style game design for the console rendition of Iron Man, Canadian developer Artifical Mind and Movement threw all that out and went straight for the "direct action" approach for the Nintendo DS edition of the superhero flick. There's definitely a lot of challenge in this straightforward shooter design, but it's a little too clunky and claustrophobic for its own good.
The Nintendo DS version of Iron Man at least follows a bit of the movie: Tony Stark, weapons genius and billionaire, comes to terms with himself after being captured by terrorists and forced to build weapons for them. Instead, he builds a powerful kickass suit to escape and uses that as a starting point for what he builds as Iron Man. Unlike the movie, only a bit revolves around the original suit – the training mission – with the majority of the experience taking place in the sleek red/gold suit that only had the teasing, ten minutes of screentime in theaters.
The game is a very action-packed design inspired by the recent influx of Robotron-inspired "move in one direction, shoot in another" blasters. Players move Iron Man using the D-pad of the Nintendo DS, and shoot in 360 fashion by sliding the stylus around on the touch-screen. Yes, lefties have their own option as well. Missions challenge players to blast away at all sorts of enemies – tanks, helicopters, turrets, missile launchers, vehicles – and avoid getting shot by zipping around as quickly as possible. Unlike the console versions, the Nintendo DS divides Iron Man's time between in-air missions and on-foot missions. Both have the same basic control and gameplay structure, but they do feel slightly different – airborne missions are much more fast-paced than the on-foot ones.
Though levels have very specific tasks to complete, you're encouraged to blast everything you see – the game rewards being gun happy with points that can be used to upgrade your character. Iron Man's a real pushover in the early missions with wimpy blasters and shields, and the game doesn't really start to get decent until you utilize some of your points for suit enhancements.
The biggest culprit is the camera – it follows the action from a very specific height and distance away from your character, but it's way too close. Enemies will constantly attack from off-screen which is incredibly cheap, and you're never given fair warning when a tank or helicopter sneaks up from out of view. The lower screen doesn't even display a radar view of the immediate area outside of specific objective items. I can't imagine Iron Man being this blind. That leads into the other biggie: you're expected to fly around these huge environments and take out specific buildings, but you don't have a map of the area. Not even the touch screen provides a pull-out view.
©2008-05-05, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Nintendo DS version of Iron Man at least follows a bit of the movie: Tony Stark, weapons genius and billionaire, comes to terms with himself after being captured by terrorists and forced to build weapons for them. Instead, he builds a powerful kickass suit to escape and uses that as a starting point for what he builds as Iron Man. Unlike the movie, only a bit revolves around the original suit – the training mission – with the majority of the experience taking place in the sleek red/gold suit that only had the teasing, ten minutes of screentime in theaters.
The game is a very action-packed design inspired by the recent influx of Robotron-inspired "move in one direction, shoot in another" blasters. Players move Iron Man using the D-pad of the Nintendo DS, and shoot in 360 fashion by sliding the stylus around on the touch-screen. Yes, lefties have their own option as well. Missions challenge players to blast away at all sorts of enemies – tanks, helicopters, turrets, missile launchers, vehicles – and avoid getting shot by zipping around as quickly as possible. Unlike the console versions, the Nintendo DS divides Iron Man's time between in-air missions and on-foot missions. Both have the same basic control and gameplay structure, but they do feel slightly different – airborne missions are much more fast-paced than the on-foot ones.
Though levels have very specific tasks to complete, you're encouraged to blast everything you see – the game rewards being gun happy with points that can be used to upgrade your character. Iron Man's a real pushover in the early missions with wimpy blasters and shields, and the game doesn't really start to get decent until you utilize some of your points for suit enhancements.
The biggest culprit is the camera – it follows the action from a very specific height and distance away from your character, but it's way too close. Enemies will constantly attack from off-screen which is incredibly cheap, and you're never given fair warning when a tank or helicopter sneaks up from out of view. The lower screen doesn't even display a radar view of the immediate area outside of specific objective items. I can't imagine Iron Man being this blind. That leads into the other biggie: you're expected to fly around these huge environments and take out specific buildings, but you don't have a map of the area. Not even the touch screen provides a pull-out view.
©2008-05-05, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved