Iron Man (DS)

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It's so easy to be disappointed with a superhero videogame. They always start off with such great potential. After all, who wouldn't want to play as some dude who can fly around and punch other dudes through walls? The problem is, superhero games very rarely live up to our expectations. Sure, every now and again you get a good game along the lines of Superman 2 or Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but more often than not, you end up with a Batman: Dark Tomorrow or Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The problem stems from the fact that it's tough to design a game around an exceptionally powerful and nigh invulnerable protagonist and the sad truth that most licensed games are terrible. What does it say about the genre that one of the games that best recreates the feel of being a superhero isn't even a superhero game? Yeah, we're talkin' about you, Crackdown.

Still, hopes were high for Iron Man, which is of course based on the new (and quite awesome) movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. The prospect of climbing into Tony Stark's legendary armor to do a little fighting and smiting with repulsor rays is just too tempting. This version of Iron Man is a completely different beast from the console and PSP versions of the game. Instead of a 3-D action game, this one plays more like a top-down shooter. It seems as though the developers took their inspiration from the DS version of Geometry Wars: Galaxies, even going so far as to borrow the control scheme.

The d-pad is used to move Iron Man around the screen while the stylus and touch-screen allow him to shoot in any direction. Don't worry, lefties, you can configure the controls so that the face buttons control our hero. The touch-screen is also used to shoot off missiles and the powerful Unibeam cannon, and the shoulder buttons fire up Iron Man's afterburners. The face buttons (or d-pad for you southpaws) trigger an EMP blast that momentarily stuns enemies.

After a brief intro mission where you wear the Mark I armor while escaping from your captors in Afghanistan, you're immediately tossed into the Mark III armor (no mucking around with the Mark II armor here). A minimalist radar screen points you in the direction of your nearest objects. Of course, on your way to them, you'll encounter tons of enemies in the form of soldiers, tanks, gun turrets, helicopters and the like. Taking your time to wipe out as many bad guys is encouraged as the more you destroy, the more bonus points you earn to upgrade your armor.

You'll want to upgrade as soon as possible, too. Iron Man starts out the game relatively weak, making the first couple missions fairly challenging. Things get a bit easier as you progress, once your health and weapons have been powered up a few times. The game is relatively short, so the challenge is welcome. Upon finishing the game, a survival mode dubbed One Man Army is unlocked. It's mildly amusing at best.

This DS version of Iron Man is actually pretty darn fun, especially when compared against the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. By simplifying the action to a pure blast-fest, the developers cleared up some of the problems that plague those other incarnations. The main problem that was fixed was the controls. These could be downright cumbersome on the consoles, but the Geometry Wars: Galaxies-inspired scheme works remarkably well.