Iron Man (PSP)

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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.

The game begins with a couple of introductory levels that help ease you in to the suit's powers. The first stage has you wearing the Mark I armor while escaping from your captors in Afghanistan. Here you learn the basics of moving and using simple attacks. Stage two places you in the Mark II armor for a brief test flight that leads to a conflict where you must master Iron Man's palm-mounted repulsor weapons. From there, it's into the Mark III armor and the real game begins. Like many movie-based games, Iron Man expands on the film's story by introducing characters and situations not seen on the big screen. In addition to tackling the foes from the movie, you'll also face comic characters like Titanium Man and evil organizations such as the Maggia crime syndicate and Advanced Idea Mechanics.

Within each stage, you're given a variety of different goals to accomplish. These tend to be of the "fly to a certain location and shoot a specific object" variety. As such, the missions tend to grow a bit repetitive after a couple of stages. Luckily, none of the stages are particularly long, so at least you're able to move to a new environment before true boredom sets in. To encourage a bit of exploration, each stage contains a few hidden stockpiles of Stark weapons. Destroying them all nets you unlockable goodies.

Throughout each stage, you face off against two main classes of enemies: airborne (like helicopters) and ground troops (tanks and soldiers and whatnot). Although you encounter plenty of enemies at once, you rarely feel as though you're being overwhelmed. The Iron Man suit recovers its energy after taking damage, so if you're hit by a missile or two, you can simply fly out of range and recharge.

This PSP version of Iron Man is actually the same as the Nintendo Wii game, but unfortunately its controls aren't nearly as refined as those of its console big brother. The game uses the standard "FPS-on-the-PSP" control scheme, where the analog stick is used to move your character and the face buttons are used to look around and aim your weapons. This makes it extremely difficult to accurately target the enemy, especially when in the middle of a firefight. Adding to the poor controls is the awkward flight mechanism, which is controlled through various presses of the L button. Holding the button raises Iron Man into the sky; giving the button a quick tab drops him to the ground. To initiate full-on flight, you must quickly double-tap and hold the button. Keeping this little finger jig straight when you're being attacked on all sides and trying to properly aim is remarkably frustrating.