''Iron Man'' is an

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

based on the 2008 movie of the same name as well as the classic iterations of the character. It was released on May 2, 2008 to coincide with the release of the movie in cinemas. The game was published by Sega, and it was for Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2,

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

, Wii,

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

, and Microsoft Windows. The enemies are

Advanced Idea Mechanics A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is a fictional criminal organization appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. In most versions, it is depicted as a think tank of brilliant scientists dedicated to overthrowing the world's ...

, the Maggia and the Ten Rings terrorist group. The

supervillain A supervillain or supercriminal is a variant of the villainous stock character that is commonly found in American comic books, usually possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero. Supervillains are often ...

s in the game includes Blacklash, Controller, Titanium Man,

Melter The Melter is the name of three fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original Melter, Bruno Horgan, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #47 (Nov. 1963). Publication history The character debuted ...

, and

Iron Monger Iron Monger is an alias used by multiple fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first character to use the alias is Obadiah Stane, who first appeared in ''Iron Man'' #163 (Oct. 1982). The Iron Mon ...

. A significant feature has Robert Downey Jr. (only as Tony Stark),

Terrence Howard Terrence Dashon Howard (born March 11, 1969) is an American actor. Having his first major roles in the 1995 films '' Dead Presidents'' and '' Mr. Holland's Opus'', Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of television and cinema role ...

and Shaun Toub reprising their roles from the movie.

Plot

During a business trip to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

to demonstrate

Stark Industries Stark Industries, later also known as Stark International, Stark Innovations, Stark Enterprises and Stark Resilient, is a fictional company appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The company is depicted as being owned an ...

' new weapon, Tony Stark is suddenly

kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically ...

by the

terrorist group A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Territory (animal), territory in a communi ...

Ten Rings, ordering him to build a

missile In military terminology, a missile is a missile guidance, guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously ...

for them. Instead, he and fellow captive Yinsen secretly build a powered suit of armor. During this time, Yinsen also acts as Stark's mentor, showing him humility and telling him of the horrors his company has caused, making Stark reconsider his life. Armed with a flamethrower and missiles, Stark uses the armor to destroy the terrorists' weapons stockpile and escape their camp, but Yinsen is killed, and the armor is destroyed. Upon being picked up by the Air Force and returning to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, Stark declares that his company will no longer manufacture weapons, a move disapproved by his business partner Obadiah Stane. With the help of his personal

A.I. Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech rec ...

J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark develops an updated and more powerful version of his armor, adding Stark Industries' new repulsor technology and flight capability. While testing his new suit at Stark Industries, Tony uses it to fend off an attack by the Maggia crime family, who have been providing weapons for the Ten Rings. Using his new Mark III "Iron Man" armor, Stark destroys the Maggia's weapons stockpiles and an armored hovercraft. On the way home, he establishes contact with his friend Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes and reveals his identity as Iron Man. Tony after these events goes back to his place, where Pepper Potts realizes what he has been doing. Rhodes also agrees to assists Stark with these desires, informing him of a weapons transport in Afghanistan. Stark follows the transport, destroying the weapons, defeating the villain Blacklash, a former Stark Industries worker, in the process, before proceeding to the Maggia's compound to destroy the rest of the weapons, and after infiltrating the mansion, he confronts

Madame Masque Madame Masque (birth name Giulietta Nefaria but legally renamed Whitney Frost) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. An occasional love interest and enemy of Iron Man and the daughter of Count Nefaria, sh ...

, who is killed when a wall falls on her. Stark soon destroys the Maggia's flying fortress, ending this

threat A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...

. Meanwhile, Stane secretly recovers the first Iron Man armor in Afghanistan and starts working with the company

(A.I.M.), Stark Industries' former top buyers, to create a power source. After A.I.M. attacks a nuclear facility in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

, Iron Man foils them and also defeats Boris Bullski, who created a

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

armor similar to Tony's, thus becoming the "Titanium Man." Stark then thwarts A.I.M.'s attack on a military ship in the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada ( Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm ( Greenland), Finland, Iceland ...

and defeats the Controller. After returning to Stark Industries, Tony fights off an attack by A.I.M. forces under the command of Titanium Man, who was actually sent by Stane to steal the Iron Man suit. After discovering Stane's involvement with A.I.M. and the Ten Rings, Tony is ambushed by Stane, who steals his arc reactor to create a power source for his own armor. Stark is rescued by Rhodey and learns that A.I.M. has kidnapped Pepper to use her as bait. He then uses his armor to save Pepper from an A.I.M. facility and prevents the explosion of their reactor. Stark decides that A.I.M. is a bigger menace than Stane and decides to confront them first. He heads to their island and destroys their proton cannon before defeating the

and destroying A.I.M.'s space tether, ending their menace. Stark then returns home and battles Stane, who has donned the "

" suit. As the battle reaches the top of Stark Industries, Stark orders Pepper to overload the arc reactor at the building. The plan works, and Stane is killed. With all the villains gone, Tony Stark decides to continue helping mankind as Iron Man.

Reception

The Nintendo DS version received mixed reviews and the Wii, PS2 and PSP versions received generally unfavorable reviews on

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

and

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. These versions suffer from gameplay, graphics and controls frustrations. The UK-based

Official Nintendo Magazine ''Official Nintendo Magazine'', or ''ONM'', was a British video game magazine that ran from 2006 to 2014 that covered the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, and Wii U video game consoles released by Nintendo. Originally published by EMAP as ...

rated the Wii version of Iron Man 15%, one of their lowest rating to date. The

version received an average score of 46% on

and

, and the

PS3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

version received an average score of 43%. These versions were critically panned for the same things as the other versions of the game, with

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

awarding it 3/10 and IGN 3.8/10. It was honored and awarded "Worst Game Everyone Played" by

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

in their 2008 video game awards.

Sales

Iron Man sold 2.6 million copies as of March 2009.

Sequel

A sequel game, ''

Iron Man 2 ''Iron Man 2'' is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to ''Iron Man'' (2008) and the third film in the Marvel Cinem ...

'' was written by ''Iron Man'' comic book writer

Matt Fraction Matt Fritchman (born December 1, 1975), better known by the pen name Matt Fraction, is an Eisner Award-winning American comic book writer, known for his work as the writer of '' The Invincible Iron Man'', '' The Immortal Iron Fist'', '' Uncanny X ...

, and was loosely based on the film ''

''. The game was released on May 4, 2010.Busch, Jenna
"Comics' Matt Fraction on how he wrote the Iron Man 2 game"
, Blastr, August 3, 2009 And also '' Iron Man 3: The Official Game'', released in 2013.

Notes

References

External links

Official game website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iron Man (Video Game) 2008 video games Action video games Video games based on Iron Man Nintendo DS games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Portable games Sega video games Marvel Cinematic Universe video games Video games based on films Video games based on adaptations Video games developed in Canada Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Mark Griskey Video games set in Afghanistan Video games set in the Arctic Video games set in Los Angeles Video games set in Russia Wii games Windows games Xbox 360 games Behaviour Interactive games Superhero video games Iron Man (film series)