fantasy

Activision has made a few great Spider-Man games (and one nearly terrible X-Men game) for the GBA; and now they try their luck with another Marvel super hero: Iron Man. Iron Man for the GBA is a good example of how a comic hero should translate into a video game (especially a portable one without getting to formulatic). Shell head's repulsar blast is at full effect, plus you havea shoulder tackle and you can fly around all over in the huge 8 levels. Eventually your suit will run out of power and you'll have to recharge by collecting energy items throughout the area. You'll also come across different power orbs which range from Iron Man having a massive cannon spring from his chest to detonating a bomb to clear an entire screen full of enemies. There are hundreds of enemies throughout each area, and they have a degree of intelligence (as opposed to the Daredevil GBA game) and the game does require bits of strategy now and then instead of just mindless run from the left to the right of the screen mowing down enemies. The only real complaints with Iron Man is that the action can get a bit repetitive from time to time, and even though the 8 levels are huge, a bit more length would have made this game really great. The graphics are nicely animated and the control is pretty dead on for the most part, and fans of the comic (or the short lived cartoon) will appreciate the graphics. All in all, fans of comics in general or 'ol shell head himself will get a nice bit of joy out of Iron Man.

Iron Man is an excellent character for a video game. With an array of weapons and a complex story, it could make for an excellent romp. Unfortunately, Activision slapped the license on a medicore game, which appears to have been thrown together by a pack of rookies. The graphics are nice, but gameplay is extraordinarily tedious at times. Only two Iron Man villains in the game don't provide for many fanboy chills... in fact, nothing does. If you want a game to kill some time on a short flight, pick this up used, definitely not new. Think before you shell out $

I grew up wasting copious amounts of time reading Iron Man comics, so I decided to pick up this gem. I'm over 30+ and I mainly play games to chill out. I've only played 5 or 6 Advance games but this ranks well below all others I've played. It vasilates between very boring gameplay, to overly difficult gameplay. It took me a brutlaly long time to get beyond the second level I only made it with pure, tedious tenacity. If you're a shell head fan pass on this one or at least wait until it's in the bargain bin were you'll find my copy.