As a gamer I have always been wary of titles linked to blockbuster movies, developers are on a very tight deadline and game content suffers, often movie related titles can feel a bit like an unfinished project with clunky controls, buggy code or a lack of depth. So how does Iron Man 3 stack up?
The easiest way to describe Iron Man 3 is to label it an endless runner, and that would be mostly accurate but it feels like more. You take the role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man, after an encounter has rendered his latest and greatest armour a temporary wreck forcing him to utilise older equipment while he tracks down those responsible for the trouble. You start out with the Mark III armour, Stark’s most basic of backup armours and set out to find out who attacked you and why.
Game controls were a little overwhelming at first, by default, the bottom third of the screen is just for movement and the top section is for weapons, tapping or swiping there makes Iron Man direct a beam of energy there. For movement, Iron Man follows your finger exactly but if you need to dodge something quickly you can execute a barrel roll across the screen by tapping quickly on either side of the movement area. Alternatively, you can change to tilt controls in the main menu, this makes the barrel roll harder to execute but I found it a preferable configuration allowing for finer control in some areas and making extended battles a little less complicated. Once I got into the game a little however, I gradually got used to the control and it wasn’t quite as complicated as it first appeared.
For an iOS title, the graphics are quite impressive, there is a little bit of pop-up, but long range visibility is quite substantial. Stark’s suits are all unique in appearance and backgrounds are in high detail, even though the actual stage design is a little repetitive the random obstacles and enemies break it up well. It the little things that stand out the most though, for instance, diving down from high latitude to level off above water will kick up. Fine water spray obscuring your vision momentarily and leaving a few water drops to linger on the screen is a nice touch. There are a few minor issues with obstacles taking up more room than they should and the occasional delayed collision but otherwise developers have really put in a good show here.
The soundtrack has a rock feel to it, on close inspection it’s incredibly simple and repetitive but the in game sound effects actually drown it out most of the time, despite that, I thought the sound effects could have been louder but otherwise they are a great array of booms, beams and splashes, the explosions are well done however the sounds of the fighter jets swooping in didn’t sit well with me, but to be honest, I’m just nitpicking there, the whole package together sounds fantastic.
You collect currency in game in the form of Vibranium, which you can use to upgrade your existing armour and unlock more advanced suits, naturally, you can speed up this process by buying premium currency, you don’t need to but you may find progression very slow without it. Armours steadily get more expensive and require a lot of grinding to raise the necessary funds, in fact this is my biggest complaint, Vibranium appears very sparsely however you can earn extra through the mini missions, usually simple tasks like collecting certain items or travelling set distances, occasionally these missions can earn you premium currency as well. There’s also the daily mission which requires you to fly a set distance and then face off in a boss battle, featuring villains from the movie, completing these not only gives you premium currency but also makes new locations available as the story unfolds.
I actually found Iron Man 3 slightly addictive, there’s something very satisfying about buying a new armour after saving up for it for so long. The whole package is quite enjoyable but it would be nice if you could earn money faster. I was impressed when each new armour was not only different aesthetically but also had some slight handling differences from suit to suit. I’m going with four stars, I was pleasantly surprised with this title and I think it does the franchise justice.