For all their respective triumphs, the film and video game industries have always shared a rather laboured and unhappy marriage. Each Hollywood blockbuster inevitably spawns a ghastly interactive twin, rushed to meet its release with the same opportunism as any other form of merchandising and watered down to appeal to wider cinema-going audiences. More considered adaptations, such as Rare’s iconic treatment of GoldenEye 007, have demonstrated that there are exceptions to the rule – unfortunately, Iron Man 2: The Video Game just isn’t one of them.

The game’s storyline (or lack thereof) picks up where the events of the film left off. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the movie – fans and newcomers alike will be absolutely baffled by the disjointed and poorly explained narrative. Tony Stark’s technology has once again been maliciously appropriated, this time by a nasty American industrialist who wants to meld himself with a 100-foot robot and use a weather machine to cause global storms. His actual motive for doing this is just one of many insoluble questions to consider as you travel across the globe, blowing up tanks, helicopters, Russian terrorists and a crazy Scotsman. There are no cutscenes to speak of; the glib, often cheesy dialogue between levels is delivered by cardboard cut-outs of the film’s actors that drift in and out of the foreground to indicate who is speaking. Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson reprise their roles, while other characters are impersonated with varying accuracy – Tony Stark’s voice actor is admirable, while Natasha Romanoff appears to have been voiced by a computer phonics program, so listless and robotic is her delivery.

The Wii version of the game was developed by High Voltage Software, a company that prides itself as one of the greatest technical innovators on the console. It’s sad, then, that Iron Man 2’s graphics and level design are so explicitly underdeveloped, even by the Wii’s comparatively modest technical standards. While the game’s levels are distributed across such diverse and colourful locales as California, Russia, Budapest and Malaysia, they are all universally bland, grainy and uninspired; the textures and character models are rendered with such coarse simplicity that it often feels as if you’re playing an early Gamecube title. The environments feature few destructible elements, and these are fairly contrived – destroying the occasional deliberately-placed wall doesn’t make you feel powerful when, not two minutes later, you find that you’re incapable of breaking down a hotel room door. Given the game’s minimalism, it’s astonishing that the framerate still manages to falter at times, particularly during the on-rail flying missions.

Iron Man and War Machine are both playable, and they’ve apparently been designed to provide different play styles (agility and brute force respectively). You’re also able to upgrade and customise their weapons as you earn tech points, giving them new effects and applications. While these choices are clever in theory, they are really only cosmetic in execution; most enemies hurl themselves mindlessly against you, and they’re easily dispatched regardless of which weapon you use. Neither is there any great difference between the two heroes – they’re both equally awkward to control and have comparable firepower. The Wiimote’s IR sensor makes aiming relatively easy, though it can be a little sluggish at times.

Closing Statement:

There are, unfortunately, very few redeeming qualities in Iron Man 2: The Video Game. The suit customisation options and collectible “tech trophies” hidden throughout each level provide a marginal degree of replayability, but once you’ve played through the game once (which should take only a few hours), the tedious and unrefined gameplay offers little incentive for you to return. Even the most hardcore Iron Man fans should think carefully before purchasing this – they may not find their hero well served.

Final Score: 4.5

Last week, we were all shocked by the news that Don Cheadle, who we seen in movies like Hotel Rwanda and Crash, had been signed to replace Terence Howard in Iron Man 2: The Movie. The speculation was that Marvel had a falling out with the actor over his salary requirements that was needed for him to be apart of the movie. When NPR spoke to Howard on the replacement he explained his confusion over the entire situation.

“Yeah, I found that out, too,” said Howard. “It was the surprise of a lifetime. There was no explanation. Just…up and vanished. I read something in the trades implicating that it was about money or something. But apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on, sometimes. Promises aren’t kept, and good faith negotiations aren’t always held up. Even friendships, people you support…”-Terence Howard