Iron Man

Most superhero games of the mid-2000s asked you to walk through corridors and punch things. This one, built alongside the 2008 Jon Favreau film, had a better pitch: the character's defining trick is flight, and the game tries to make flight the center of everything. Whether it succeeds is a more mixed question, but the intent is the most interesting thing about it.

The PS2 version is the same basic design as the other platforms, though it was handled separately from the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases and it shows in the technical polish. You fight in the armor, switching between ground combat and aerial sections, using repulsor blasts and missiles against waves of enemies such as soldiers, helicopters and mechanized vehicles. Stark's armor can be upgraded, which gives the missions a small sense of progression, though the structure stays fairly linear and repetitive.

Flying is where the game earns whatever goodwill it has. Moving in three dimensions with a heavy, jet-powered character is satisfying in short bursts, and the camera mostly keeps pace. On the ground the picture is less flattering. Aiming is loose, enemy variety is thin, and encounters tend to run together. The hardware limits of the PS2 also hold back the scale that the premise wants, so levels feel smaller than the power fantasy implies.

It was received as a typical film tie-in: competent in places, uneven overall, and forgettable next to the movie it served. That reputation is fair, and playing it now does not overturn it. The era's licensed-game economy rewarded getting something on shelves by the film's release date, and the rushed edges are visible.

Still, there is something worth noticing. The game understands what the character is for, and builds around the one thing that makes him different from every other costumed brawler. It is a rough draft of a better game, but the draft points in the right direction.