Leaked reports have suggested that a new Iron Man game could be in development, albeit in the very, very early stages. While Avalanche Studios' attempt to bring Tony Stark to interactive life was scrapped, industry insider Nick Baker, speaking on The XboxEra Podcast, confirmed earlier comments from June of this year claiming that EA had a AAA Marvel game in the pipeline. That mystery project, as it turns out, is the new Iron Man title.
While Batman is a consistent presence within the gaming world, appearing in his own Arkham series and now popping up in acclaimed beat-'em-up MultiVersus, Marvel's resident genius billionaire playboy philanthropist hasn't enjoyed the same success within the medium. Tony Stark's appearances in gaming have not only been limited in number, but they've also almost always ended in disappointment. The recent effort of Marvel's Avengers demonstrates how tricky it is to make Iron Man soar in the digital world, but it was an earlier solo release that highlighted the true extent of this challenge.
Movie-to-video game tie-ins were all the rage at one point. The trend for licensed products piggybacking on the recognition and success of a mainstream cinematic release has seen a decline in recent months and years. This downturn was likely aided by 2008's disastrously bad licensed Iron Man tie-in. Published by Sega and produced by various developers across numerous platforms, the signs for 2008's licensed tie-in were propitious. It had the backing of a major publisher in the form of Sega, the popularity and goodwill generated by Jon Favreau's superb mainline movie, not to mention Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard reprising their roles from the film to provide voiceover.
If the signs were good, the end result was anything but. Despite selling nearly three million copies after it debuted in 2008, Iron Man was panned by critics and fans alike, many citing it as one of the worst video game tie-ins in recent memory. Following roughly the same narrative trajectory as the movie, albeit with some tweaks and adjustments to the story, Sega's effort felt like a pale imitation of the material that had inspired it.
By following the plot of the movie too closely, Iron Man not only failed to craft its own unique identity but also left players wondering why they weren't just watching the movie instead. Cutscenes from the game look perplexingly stilted and lifeless and seeing the likes of Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey interact often feels like watching semi-sentient automatons dryly reciting discarded lines that didn't make it into Favreau's final cinematic cut. None of this is helped, of course, by the all-pervasive feeling that most of the actors seem to be phoning it in to fulfill their contractual obligations.
Dialogue and story aren't close to Iron Man's biggest problem, though. When translating a piece of media to an interactive format, especially when creating a tie-in game, the most important thing to get right is the gameplay, the one thing that separates a tie-in from its mainline, non-interactive release. This is where the game simply can't justify existing in the first place, taking repeated flack from critics bemoaning the dull, repetitive, and uninspired combat that never seems to evolve or progress. Nothing about playing as the great Tony Stark ends up fulfilling that glamorous fantasy of being one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Gameplay instead feels flat, lifeless, and mind-numbingly dull.
None of this stopped the Marvel-Sega team-up from forcing through a sequel, Iron Man 2, released in 2010 to coincide with the disappointing real-life movie of the same name. Also developed by numerous studios for a variety of consoles, the follow-up suffers from similar issues to its much-maligned predecessor: repetitive gameplay, a lack of proper progression, and a dated, somewhat anachronistic feel. Why Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson appear as themselves to provide authentic in-game voiceover is an even greater mystery than the appearance of Robert Downey Jr. in the first game.
It may be a long way off, but the newly-teased Iron Man game will likely be looking to the series' past mistakes to avoid similar pitfalls that rendered 2008's title such a monumental disappointment. There's no doubt that with the right developers and the right creative team, Iron Man can truly soar in a video game, but if recent efforts are anything to go by, they have their work cut out. Focusing on what makes a game what it is, i.e. the actual gameplay, rather than simply mirroring the tone and branding of the movies themselves, would be a good start. Translating a great movie or even a great character, to a new medium isn't always as simple as it seems.