Review of the Invincible Iron Man Released on Gameboy Advance (2002)

The Invincible Iron Man on Game boy Advance is a potentially great game with some major flaws. As it is though, it's a solid platformer beat em' up fun and is worth checking out if you like blowing things up or are an Iron Man fan.

Story : The story is somewhat similar to the Armor Wars storyline featured in the comics. Tony Stark's technology is stolen and he has to track down who took it. Not bad but not great either. Apart from Iron Man, there's a ton of generic henchmen that aren't particularly interesting. To make matters worse, only two of Iron Man's villains make an appearance in the form of Blizzard and Crimson Dynamo. Disappointing for those expecting more of his underrated Rogues' Gallery.

Graphics : The graphics are very nice. Iron Man is animated well and looks good performing his various abilities. Enemies also have a good amount of animation. The backgrounds are very, very nice. Most are very large and colorful and vary a lot from level to level. Overall, a great game graphically.

Sound : Though the effort put into the soundtrack is respectable, the music is very obtrusive and can get very annoying fast. The faux techno that loops with no chord changes and very little melody. Overall, the music is fatigue inducing and would best be kept on low volume.

Game play : Iron Man has all of his signature attacks from the comic books, including flight gyro boots, repulsor rays, and his unibeam which is featured as a super attack that does a lot of damage. The controls are responsive and feel good. Though Iron Man doesn't have a ton of variety to his move set, he is fun to play as regardless.

The game's levels are a bit too long and the lack of boss fights make this game best for small sessions. The lack of variety among the enemies can also get quite boring. The levels themselves aren't linear, so you do have just a little bit of room to explore if you wish to.

There's special items scattered throughout the game that let you access things in the main menu, like portraits and various images. Other than that there isn't much to mention. As I previously brought up, only two villains make it into the game but at least their fights are interesting and require some quick thinking.

Re playability : Fun, but not enough to replay a lot unless you are a huge Iron Man fan.

Overall: 6/10. A fun enough romp but missing a few key elements, such as shorter levels, more bosses, and a more fitting soundtrack.