Forget repulsor beams, flamethrowers, and sci-fi cluster bombs — the strongest weapon in Iron Man’s arsenal right now is Matt Fraction. And Marvel has just announced that Sega will be unleashing the Eisner-nominated comics writer on the upcoming Iron Man 2 video game.
“‘Iron Man 2′ presented me with the opportunity to work with both SEGA and Marvel on creating something wholly unique—a story that exists at the crossroads of the comics I write, the film universe I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to, and a wholly immersive interactive experience like this game,” Fraction said in an interview at Marvel.com. “Writing a game presents an entirely new challenge, where the player engages with the world, with the big and small aspects of the place and characters. They’re a coconspirator in the narrative. I hope it’s as exciting and challenging to play as it was to write.”
Currently, in the comics storyline, Fraction has led Tony Stark down a desperate path as he becomes the “World’s Most Wanted,” as he escapes the clutches of Norman Osborn and the international military group known as H.A.M.M.E.R. With a list of all the world’s known superhero identites in his brain, Tony has been steadily erasing his mind, knowing full well the price he’ll pay: not just his unmatched genius, not just memories of his best friends, but even basic motor skills.
According to the Marvel interview, Sega apparently took fan comments on the first Iron Man game — a game which Metacritic gave an unfavorable 45 review — to heart, focusing more on hand-to-hand combat with a redesigned control scheme. “Iron Man has an undeniably huge fan base, and we really wanted to give them the game they have been waiting for,” said SEGA of America’s vice president of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe.
The game is due out in the spring of 2010 for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
One interesting note in the original article on Marvel.com is that it says the game will feature villains not seen in the movie, such as the Crimson Dynamo. So I guess that ends the speculation that Mickey Rourke will eventually evolve from Whiplash to the Dynamo, then.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am
hope this is better than the iron man 1 game.
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 am
The first game, while pretty looking, was also pretty bad. I’ve played enough games to know that movie tie-in games are always bad, but I loved the movie so much I couldn’t resist and got burned. I hope I’m stronger next year, although I’m sure I’ll be tempted to give it a try.
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
Well, the plot of the game is covered. Get some decent game play (unlike most of the movie tie-in games) and I am there.
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
I own the first Iron Man game for the x360 and found it amazing and actually challenging, like many of the 90′s games, but IMO that challenge is most likely why many hated it, because you can actually get a game over despite of being able to hide from enemies and regain health by waiting.
The flying controls aren’t confusing at all, take 5 minutes and you you’ll be able to master them, it’s just an issue of not being able to customize them from what I can tell.
The hand-to-hand combat is awful, agreed, they’re just there but you don’t need them for anything more than to get the melee achievement
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
“The hand-to-hand combat is awful, agreed, ~the moves are there~ but you don’t need them for anything more than to get the melee achievement”
Fixed, sorry.
May 16th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
I really agree with what you have to say in your post.
January 17th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Wow, what an amazing article! Thanks so much for your fantastic writing, i’ll be reading regularly from now on.