Game Gear - Iron Man/X-O Manowar: Heavy Metal

Format
Game Gear
Publisher
Acclaim
Developer
Realtime Associates
Country of origin
US
Genre
Platform

Iron Man/X-O Manowar : Heavy Metal

By David Rasmussen
9th Mar 08

Well, after much time and reviewing it’s time to open up the newest in retro reviewing.
Our first batch of SEGA Game Gear reviews. Let’s get into it.

Shoutout for this game goes to sstcrush from GameTZ (the site I do all my game swapping with), who traded this and one other SEGA Game Gear game with me! Thanks (and thanks for the care and cleaning tips!)

These days when you play MARVEL games you have a few outstanding titles out there worthy of praise (and recommendation). Both X-Men Legends games, MARVEL Ultimate Alliance, MARVEL Vs. Capcom’s titles, the first two movie based Spider-Man games, Incredible Hulk : Ultimate Destruction. Games that really show you MARVEL’s bright shiny video game potential.

Then you have the 90’s, and MARVEL’s dim dark video game past.
Sure, there are the occasional breakout game that deserves praise (and recommendation) even now, but for the most part MARVEL’s video game bullpen seemed to be filled with more Night of the MARVEL Zombie games than anything else.

Here’s one of the bad ones for your dissertation. Iron Man/X-O Manowar.

Yeah, the timing couldn’t be worst with a new Iron Man movie coming this year, which will no doubt bring out it’s own forgettable video game tie-in (I could be wrong, of course, but for now the only game with Iron Man in it worth praising is still MARVEL Ultimate Alliance) along with said movie. So, then, why not bring up one more of the bad things Tony Stark would rather forget he was ever involved in with this sad sad game.

Somehow galaxies (and publishing companies) collide as MARVEL and Valiant team up to form the pairing of Iron Man & X-O Manowar in a game for the ages… wonder if it’s a bad thing this game was released by Akklaim and they, you know, crashed and burned as a company some years ago. I wonder…

Anyway, about the game.
It was promised from what I read of it to be a Final Fight style game.
Yeah. Don’t let that fool you. NOTHING about this game is anywhere near Final Fight.
Final Fight (which I recently reviewed in my CAPCOM Classics Collection Remixed review) was a nice beat-em-up button masher with large characters, large fights, and female fighters who flashed half their chest when you hit them (and their tops flipped up abit). This game seems to be more aligned with MARVEL’s sad old game genre of tiny characters, tiny enemies, lots of side scrolling and punching and shooting (and flying since we’re talking armored heroes who can fly) and lots of pointless running about areas that seemingly are set up like mazes to run you through like a rat without the promise of cheese… rat… rat… DAMN YOU RATATO… uh… sorry, as I write this it’s Academy Award night and that damn movie won… sorry.

Should I have to squint this hard to watch little characters fight pointless fights by shooting (or being shot)? And why is it I’m playing these two powerful characters with the most sophisticated armors and they seem rather… fragile? It doesn’t take much to take them down it seems.

Oh, enemies from both the MARVEL & Valiant universe appear… though they all look alike since all the characters are wee little things running about the screen.

If the description of this game is enough to bore you then you shouldn’t waste you nostalgia creds on a game that is as bad as this review makes it sound. There must be better MARVEL or VALIANT games out there… this isn’t it.

On the bright side maybe Activision will get a MARVEL Ultimate Alliance 2 out in time for the Iron Man movie. Otherwise if your looking for Iron Man content gaming this isn’t for you (or anyone else for that matter). The game does work, barely, and functions as a game though not a very good game. Overall then, it gets a 2 out of 5 for just functioning and not much else.

-- David Rasmussen 9th Mar 08

Game Gear Iron Man/X-O Manowar: Heavy Metal Images