Who is Tony Stark and why is he living in a cave playing board games? You certainly won’t be much clearer after watching the opening scenes to Iron Man: the offi cial videogame (as all movie tieins seem to be sub-headed). There’s no opening explanation, no voiceover, not even a scrolling block of text. Bam, here’s a scene in a cave and bam, you’re Tony Stark in an iron suit, clunking about the desert. Fear not movie-goers, your experience won’t be spoiled by playing this game. The actual storyline only becomes apparent after the fi rst couple of levels.

Back to the fi rst level though. There’s no fl ying yet, Iron Man is resolutely stuck on the ground and is a little tedious. First thing to strike you (after the graininess of the FMV) is that the AI is pretty much non-existent. Feel free to fi re at troops on the ground and run at them. And keep running at them. They don’t seem to notice the bright red metal robot storming towards them. Instead, they’re happy to stay put and be squashed into the sand like ostrich heads.

Surely this must get better? Thankfully it does. But better doesn’t mean good. From the second level on, Iron Man takes to the skies, after smashing into a few buildings at fi rst. It takes quite a while to get used to the fl ying. There are two modes, hover and fl ight. Switching between the two is, on paper, simple. It’s a matter of alternating between the left shoulder buttons, hold one for fl ight and the other to hover. In practice it doesn’t really work, your left hand ends up scrabbling about uncontrollably as Iron Man darts across the screen with no clue as to where gravity is. But you do get used to it.

Hovering itself is a bit of an art form. In order not to go sailing upwards into the stratosphere, you must half-hold the button down to stay still. This makes fi ring a lot easier, but also makes Iron Man a sitting duck for enemy rockets. Flying and fi ring is far too diffi cult since most targets are static. While hovering, it’s also possible to grab a missile out of the air and hurl it back. However, this is done while half-holding a button, holding the fi re button and aiming with the stick, and it must all be timed to perfection. It’s far easier to get the shield upgrade and turn it on.

The upgrades then, again they’re about as clear as the game’s introduction. You can’t view them until you’ve paid for them. And everything is therefore a wild stab in the dark. There are chaff grenades, the aforementioned shield, health and so on. It’s all very passé and there’s nothing there to make you actually want to save up the millions that Stark makes in each level.

Money is no object to someone like Stark, but he must still make it in game. In order to get more cash a number of ‘Hero’ objectives must be completed in each level. Although these objectives involve a time limit to destroy a certain number of objects, happily they don’t impact on your ability to complete the level. In fact, all objectives (Hero or otherwise) are a matter of following the dots on the map, destroying everything in sight, then moving onto the next glut of buildings/warehouses/gun turrets/insert inanimate object here. You’re never sure why you’re destroying these things, although if you don’t, then civilians will die or something apparently. No one from your team seems to care that much, the story as loose as it is, just keeps rolling on.

As a movie tie-in, and not a cheap one considering Robert Downey Jr and Jeff Bridges are on hand for the voice acting, it’s typical fare. Some levels feel unfi nished, the controls are fi ddly and the cut-scenes are frustratingly static. All present and accounted for then. Except after a few levels you actually start to enjoy fl ying around. A small grin develops as you blow up another laser power supply and make your way to the next. The colossal fl ying warship level is perhaps the most notable. Iron Man must disable a huge gunship, while it’s fl ying in the air, looming over the innocent populous below. He must catch up with it fi rst then destroy a number of targets, on top, underneath and partly inside. The ship itself is impressive although the radar system shows its holes when trying to pinpoint the weak points on the hull.

The smile is quickly wiped off your face as you reach a boss, however. For instance, Titanium Man. He’s not particularly diffi cult, although he does recharge his energy using radiation, which can’t be good for his chances of starting a family. During this battle you’ve also got to cope with paratroopers. These are tiny men dangling from the clouds. They manage to fi re elephant-sized rockets repeatedly at the man of iron. Of course, you dodge, run away and fi re back. Unsurprisingly, the fi rst run ends in a heap on the fl oor. There are four lives to go through, each one reviving you exactly where you fell. Once these are gone though, that’s it, no checkpoints. You must now go through the entire level again. It’s extremely infuriating on a tough boss.

Frustrations aside, this is a reasonably fun tie-in, surpassing the abysmal Spider- Man 3 and Transformers, just about. Just don’t expect it to have a cast iron storyline (sorry about that one).

Henrietta Rowlatt