spartana15 has 8 chronicles

1. Superhero Follow Up: Iron Man
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on May 29 2010

   After I finished my opinion piece on the state of hero games, I began thinking about my next piece. Several thoughts danced around my head, and I'm sure I'll get to them, but I decided to follow up on the hero article with a more specific focus. Instead of pointing out the flaws of the genre as a whole, I'm going to pick one hero/universe and discuss what I would do. I'll start with Iron Man, and may continue with others if it's popular.
   
   Now, Iron Man has many years of history to draw upon from the comics, but for this article, I'm going to focus on the movies. After all, the games have only been released because of the movies, so it seems fair. And before any of you cry foul, I do realize Iron Man 2 the game is not based on the movie of the same name, but it was developed and released to coincide with the movie's release. Ok, deep breath, here we go...
   
   Part of what makes the Iron Man character so endearing is Tony Stark himself. He's a super genius, billionaire playboy, basically the man every male wishes he could be. I feel a big opportunity is wasted by taking the Tony out of the picture, and constricting him to cut-scenes. Iron Man isn't just a super dangerous weapon, Iron Man is also Tony Stark. The story of movies reaches deeper than "suit blows up bad guys," it ventures into the inner workings of the man IN the suit, and I feel that by giving players control of Tony and seeing things through his view point, the decisions they make as the Iron Man will have greater impact on the player.
   
   The second thing I'd change, while seemingly minor, is the Heads Up Display. Iron Man is the most advanced piece of tech on the planet, and we're looking at meters and bars from the 1990's. An art style similar to what is used in the movies for Jarvis' system would lend itself quite nicely to a video game HUD, wouldn't you say? Immersion, immersion, immersion. Nothing should appear on screen to take the players out of the experience.
   
   Now, to me, the biggest offender is the combat system. You can hover in one spot, and shoot blindly all day at the tons of respawning enemies. In the movie, the majority of the fights aren't between thousands of faceless thugs, they're against a handful or less. The melee combat is important, and unfortunately, handled poorly. The player should be able to feel like their punch is crushing bones or metal. Arkham Asylum got it right. Iron Man doesn't do many long range battles, he's up close and personal. Even his weapons are shot in close proximity. Changing the scope of the combat system would allow the character models to be larger and more detailed, which brings me to my last change: visuals.
   
   Say what you want about time constraints and whatever, but there's no reason for my Xbox 360 game to look like a PSP game. I'm exaggerating, of course, but the point is the same. Iron Man and its sequel were technical darlings, and the games should follow suit. Explosions, lasers, mechs, environments, models, everything should look top-tier. Again, Arkham Asylum did it, why shouldn't you. This would be helped by changing the combat focus, I do believe. At the very least, the Iron Man model shouldn't look like the pixelated mess presented in the games.
   
   The above rant is just a small sample of how I'd do things differently, and I'm sure many of you will disagree. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to message me or post a comment. Like I said, if this article is popular, I'll move on to other properties.

   
   

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