Iron Man 2: The Video Game is set to debut on May 4, 2010, during the same week of the movie’s release. What can you expect this time in the Iron Man 2 game from SEGA? Dean Martinetti, Iron Man 2: The Video Game‘s producer from SEGA, and Mike McHale, the game’s Development Director from SEGA, answered some questions during a conference call from various gaming news sites, including GamingBits. Here are some of the highlights of what you can expect in Iron Man 2: The Video Game.
Both Dean and Mike made it clear that the Iron Man 2 game is an extension of the movie, rather than a direct or parallel tie-in to the Iron Man 2 film. Meaning, it’s a new and different experience. "I don’t think following a movie point by point or scene by scene is really the best way to make a game," said Dean. "It’s actually a completely new story, that way the user never knows what is coming up next." Mike added, "It’s too restrictive to create a film within an interactive space." From the game development team’s research, they found gamers wanted to explore more of the Iron Man 2 movie rather than experience the same story that is in the movie.
"It’s completely liberating," said Mike on building the game’s storyline completely separate from the film. "Iron Man is a very game-able character, but very challenging." The challenge came in combining shooter and brawler elements together. Matt Fraction worked on the game’s script, who was also consulted by the film’s producers. Don Cheadle and Samuel Jackson are the actors from the Iron Man 2 film that will be doing the voice acting in the game. SEGA did go to the Marvel Studios in LA and mostly consulted the film’s producers to make sure things were kept somewhat cohesive, so it’s not like SEGA went on their own direction. The key and balancing act was in offering an expansion to the movie.
One of the variations in Iron Man 2: The Video Game from the film was to expand what Tony Stark does in the lab. "In the lab you can customize your suit, customize your weapons and customize your melee," said Mike, "There are about 20+ weapon customizations you can do. You have a lot of customization options. It’s really cool." The gameplay view during the lab sequence switches to a first-person perspective, which is different from the gameplay’s third-person action perspective. The developers were particularly passionate about the weapon customization and are excited for players to get their hands on it. SEGA definitely wanted to put players in Tony Stark’s shoes more than ever.
"Admittedly, Iron Man [the original game] was not without flaws," said Mike. One of Iron Man 2′s improvements from the first game is the controls. Dean said, "You don’t need to be a hardcore gamer [to get the controls]." Flight control, or steering, is now on the right stick versus the left stick. Controls will be balanced and parallel whether you are on the ground or in the air. Weapon modification has also been improved. "It’s kind of like a reboot. We were really serious about making a better game. People will know this right out of the box," said Dean. Efforts went into making enemies on the maps more clear as well. If you’re concerned about frame rate, the developers focused on 30 FPS to allow for more props, detail and destruction. "By capping things at 30 FPS, that really did wonders. You could put so much more detail into the game," said Mike.
On the open world gameplay in Iron Man 2, the team at SEGA felt custom environments per mission, rather than a big open world, worked out better in the game’s development. Especially being tied into a movie schedule. "If we were going to tackle an open world game, we would need to do that outside of a movie’s schedule," said Mike. Time constraints were a big factor playing against the development of an open world Iron Man game. Iron Man 2 is a single-player game as well (not co-op or online multiplayer). It was expressed the developers at SEGA would totally be gung-ho for an open world game, but not within a movie’s launch schedule.
As for the characters you can expect in Iron Man 2, for the first time you can play as War Machine. Heroes include Iron Man and War Machine (both playable). The developers described Iron Man as being more "acrobatic" while War Machine as being more of a brawler. Control schemes will be similar for both, so you won’t have to re-learn or be confused by the controls. NPCs include Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) and members of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Villains vary by platform. On the Xbox 360 and PS3, it includes Crimson Dynamo. Ghost, Mauler and Firepower are exclusive to the Wii game (developed by High Voltage Software). The developers are touting that the bosses in Iron Man 2 are among the biggest in any video game ever made. Most boss battles will be melee based.
There will be the obvious graphic differences in Iron Man 2 across the different platforms. In the Xbox 360 and PS3 version, you have destructibility and higher-end graphics. The Wii and PSP versions have their own variation of the story, but are most similar to each other. If you’re wondering about the game’s length, Iron Man 2 is estimated to take about 7 to 11 hours to complete. Wrapping it up, Dean stated, "You need to go into this game and forget about the first game." SEGA has learned from their experience in the first game and are looking to deliver a fun, accessible, and customizable Iron Man experience in Iron Man 2: The Video Game. Keep a lookout for it when it arrives on May 4, 2010.
Iron Man 2: The Video Game will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. For more details on Iron Man 2: The Video Game, visit the official website here.
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