The Invincible Iron Man

The Good
As a long time fan of Iron Man, I praise this game, released in 2001, just because it is the truly first solo appearance of the character (created in 1963 by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Jack Kirby), as in prior cameos (Captain America & Avengers-1992 for Genesis, SNES, etc; Iron Man/X-O Manowar-1996 for PC, PS1, Saturn & Gameboy; War of the Gems-1996 for SNES; Marvel Super Heroes-1997 for PS1 & Saturn) he always shared the title with others. This a solid and well done side-scrolling, platform action game, in which you can play with classic features of the armor like repulsor rays, unibeam, and the capacity of (short) flying, to blast through hordes of enemies. Overall it's a very good game, with gameplay and design very similar to Metal Slug series.

The Bad
As a typical old school game, the difficulty is extremely hard and prevent a casual gamers like me to fully enjoy the experience. Besides, an old complain related to this is the absence of saving points during levels, so if you die (and, believe me, you'll die a lot) in the middle of anyone, it is always starting from the beginning all over again. Besides, there's only 3 lives and 3 slots for saving.

The Bottom Line
Although released in 2001, this game is an old school side-scrolling shooter in which you can blast various enemies through platform-based levels with increasing difficulty, "a la" Metal Slug. Besides dodging enemy fire, you can shoot "repulsor rays" from the palm of the hero's hands and chest, aside from a brief capacity of flying. This game is best suited for retro-gaming fans, or fans of the character.