Definitely one of the better games born out of movie franchises but fails to impress for long.
Based primarily on the upcoming movie (with the same name) IRON MAN is a basic fly-by shooter some-what like Geometry Wars Galaxies with an (almost) open-ended map and waves after waves of on-coming enemies.
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Game-play and story:
The story is based strongly on the movie but also borrows from Marvel Iron Man's rich 40 year-old history. But overall the story is rather short (at around 10 hours if i remember probably) but most people will quit after the first 2-3 hours since the game has nothing new to keep your attention on it for long enough.
The action is divided into two categories on-foot and in the air. Although the later dominates most of the game, on-foot action does add some variety.
While in the air, you have your usual non-stop blasters as well as arsenal of guided missiles, beam cannons and EMP stunners to blast away at enemies. You also have the ability to dash at high speeds with the press of a button.
On the ground when you first start off wearing an iron (knight-like) armor at the terrorist base, as the first level helps you get a feel for the controls, but for this small bit all you will have at your arsenal is a powerful-but-slow punch and a flamethrower.
But later on in the game once you get the iron-suit, you get chest and hand mounted lasers as well as improved melee attack. And with those weapons you basically destroy everything in sight until you reach the end of the level.
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Control system:
All movement controls are handled by the D-pad and just about all attack controls are handled by the touch screen thus emulating a pseudo-dual joystick. Occasionally some of the other buttons might also be used for actions such as dashing or breaking down barriers with punches.
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Difficulty levels:
The Game has three difficulty levels (easy, hard and super-hero) and unlike most games based on movie franchises for children, this game is not a walk in the park, owing primarily to the huge number of enemies.
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The Hero's stats:
Your own hit points are represented by a shield bar. Upon loosing all your shield your character is reset on the same spot as long as you have remaining lives. The Easy mode gives you four lives to complete a mission where as the super-hero mode only gives you one. Upon loosing all of your lives you are forced to restart the mission.
All of the weapons except the guided missiles do not require you to collect ammo, but they take good amounts of time to recharge. Only two types of drops are present: Shield re-chargers and missiles.
The game also features a upgrade feature where-in your spend the points earned on completing in-game missions for suit up-grades. It can only be accessed in between missions and not during them similar to games such as Ben 10. Quite frankly the upgrades are a bit overpowered.
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Enemies:
Enemies comprise of Helicopters, Anti-Aircraft missile launchers, Tanks and Foot soldiers with varying levels of weapons, armor and hp (hit-points).
Although the game is designed on the upcoming movie, several Marvel villains characters do pop in as bosses every now and then.
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Graphics and sound
There is nothing new or amazing about the 3D graphics. The game is entirely rendered in 3D and it represents the very-best attainable on the DS without dropping frame rates. All character models are well detailed but the environment could have benefited from more attention.
Sound quality does not need a mention either and the best way to put it would be to say "well..., at least it has sound". Voice acting by the actors from the movie does not add much value.
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Conclusion:
Try this game out only if you are a die hard fan or if you have some time to waste. And even then i would suggest that you rather play this game on a console, since that will at-least have better graphics.