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Games that have been converted from movies have gotten a bad rap over the years, and in all honesty, this bad reputation is mostly deserved.  We’ve all tried the horrific adaptation of some movie or another, and got fed up with shoddy controls and lousy graphics and weak storylines.

But I think I may have found one that at least manages to not be a complete loss–the adaptation of Iron Man.

In Iron Man, you’ll play as the Robert Downey Jr. version of Tony Stark, a wisecracking ladies’ man, who creates a suit of futuristic armor powered by his pacemaker.  For those among you who think I’m being too glib, you’ll have to admit, I’m not really THAT far off.  He’ll confront a panoply of enemies, most of which are identifiable from the comics, as he takes Stark Industries from a gigantic arms dealership on into the future, a move resisted by many of his current clients.

When I picked this game up, I admit I had something of a mixed reaction. One, I was operating under years of horrible movie to game translations that haven’t gone well in years.  You know the saying, once bitten, twice shy?  Well, I’ve been bitten by game translations a whole lot more than once.  I’ve been bitten more times than a twelve-foot hoagie at a Super Bowl party.  But at the same time, I got reason to hope right off the bat.  See, the Iron Man game was made by Sega.  I have a very good experience with Sega, mostly because I stay away from Sonic the Hedgehog games like the plague.  So I’ve got great memories of Crazy Taxi and House of the Dead and a whole legion of killer Sega games.

I was hoping for the best and fearing for the worst when I put this in, and what I got was actually something in between.  What I got was a surprisingly simple game–you could almost call it STARK, no pun intended but it’s there anyway–I ran around, I flew, I blasted stuff.  Clearly this wasn’t going to win any prizes for deep and complex gameplay.  The graphics and sound were serviceable, if again, a bit minimalist.  And even the story isn’t a terribly far cry from the original movie storyline with a few interesting curlicues added on for effect.

Basically, what I got out of Iron Man was a cheap, serviceable action platformer with most of the platforms pulled out.  The game stages are wide open and sweeping, so you can generally decide what order you tackle objectives.  The armor is upgradable with various powerups and such, and the end result is a solid if lackluster game.

Solid if lackluster…like iron itself.  That’s about the best way to describe it.  The Iron Man game definitely doesn’t suck.  It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it has no legs and the action’s simplistic.  It might as well have “For Rental Only” stamped on the front of it because this sucker is the TEXTBOOK DEFINITION of a good rental. Great for two to five days then you’ll be looking to get rid of it.

It won’t win any awards…not even Razzies.  And that puts it in the running for one particular award, Best Movie To Game Translation Ever.