Out of all the video games based on comic books and/or movies, only a microscopic few have been any good (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance being one of those few). The past decade has seen a literal avalanche of utter garbage being dumped on gamers in the form of rushed, unfinished, low quality titles designed solely to cash in on a movie release date (ala Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer). It boggles the mind that, with all the ample examples of “what not to do”, developers continue to give gamers rotten fish and call it cake. Along comes Sega with their “crazy” idea of actually producing a game worthy (we hope) of both the hype and almost fifty years of fan devotion.

Find out what Sega has done to elevate the new Iron Man title above the usual dreck of comic inspired video games, after the jump!

When Sega announced Iron Man as a title in progress at last year’s E3, gamers were stunned. Not because a developer was making yet another comic/movie inspired title, but rather because the game was not slated to arrive until mid 2008 (now slated for May 2nd). Meaning that for once, a game of this nature was NOT being rushed out the door. I think we can all agree that it was damn near unprecedented.

We’ve all been fooled by great looking trailers in the past, but even the most skeptical comic video game critic has to admit that the gameplay trailers for the title look outstanding. Both the graphics and the gameplay “look” top notch. The only thing missing was quality voice talent. Anyone who has played a comic/movie inspired game recently knows how jarring voice acting was in the games. Granted, the acting in most comic book movies is sub-standard, but compared to the yokels they get to do the voice acting in the video game version, they’re brilliant. For the longest time, it seemed the golden rule was to find a dyslexic wino just back from a Vegas bender to lend their voice to some of the most famous characters ever created.

Well Sega’s two developers (Secret Level & Artificial Mind) responsible for creating the multi-platform release have broken the mold and managed to acquire REAL actors for the game. Oscar caliber actors no less. Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Terence Howard (Rhodey) and Shaun Toub (Yinsen) have agreed to lend their voices to the video game version of Iron Man. Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges declined, but except for Jackson I doubt gamers could give a damn. Now this may be happening because the three actors actually care about the fans and the franchise, or that Sega actively pursued them for the game, but the result is the same. For once my hopes are high for a movie/game tie-in, which is surely one of the first signs of the approaching apocalypse.

Seriously, whoever cast Downey and Howard deserves a freaking medal.

Source: IGN & GameSpot

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