"A great idea ruined by a hastly job"

It all started in 1976 when two comic companies decided to get together and an idea was born. DC's famous hero, Superman, teamed up with Marvel's own, Spider-man, to battle against their sparring partners, Lex luthor and Doctor Octopus. Since then, there have been other stories with that idea, such as Batman vs. the Hulk, and X-men meet the New Teen Titans. Because of legal difficulties and idea disputes, ( there was a story with the Avengers and the Justice League Of America, but that fell through) this idea did not take off untill 1994 when they made a four-issue graphic novel called Marvel vs. DC. Then movies and TV, as well as, other comic companies decided to join the act to create these tales: Batman vs. the Predator, Superman vs. Aliens, Robocop vs. the Termenator, Archie meets the Punisher and so on. Which brings to this video game. Marvel's Iron Man encountering Acclain/Valiant's X-O Manowar. Unfortunely, this idea alone (and this hype) won't save this game from total obscuredly.

While I know all about Iron Man ( as does everybody else ), I don't know anything about X-O except what I got from this game, and it's not much. His real name is Ario of Dacia and his foes are Mistress Crescendo, Augur and their spider soldiers. They have joined forces with Iron Man's Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil (it doesn't say that on the game, but the list is too long to mention here). They are going after a device called the Cosmic Cube, which would give them ultimate power. Your job, as Iron Man and/or X-O Manowar, is to battle through 30+ level, save the world, invade Castle Zemo and beat the bad guys.

There are good and bad things about the graphic. The backgrounds are detailed and colorful. The subway level looks realistic. However, the animation needs work. The movement is choppy missing frames. A spider soldier fast walking across the screen is painful to watch. Stan Lee would not be impress, seeing Iron Man move so stifly. They are shown very small, that it's hard to see the detailed drawing of them. I was dissappointed that they didn't put any "mini-stories" before, during, or after the levels like capcom does with Street Fighter and Resident Evil. It would make this game more enjoyable.

The sound is nothing to brag about, either. There are 20 music tracks, which consists of heavy metal themes. They're okay, in my opinion, and I like at least two of them, but they all sound too similar. The sound effects are worse than the music. All the different characters sound alike. X-O sound like Iron Man, Titania sound like Mistress Crescendo, and so on. They don't talk or say witty banter. They just grunt and scream. Very unimagative.

When I first heard of this game, I thought it would be like a 3-D superheroes role playing game. That's rare. Instead, it's just a 2-D side scrolling fighter with 3-D effects thrown in. Actually, the gameplay is not bad. Some levels are fast and tense, but it doesn't stand out to other scroller games, nor impress those who like to play 3-D games like Tomb Raider. Replayability is not high, since the levels are similar and very little motivation put in.

The controls are responsive and have a lot of options, but most of the time you either shoot or jump and fly. The others are totalally useless. To add the final nail, ther is no memory save feature. After you complete a level, you'll get a ridiculously long password that you write down. It's worse than waiting for the game to load.

The game was a great attempt, but it look like a rush job. I wasn't overall dissappoint with it. I like the graphics, the music and gameplay, but the animation, sound, password and the mediocre attitude sticks out like a sore thumb. I think it did more damage on X-O's popularity than it help him. I haven,t seen his comics sold anywhere, so I don't know whether they cancel his series or not. You can buy this game if you really (and I mean really) like Iron Man, scroller game AND if it cost under five dollars. Other than that, rent it at your risk.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/00, Updated 04/10/00