With barely a wince of exertion, Gameloft curls out yet another perfectly adequate, if unspectacular, film adaptation for the iPhone.
Playing as the titular millionaire playboy turned armour-clad superhero, voiced here by someone who sounds not even slightly like Robert Downey Jr, you must navigate a handful of competently realised levels while coming up against an assortment of easily defeated baddies. There's some uncomplicated puzzles to solve along the way, and a few nice set-pieces bringing a spot of variety to the gameplay, but no real surprises. All the locations and all the adversaries, as well as the plot, feel rather familiar.
The graphics are impressive for the platform, as is usually the case with Gameloft's iPhone titles, and also in keeping with most of its stable mates it's very easy indeed – so easy that one swiftly begins to long for anything that could be construed as a challenge. Every now and then a particularly fearsome looking robot or suchlike will turn up, but just as you set in for an extended boss battle the thing helpfully falls to bits after taking a few well-placed laser hits.
Nevertheless, Iron Man 2 is an inoffensive enough diversion. The same title on the 360, Wii and PS3 has been widely panned, and it's unlikely that this version does anything that's much better. However, expectations here are markedly lower given that this is essentially a £3.99 mobile game.
Gameloft has demonstrated time and again that it's capable of well designed, great looking 3D iPhone games (setting a pretty high bench mark with the recent NOVA); if only it could reach the same standards when it comes to offering some genuinely exciting gameplay.
