Iron Man - first look

The Iron Man movie may still be under wraps, but at last week's E3 show Sega was pimping out an early look at the game of the movie, which includes big names like Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow. Whether any of these famous faces will take time out to speak into a microphone for the game remains to be announced but Sega's developer team has had access to most, if not all, assets from the film.

Behind closed doors we saw an early level in progress that took place in a snowy mountain environment, housing an enemy military base. First impressions were that we were looking at a Superman game (and we all know how they turn out), which isn't that far off the mark as Iron Man does fly around a lot. His costume isn't blue though, it's red.

Iron Man is highly mobile and loaded with laser weapons. He can take on armies of enemies across large battlefields with ease. Individually none of the Russian units can pose a threat because he's that hard, but it's when they stack up as a combination of enemies that things get a little more interesting.

Members of Sega's team were on hand to walk us through the demo. "If you keep moving laterally the enemies won't keep up with you," one of the producers explained to us. "Surface to air missiles will target you when you're in the air not on the ground. A tank is much more dangerous when you're on the ground as opposed to in the air. By creating different tactical uses for the enemies we layer them to create more complex groups of enemies."

He went on todemonstrate the weapon system: "As far as Iron Man's weapons go, we have the pulsar blasts that come out of his hands. Then there's the more powerful pulsar beam that comes from his chest. Just as Tony Stark is constantly adding upgrades to his suit, we give that same option to the player." Superman had to wait until a sequel before he got upgraded.