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Iron Man/XO Manowar Review by: M.A. Staff I'll start by saying that this is one cool game that hasn't gotten the credit it deserves because it's a 2D sidescroller & doesn't push the limits of 32-bit hardware. To me, it doesn't matter how revolutionary a game is, but how fun it is to play, and Heavy Metal is loaded with action oriented fun. The storyline of the game is: two supervillians in different dimensions have found the necessary fragments to open a doorway between dimensions and come together in the same dimension to rule the world. Iron Man & XO Manowar must join forces to stop this threat. You can choose to play as either hero or get a buddy and take on the bad guys as a team. You fight and shoot your way through over thirty side-scrolling levels facing new enemies & bosses in each new stage and a password system saves your progress. You can also choose between 3 skill levels. The differences between Iron Man & XO are minimal. Iron man can kick, XO can block, & they both have a punch move. They both have a basic laser weapon with unlimited ammo. Iron Man can shoot in 2 directions at once, while XO has a sword fury move. They both share a chest beam laser that can be powered up 4 times & when fully powered up they possess a super weapon that does major damage. They both can fly for a limited time gauged by a meter. When the meter runs out, they fall but the meter automatically rebuilds itself. They both can shoot into the background to take out enemies & find hidden power-ups & even to find hidden bombs that must be destroyed, thus making the backgrounds interactive. Sometimes hidden switches in the background must be found & shot in order to pass certain levels. Both heroes can also grab the enemies and either slam them to the ground or throw them into the background. Before each level, you're presented with a mission briefing that tells you what to do to clear the level and describes all the enemies & bosses on that level. On most levels you run from left to right or vice versa fighting enemies until you reach the boss. Beat the boss & move on to the next mission. Some levels feature sub-bosses to add to the fun. In some levels you must fly vertically and fall horizontally to reach new areas and find your way out. There are also a few strictly flying levels that you play as you would a shooter type game. Some missions require you to find & destroy bombs before they explode or find & destroy radar devices & radioactive barrels as well as taking on the enemies & bosses, thus giving you more to do than just fighting the enemies. The boss battles are done very well. Sometimes you have a certain time limit to beat it. Certain bosses can grow larger or shrink to almost fly size & sometimes the view scales to a smaller or larger perspective giving the boss levels a different look & feel from the rest of the stage. The graphics are solid. The SGI rendered backgrounds are colorful, detailed and multi-layered. Some scroll vertically as well as horizontally. The characters are motion-captured and very detailed and well animated. Some enemies give off a nice spurt of green alien blood when destroyed. Every new level has a new look to it and no two look the same. The sound is also impressive. There are over a dozen music tracks that feature metal style guitar riffs. The sound effects are your basic kick, punch, laser shot and explosion type effects with some cool death screams and groans thrown in. There's a female voice that says which hero you selected before the game and she says a few things during the mission briefings. The control is very responsive and easy to master. Basically single-button presses for attacks, shots, and jumping and double press the jump button to fly. Plus the normal joystick presses to walk left or right, double press to run, down to duck, and all directions while flying. Nothing complicated here. Overall, I enjoy playing this game. And if you like action packed side-scrollers(as I do), then this games for you. It is solid in all aspects. I couldn't wait for each new mission to see what new enemy and boss would pop up next and to see the next cool background or hear the next killer song! It may not be revolutionary or set any new standards, but for action packed fun it delivers!
Graphics: 8
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