Back in the 1990s, Marvel was struggling pretty hard. With the general decline of comic book sales, comic book movies, and merchandise, the whole industry was in financial trouble, with Marvel having a particularly rough time. Following the company filing for bankruptcy in 1996, Marvel started to sell off its characters, with Sony taking Spider-Man, Universal taking Hulk, and Fox taking the X-Men. But with the rise of comic book movies in the early 2000s, thanks to those companies and their use of the sold characters, Marvel thought it would have another crack at creating a movie, and thus 2008's Iron Man was born.
Kick-starting a decade-old franchise, Iron Man did the impossible, not only making Marvel a relevant company once again but also turning Iron Man into a household name. Despite debuting all the way back in 1963, Iron Man had never really hit the mainstream like some of his other Avengers co-stars. But with the rise in popularity of the MCU, Iron Man started to become much more well-known, eventually leading to a slew of video game outings, to mixed results.
A-Tier
- Iron Man VR: Released in 2020, exclusively for PlayStation VR, Iron Man VR lets players take to the skies in their very own suit of armor. Iron Man VR sees players try to track down the mysterious Ghost, all while facing off against hordes of hacked Stark drones. Before each mission, players can customize their loadout with a variety of iconic Iron Man weaponry, including a range of different repulsors and rockets. Iron Man VR isn't a perfect game, with some disappointing enemy variety and excruciatingly long load times, but it may just be the best Iron Man standalone game of all time, letting players actually inhabit the suit themselves and zip around a variety of fun environments.
B-Tier
- The Invincible Iron Man: A 2002 Game Boy Advance game, The Invincible Iron Man is a surprisingly solid 2D side-scroller that pits Iron Man against classic foes like Crimson Dynamo. While the game suffers from some lackluster enemy AI, and the levels are all straightforward linear affairs, The Invincible Iron Man wins points for actually being just a fun game with some stylish visuals.
- Iron Man (2008) Nintendo DS: The first of the Iron Man 2008 tie-in titles on this list, Iron Man on the Nintendo DS is actually the best version of the game. Trading in its big console counterpart's third-person action for a succinct top-down shooter, Iron Man on DS isn't anything special, but it is a challenging, and quite rewarding experience with plenty of upgrades and tons of enemy variety to keep the player hooked for its short 4-hour runtime.
- Iron Man 2 (Xbox 360/PS3): The big flagship version of the Iron Man 2 tie-in game, this Xbox 360 and PS3 version offers some decent third-person action gameplay. Though its rough graphics, short runtime, and repetitive combat are all big downsides, the progression system and the ability to play as both Iron Man and War Machine help to make this one stand out.
- Iron Man 2 (Nintendo DS): Unlike its predecessor, Iron Man 2 on Nintendo DS goes for a side-scrolling action approach. By swiping the touch-screen, players can fire War Machine or Iron Man's various weapons, and pressing button inputs will engage them in hand-to-hand combat. It's all pretty simple, but it's a solid tie-in movie game.
C-Tier
- Iron Man (2008) Xbox 360/PS3: The big flagship tie-in for the very first MCU movie, Iron Man for Xbox 360 and PS3 is an ambitious game, but one that misses more shots than it lands. Though the idea of flying through large, open environments as Iron Man is great on paper, in reality, it feels a little too stiff and awkward to control. Throw some bland environments, poor enemy AI, and mindless combat on top of that and Iron Man is a sub-par tie-in game.
- Iron Man 3: A mobile-exclusive title, Iron Man 3 is an on-rails shooter in a similar vein to Starfox. While the gameplay itself is pretty fun, with the player using touch controls to tap on enemy drones and destroy them, Iron Man 3 had some pretty predatory microtransactions, requiring players to drop real-world cash to continue playing, or unlock the suits necessary to continue.
D-Tier
- Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal: Widely considered to be one of the worst Marvel games of all time, Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal may be the first Iron Man standalone game, but that's no excuse. Awful visuals, terrible sound quality, stiff controls, and repetitive and sluggish combat are all just surface elements that make Iron Man and X-O Manowar such a bad game.
