Marvel is turning into the comic company that can do no wrong. While many of its main staple franchises continue to do well in paperback and magazine sales, one of the main drivers of the company's success of late has been its assortment of super hero films based upon classic IPs. These movies have turned into critical and commercial successes, and they've even struck gold using lesser-known heroes like Daredevil and Ghost Rider.

For Summer of 2008, Marvel has pinned its hopes partially on Iron Man (although Hulk is certainly doing quite well at the box office also). Iron Man, a creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (and a founding member of the Avengers), is certainly not an unknown hero but Tony Stark's alter ego doesn't have the star power of the X-Men or Spider-Man. Still, the Iron Man movie has turned out to be a runaway success, with positive critical reviews across the board and an incredible $545 million taken in at the box office. The accompanying movie game, published by Sega, has been riding high on the film's popularity.

We talked with Sean Ratcliffe, Sega's VP of Marketing, about the invincible Iron Man.

Even industrialists need to make some scratch
According to the NPD, Iron Man was the fifth best selling PS3 title, the fourth best selling Xbox 360 title and the best selling PS2 and PSP title during the May period. The PS2 and PSP versions of the game also occupied the seventh and twelfth slots on the multiplatform top 20 chart for the same period. Iron Man ended up selling 130,000 copies on the PS2 and 493,000 overall during May.

"Iron Man overall is meeting and exceeding our expectations here in North America," commented Ratcliffe. "We are thrilled with the results we have seen from the sales of this game and are even more happy to be able to give Iron Man fans the chance to be the hero they have admired."

Cue the Black Sabbath Iron Man song...

The sales of the Iron Man game are a true testament to the power of a brand, since the title's multiple SKUs were poorly received by critics, even by the standards of movie license games. Every version of Iron Man, except the DS release of the game, received a 50 percent or lower on GameRankings.com. GameDaily's Robert Workman scored the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game at 4-out-of-10.

Funny, I don't remember the Melter being in the movie...
Most serious movie games nowadays wouldn't be caught dead without the voice talents of the key actors, and Iron Man is no different. Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub and headliner Robert Downey Jr. are all on hand to breathe life into their respective characters from the film. "Using the talent from the movie helped to bring the movie to life and take gamers deeper into the Iron Man environments they so enjoyed when watching the film," commented Ratcliffe. "The film and the game worked together to create a truly playable Iron Man world for fans." Still, some critics asserted that the in-game renderings of the actors' likenesses were not at all lifelike.

Iron Man the game takes the plot of the movie and expands on it, adding in characters from the comic strip and giving players access to unlockable armors like the Silver Centurion, the Extremis and the Hulkbuster. Tony Stark has to confront the likes of Madame Masque, the Melter and Titanium Man among others. While these individuals are traditional Iron Man foes, some reviewers said their addition broke up the flow of the movie's story.

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