Since the 2008 DC vs Marvel and its follow-up Amalgam crossover series. The crossover between Marvel Comics’ Iron Man and Valiant Comics’ X-O Manowar was less noteworthy outside of the novelty value of its video game adaptation. Though the crossover did see a two-issue limited series in comic book form, the game seems to have been the focus of the crossover, as video game publisher Acclaim had purchased Valiant Comics two years earlier in 1994.
Acclaim bought Valiant with the intention of adapting its comic characters into video games. Some of the Valiant comic-based games from Acclaim are ed fondly by fans, like Turok 2 with its unmatched weapon variety, and the cult classic game Shadow Man which was recently remastered for modern consoles. The sole X-O Manowar game was Heavy Metal, and despite the added draw of Marvel’s Iron Man character, the game has been largely forgotten. The game mostly followed the same storyline as the comic book, where Iron Man villains like Arnim Zola and Baron Zemo teamed up with a few of X-O Manowar’s antagonists to use the Cosmic Cube to try to rewrite the reality of the multiverse.
The comic featured a more elaborate narrative wherein the two comic universes were merged by the Cosmic Cube, creating a world of “Valiant Marvels,” much like the Amalgam comics that followed the DC vs Marvel crossover. This new world recast Marvel Avenger Tony Stark as the host of X-O Manowar’s symbiotic alien armor and time-displaced warrior Aric of Dacia (X-O’s human alter-ego) as the bearer of the Iron Man suit. In the comics, Stark and Aric remade the worlds as they originally were after Baron Zemo and Valiant villain Mistress Crescendo proved unable to withstand the strain of multiversal reality-shaping power. The game featured a more straightforward story, one where the Iron Man and X-O team up to defeat Zemo and Crescendo, followed by a final battle with the alien warlord Krytos, another X-O Manowar antagonist.
Iron Man's X-O Crossover Exemplifies Bad '90s Licensed Games
The recent Iron Man VR was among PSVR’s most impressive games, showcasing the best of what virtual reality is capable of, but Heavy Metal was the epitome of bad game 32-bit era game design. The version released on the original PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and DOS computers was the most infamous, although Heavy Metal had more tolerable portable incarnations released for the Game Boy and Game Gear as well. The home console Heavy Metal allowed the player to choose between Iron Man and X-O, or for the two heroes to fight alongside one another with two-player co-op. It used digitized motion-captured animation, a fad of the era that sometimes produced realistic-looking movement at the cost of sluggish and awkward controls.
What could have been a fun run-and-gun game in the tradition of Contra or Metal Slug ended up as a clunky, frustrating, mess of a game. Iron Man and X-O controlled more or less identically - a stark contrast to the varied characters of the Marvel's Avengers game - with both characters’ flight capabilities limited to a few seconds of hovering which required far longer to recharge. Heavy Metal was poorly reviewed and stands as one of the prime examples of rushed licensed games from Acclaim, alongside the company’s other 1996 flop Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. Outside of the VR title, most Iron Man games have received mediocre reviews, including the console game adaptations of the first two MCU movies, and The Invincible Iron Man for Game Boy Advance. Heavy Metal is likely the worst Iron Man game to date, however, and certainly the strangest, as Acclaim squandered its opportunity to capitalize on a relatively high-profile crossover with one of the worst games of its generation.
