I really want to like Gameloft’s upcoming Iron Man 3 [Free], as I can totally get behind making a unique-ish game that actually feels like a cool little mobile companion game to an upcoming movie which will no doubt be a total slam dunk like the rest of the Iron Man series… But leave it to Gameloft to shoehorn in the weirdest free to play elements. Nearly a gig installed, Iron Man 3 is a behind the back endless runner flyer where you control Iron Man blasting down a highway (and other locales). The game starts by asking you not only if it can send you push alerts, but also if it can have access to your contacts, and the free to play stuff just gets stranger from there.
I feel like by now the behind the back runner freemium pay model has matured decently, as most of these games you know how they’re going to work and how you’re going to pay for them regardless of whether you’re stealing an idol in Temple Run (Free) or running through underground lairs in Agent Dash (Free). Iron Man 3 follows in a similar path, but adds the innovative feature of timers not only linked to each of these upgrades, but also to just playing the game itself. It’s easy enough to say “Well, whatever" to needing to wait a bit before your armor upgrade takes effect, but needing to either wait or pay premium currency to skip repairing your suit between runs seems bananas.
It’s too bad, too, as Iron Man 3 is actually a pretty neat game. The sense of speed is good, the different sections of the game split between flying on the ground and avoiding traffic and flying in the air with almost Fruit Ninja-style swiping to shoot your laser around is a lot of fun- Especially if you even vaguely enjoy the Iron Man universe. It’s just so easy to reach that point where you hit a timer, say, “Alright, nuts to this," and go play a different game.
It seems like Gameloft has taken a really weird approach to the whole free to play thing recently, as the best free to play titles put the actual game in the driver’s seat while the freemium elements are easily within reach in the nearby proverbial cup holder if you want to take a sip off of them. Take Nimble Quest (Free) for instance, you can grind away all day slowly collecting crystals with nothing getting in your way. The free to play road blocks run along side the game, instead of the Gameloft approach which throws very deliberate stopping points in a way that directly conflicts with the specific genre.
Constantly chugging potions is just what you do in dungeon crawlers, but in Dungeon Hunter 4 (Free), that’s directly gated via a time sink. Similarly, the whole idea behind these endless runners is just constantly retrying… And it feels really weird when you can’t just hit “retry," and instead need to wait for Jarvis to repair your suit. These repair time sinks, much like Real Racing 3 (Free), are mitigated a bit by unlocking different suits (the first of which takes 15 real-world minutes to “build"), but it still doesn’t make the whole thing feel any less gross. Maybe things smooth out as you get deeper into the game, but my initial impressions of Iron Man 3 aren’t great- Which is a real problem in free to pay games where users make that initial “Do I invest time in this or delete it" judgement call in the first few play sessions.
It’ll be out tonight at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially way earlier if you’re east of the US App Store region. If you want to be notified when the game is available, add it to your TouchArcade app (Free) watch list. Alternatively, you can just watch the game get burnt to the ground in our forums, which I’m sure will only get worse as the US App Store witching hour approaches tonight. We’ll take an in-depth look at the game soon to try to figure out just how much you have to wait (or pay) to see all the cool stuff Gameloft shows off in Iron Man 3’s trailer.
International App Store Link: Iron Man 3, Free
First reaction, without having seen anything of the included video: LONE WOOOLF, YEAAAAH!!!! Childhood memories, omfg, I'm 12 again and in love with a book series where I'M the hero and not just some bloke who makes irrational decisions <3
I'mma watch the video now...
Oh snap! I remember playing some of the Lone Wolf books that Project AON made available via DS homebrew. They were easily the best, most professional homebrew games on the scene (and a lot better than some commercial games, in fact). I wonder if any "staff" overlap.
Lone Wolf... The memories... And with the direction they are taking this they seem intent on raising the bar on digital Gamebooks! This is so a day one purchase for me!
Battles are bit slow paced, but otherwise this looks *amazing*! Can't wait.
I'm sure they get faster as your stats go up...
Brad, why are you singing at 0:48? And: "Why don't you know more?" You guys are awesome!
Ok that looked pretty slick! I loved the moving artwork and the UI for making decisions. The interactive battles looked somewhat slow, though cool and well made. I'll probably get this as it comes out, just to experience new adventures in Magnamund.
Hint: peeps who get curious about the books will be able to find the reprint by Mongoose Publishing (2007-2013) on eBay if nowhere else, with more books on the way - coming from Mantikore-Verlag.
This looks freakin amazing...any idea if it will be universal?
Please please please be on iPhone I have somany good memories wih this series...
Lone Wolf!! This release can not come quick enough. Loved the books when I was a youngun.
The battles sure seem to take a long time
My parents bought me the first book from this series as a Christmas present when I was in 6th or 7th grade. This sparked my desire to read and write my own stories. So many great memories! Thank you TA for this special surprise to make my day!
Would've been better if it had the same controls as Infinity Blade.
Epic wizard voice.
This better have a iphone version or it would suck so bad
Got to see a demo of this at the TA GDC party - it was beautiful!
This is looking pretty bad ass! This definitely puts the game in gamebook.
I made it to "blanketed… with crisp snowFLANKED!" before cracking up.
I'm not sure what made me feel more like I was in high school again during the video. The fact that its Lone Wolf or the fact that the two guys playing through it sounded like the were both 15.
Ohh this brings me back nice memories. We've played this gamebook series 20 years ago when we were kids. I'll definitely put this on my wath list. Btw. If you guys can't wait for iOS Lone Wolf then google Project AON;)
good app
my most favorite book series ever. definitely looking forward to this.
Man, I love this world. Childhood memories of me in the local library after school, being Lone Wolf and saving the land, rebuilding the Kai monestary, mastering more and more powers... Can't wait to be able to buy this. Hope it'll come out for the iPad, not to mention being able to run on the venerable iPad 2. Which is what I own...
I Am not native speaker, so I appreciate your English lessons...will sharpen my wizard English pronunciation. :) THX guys for your great work on TA.
Hey guys, Alessandro from Forge Reply here.
Thanks to Brad for the great video!
It's great to learn that there are still many fans of Lone Wolf out there and that they can't wait to play our game.
There is going to be an iPhone version, don't worry, and I'll open a thread on the TA Forums in a couple of minutes with additional details so stay tuned!
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
TAKE ME NOW LONEWOLF!
Please, check the official Lone Wolf thread on TA Forums: http://forums.toucharcade.c...
The art direction is pure Valkyria Chronicles. Especially the opening to the battle scene @ 5:00 where it goes from pencil sketch to watercolor looks exactly like the intro movie to VC.
This "insane surprise" isn't anything like The Crying Game, I hope?
Because if it is, I'm totally not watching that video. T_T