Iron Man 3, which is available for iOS and Android, is focused on Tony Stark, a playboy billionaire, technology genius, and superhero in Marvel’s comic book universe. Similar to Batman in the DC universe, Tony’s vast wealth and intelligence are his greatest weapons. Using his ability to develop cutting edge technology combined with near limitless wealth, Tony Stark can develop suits of armor which, when donned, provide him with superhuman-like powers such as flight and stamina. Not to be discounted are the various weapons built into the armor which give Tony Stark firepower similar to that of a small army. Using his armor, Tony Stark fights crime and protects his city under the moniker Iron Man.
The Iron Man franchise has a lot of media surrounding it that game developers could turn to for inspiration, such as the extensive comic book series and several movies. Iron Man 3 pulls from the similarly titled Iron Man 3 Movie.
The plot in this game transpires after the events of the movie. Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M) – an evil scientific organization – tries to kill Tony Stark and, in doing so, bring an end to Iron Man’s heroics.
In Iron Man 3, players control the direction Iron Man moves by tilting their phone to the right or left. A separate control scheme can be enabled in settings for those that dislike the tilt mechanic.
Swiping across the screen or tapping on enemies causes Iron Man to launch an attack.
The special power button is used to launch a devastating attack. The special powers are only available for use when Iron Man’s power bar is full. The power bar is filled by progressing through the level or immediately maxed out by collecting Fuel Cells.
Fans of the endless runner genre will feel right at home playing Iron Man 3, as this is the format the game takes the vast majority of the time. Unlike pure endless runners though, there are several modes which the player may encounter in various orders as they move through the different maps and levels.
The most basic mode in Iron Man 3 is Travel Mode where players will guide Tony Stark in a flight through various obstacles. In this mode, the focus is on avoidance of barriers as well as collection of the base currency – Stark Credits – and various power ups that either give players a leg up or increase their score.
Blast Mode is often mixed in with Travel Mode and requires players to eliminate enemies. This is accomplished via swiping a finger across the enemies to direct Iron Man’s laser or by directly tapping on each enemy to fire a missile.
Ground Mode is quite similar to Blast Mode but Iron Man is stationary during the fights rather than continuing to fly. The reduction in difficulty by removing flight maneuvering is made up for by more challenging enemies that must be dispatched of quickly. The enemies you encounter won’t vary very much outside of boss fights, but some complexity is added by occasionally having a target that Iron Man must avoid hitting mixed in with the regular enemies. The added difficulty can actually be pretty high as the game tends to speed up as you travel longer distances. Players will have to balance quick kills with delaying their reflexes long enough to make sure they’re taking down the right targets.
Boss Mode is only activated when Iron Man faces one of the four main villains in the game. Iron Man is usually stationary and all the player’s attention must be directed to avoiding damage from bosses (who generally hit a lot harder than their minions) and doing enough damage to kill said bosses.
The most basic currency, and the one used for the majority of transactions in the game, are Stark Credits. As in other endless runners, players will guide Iron Man over a trail of credits while at the same time avoiding the path’s obstacles. Almost all of the Stark Credits are simple stark credits, but there are also rarely Vibraniums and Gold Vibraniums distributed throughout the course. Vibraniums reward twice the amount of stark credits when collected, and Gold Vibraniums reward three times the amount.
ISO-8 – short for Isotope 8 – is a rare element with great power in the Marvel Universe, and in Iron Man 3 serves as the premium currency which is mostly purchased with real money. There are, however, a few ways to get this powerful currency for free – I discuss these tactics and more in the Tips, Tricks, and Cheats section below.
In true endless runner fashion, Iron Man 3 features various power ups players can collect during a level. There are six main power ups:
Magne Force, like its name suggests, makes Iron Man magnetic which draws currency to him as he speeds through the map. The magnetic force is not super powerful, however, so players will still have to guide Iron Man to the general vicinity of the currency in order for it to be picked up. In practice, this just makes the requirement for tight controls a little less demanding for the duration of the buff.
The Alpha Duplicator increases the score multiplier based on the value your current suit of armor has. This effect is discussed in more detail in the armor and shop section of the article.
Proton Field gives Iron Man invincibility with a number of charges. Each time the player hits an obstacle or is hit by an enemy, a charge is depleted. Once all the charges are gone Iron Man loses his shield and will begin to take damage from enemies and obstacles.
Fusion Charge is similar to Proton Field in that in provides Iron Man with invincibility, but it is based off of a timer rather than a charge system. Players are also granted increased speed for a short duration. This, in practice, allows players to plow through everything in their path at super speeds with no downsides as long as they begin paying attention again as the buff expires.
Fuel Cells immediately fill the power meter on Iron Man’s weapon.
Credit Overload greatly increases the amount of Stark Credits available for collection for a short amount of time. It also spawns Vibraniums and Gold Vibraniums.
Armors
As mentioned above, Tony Stark isn’t much of a hero without his armor, and Iron Man 3 includes a ton of different armors available for the player to unlock. These armors can be categorized into one of five categories: Striker Missile Armor, Unibeam Blast Armor, Frost Charge Armor, Special Offer Armor, and Armor Parts.
The first three categories mentioned make up the majority of the suits in the game. These three armor divisions are named for the special power they grant Tony when equipped. Though there are many different models of armor in the game, they can generally be sorted based on the special attack they grant. The different models simply offer improved stats in more pricey models, rather than any really unique gameplay. A Mark III and a Mark 25 suits both use Striker missiles, but Mark 25 is more powerful than Mark III.
Each suit of armor has 3 base stats and an Alpha score which determines the multiplier for your score during the game.
The Hit Points rating reflects how much damage Iron Man can take before dying.
The Weapon Damage rating reflects how powerful Iron Man’s basic attacks are.
Finally, the Special rating determines how strong Iron Man’s special ability is while using the suit.
The Striker Missile category is the division initially accessible to players. The special ability, Striker Missile, makes the armor shoot missiles at targeted enemies.
The Unibeam Blast armors are unlocked next, and generally are more powerful than Striker Missile armors. The Unibeam Blast special power fires a gigantic beam of energy from Iron Man’s chest.
The Frost Charge suits are the most powerful of the three main categories and the Frost Charge power freezes all enemies you’re currently fighting and instantly kills them.
As mentioned above, there are two more categories: Special Offer Armor, and Armor Parts.
Special Offer armors are of various types and are usually Limited Edition Armors that are very powerful.
Armor Parts, as the name suggests, consists of armors that require parts to be built. There are only a few suits in this category and they require over 30 parts that are relatively time consuming to collect.
By clicking on the S.H.O.P button, players can buy boosters which give Iron Man a leg up during missions. The majority of these are permanent and offer bonuses such as increasing the value of credits you collect or increasing the rate of your special weapon charge. Some of these bonuses are unlockable with Stark Credits while others require ISO-8.
The Upgrades section offers purchases that increase the effectiveness of Power Ups obtained while in the field as well as powerful boosts ranging from “Unlock All Armors” to a flat 100% increase in income gained by flying over Stark Credits. This category has a mix of Stark Credits, ISO-8 and a flat real money price depending on which item you’re purchasing.
The Locations tab lets you purchase new maps to play on, ranging from China to outer space.
Iron Man 3 is a really fun game that everyone can enjoy, but you will soon realize blue gems, XP, and stark credits are really important to the game. While you can get these items through the app store, but it will cost you real money, and this gets expensive quickly. If you would like to get the blue gems, XP, and stark credits for free, then you need to download our free hack tool for Iron Man 3.
The image below shows you how easy the Iron Man 3 hack tool is to use. All you need to do is enter the amount of blue gems, XP, and stark credits that you want to add to your account.
Simply download the Iron Man 3 hack tool, and this should take about 20 seconds to download. You will notice it automatically installs, which should take about 30 seconds or less. Then, select either Android or iOS, and you can then enter the amounts of blue gems, XP, and stark credits that you want to add to your gaming account.
Lastly, tap “Start” to begin the Iron Man 3 hack tool, and this takes less than 30 seconds to complete. You can simply open up the app on your device, and you will notice the blue gems, XP, and stark credits have been added to your account. Using our free hack tool allows you to get all of the blue gems, XP, and stark credits that you want without making any real money purchases.
Make sure you’re running over as many power ups as you can in order to lower the difficulty of harder levels and increase your score.
If Iron Man dies during a mission, you have the option to watch a video ad to revive him. Unfortunately the amount of ads is not huge and eventually you’ll have to wait for the developer to replenish the stock, so make sure you’re using those free revives at critical points in your mission or to continue a high score.
For a onetime bonus of Stark Credits, connect your game to Facebook and Google+
On the main screen there is a trophy button that when pressed brings you to an achievements screen. Completing these achievements is the quickest way to earn free ISO-8.
The Daily Bonus button rewards players for collecting collectibles. By completing the daily bonus requirement each day, you can get rewards ranging from free Stark Credits to powerful buffs. The first week of Daily Bonus requires you to get three collectibles each day, the second, four, and the third and final, five. These collectibles are collected pretty easily if you put a bit of time into the game each day, so make sure you complete your Daily Bonus whenever possible.
I really enjoyed Iron Man 3, and I didn’t see a lot of downsides. One complaint – which isn’t really a design flaw so much as a shortcoming – is the fact that the majority of armor you can unlock doesn’t vary other than giving you a flat stat increase. While I realize it would be incredibly difficult to make every suit have a different ability or quirk considering how many suits of armor are in the game, I think Iron Man 3 would have benefitted with a few less armors and a little more variation for each one. Even between the basic categories the abilities don’t vary a ton outside of how they look, though they do differ slightly.
The graphics in Iron Man 3 are beautiful and often times I forgot I was playing a mobile game. The soundtrack is equally beautiful with a cinematic soundtrack. I was also pleasantly surprised by how much voice acting there was as well as the consistent quality of the voice actors. The game feels very solid and pretty much everything about the experience was super professional.
On that same note, I enjoyed the lack of obtrusive advertisement. Though there are a few items in the game that are only purchasable via real money, the majority of items are bought with Stark Credits or ISO-8 – both of which can be obtained for free if players are willing to put some time in. Considering the huge audience the game has, it’s clear that micro transactions alone are enough to support the game’s ongoing development. It’s rare that a “free” game lets players play without some sort of blatant monetization. The only ads I really saw in the game were when I was given the option to watch one to bring Iron Man back to life and continue my current attempt at the level. In this situation, both parties benefit from the player viewing the ad which is a mechanic I really enjoyed. Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone who’s a fan of Iron Man or endless runners – or even just good games in general!
Artwork:
Iron Man 3 has great art assets for its characters and environment and provides probably the best graphics I’ve seen thus far on the mobile platform. There are also a lot of different environments that offers some much needed variety to the game. Rating: 10/10
Music / Sound Effects:
The music is gorgeous and sounds like it came straight out of a movie. The voice acting and sound effects are also top notch. Rating: 9/10
Story / Originality:
The story is decent but not overly engaging or complex. Iron Man 3 shook up the generic endless runner formula by interspersing combat and other trials into the experience. Rating: 6/10
General Gameplay:
The gameplay is really enjoyable and keeps me coming back for more. However, the variety the game offers is not limitless especially considering how few different types of armor available as well as the fact that the game plays pretty much the same no matter what special ability you have access to. Rating: 7/10
Addictiveness:
The game has a bunch of different levels and daily bonuses which encourage players to come back, though I don’t think this game will hold my interest long term simply because it’s pretty easy to quickly discover all the content, and it’s not so engaging that I want to grind it out over and over. Rating: 4/10
Overall Rating:
This game was pretty fantastic despite the fact that it fell a bit short of its potential in terms of offering variety and unique ways to play the game. Considering how friendly the game is to people who don’t want to spend money or be shown never-ending advertisements, there’s really no downside to downloading it and giving it a try. Overall, I highly recommend Iron Man 3. Rating: 8/10