The Canceled Iron Man Game That Never Saw The Light Of Day

Marvel has always been one of the major staples in superhero media. As a matter of fact, Marvel could be even be credited with much of the popularity that superheroes have garnered over the years. Since the very beginning, Marvel has approached superheroes in a different way — they made them human. In 2008, Marvel debuted the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man. The success of Iron Man laid the foundation for the current era of superhero movies.

From 2003 to 2005, Z-Axis was working on an Iron Man video game for Activision. The game was to star the iconic cybernetic red-and-gold superhero, but there is actually very little information about the game itself. With such a long history attached to the character, it seems like there should have been plenty of material for an Iron Man game, even before the launch of the movie series.  So what exactly became of this Iron Man adventure?

In short, the game was canceled. Z-Axis was working desperately to hire high caliber engineers, artists, and animators for the new Iron Man project. The publisher was hard at work — they were set to produce two games, one based on the X-Men and one on Iron Man. Activision needed to release a tie-in X-Men title while it had access to the Marvel licenses, and Iron Man ultimately fell through the cracks. 

Z-Axis and Activision would go on to release X-Men: The Official Game but Iron Man would disappear and be forgotten by all. According to Unseen64, the Iron Man game never quite made it out of the prototype phase, and no gameplay footage seems to exist. The early prototype would produce three screenshots that made it to the public, but nothing more.

It's ironic to see the cancellation of an Iron Man game, considering the character would set the foundation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.