I’m pleased to say the winner of the weekend competition to win my very own Iron Man t-shirt was - everyone who entered! Yes, I recieved some more T-shirts at SEGAAUK Towers courtesy of the Brand team so all those who entered look to your inbox and you should see what I need from you by way of details.

Now those who didn’t enter DON’T start trying to add your name I’ve turned the comments off for that post.

I’ll see if I can do another weekend competition tomorrow.

PS: The answer was B - WAR MACHINE.

As you well know by now Iron Man is out in the cinema and available to play via the official video game developed by Secret Level. SEGA en masse - both our main Brentford and SEGAAUK HQs - went out to Leicester Square to see the film last night. (Which rocks, make sure you stick around until after the credits have rolled!!!) We even snuck in the time before hand to down a few tasty beverages in a nearby bar in a private room worryingly named “The Leather Booth”.

Least said about that the better I think…..

Anyway the weekend starts here with a little competition to get your mits on one of the Iron Man t-shirts made for all SEGA staff to celebrate the launch of the video game. You are litterally competing for mine. Simply add a comment at the end of this post with your email address and answer and I’ll pick a name at random on Monday.

Q: Which of the below is the name of an ally of Iron Man?

A: War Child
B: War Machine
C: Dream Machine

Our US counterparts - who are actually over here from next week to ”see Stonehenge and watch the Morecambe and Wise Show” (er, yeah…) got the chance last month to have a bit of a natter with Marvel.  More specifically, the Iron Man production team interview with questions from both the SEGA Community team, Marvel.com  - the real experts on on all things Super Hero related naturally enough.  As the US team put it: 

“We were very fortunate to get the opportunity to reach out to our production team and grill them on some of the questions beating around in our heads.  Big thanks to Andy Alamano, Associate Producer on the Iron Man video game, who was kind enough to sit down and discuss what makes the Iron Man game great. ”

If you want to see the first part of the interview you can check it out here at http://www.marvel.com/news/vgstories.3347.

SEGA Community: How much freedom did you have when crafting the story for the game? Did you work with the movie or comic folks for input/info?

Andy Alamano: Working with Marvel’s rich comic history allowed us a lot of freedom to pick and choose elements from within the comic run. Marvel had a great deal of visibility every step of the way.

SEGA Community: The game looks beautiful, but if you could pick, what one detail do you think fans are really going to be blown away with?

Andy Alamano: I think the greats detail within the Iron Man game is Iron Man himself. Every suit included in the game has amazing detail. Each time you gain access to another armor set, you can’t help but just use the game camera to examine it.

SEGA Community: You guys have some of the film’s cast locked in for voice talent. How was it working with them on the game?

Andy Alamano: Everyone we worked with was very excited to reprise their roles from the film in the game. Robert Downey Jr. is so excited about the role that he actually took a lot of his time to go over our game script and help iterate on specific details to make sure our Tony was the same as the film’s.

SEGA Community: Any obstacles that were especially tricky in overcoming when developing the game? What did you find about Iron Man and his world that was difficult?

Andy Alamano: One of the biggest challenges was creating a world that was big enough for Iron Man. Because he moves so fast, we had to have a world where he could navigate quickly but not feel cramped. The end results are some massive landscapes that allow for total freedom of flight.

SEGA Community: During the development process we all know aspects of the game get removed, were there any features in particular that you wish made it into the final game?

Andy Alamano: I think Tony Stark outside the suit is a great character; it would have been awesome to have been able to include some Stark-esque “mini games” revolving around his lifestyle outside the suit…

SEGA Community: Are there differences between the different system versions?

Andy Alamano: Each version has unique aspects about it. The PS3 and 360 feature huge environments and include exclusive suits. The PS2 and PSP feature more tight quarters fighting and adventure elements. The Wii includes all sorts of Wii themed control abilities and the DS has a great classic top down shooter vibe.

SEGA Community: What are the major differences for the Nintendo DS and PSP versions? Are players encountering the story from a side scrolling perspective, or is the game fully 3d?

Andy Alamano: The game is fully 3D on every platform. The DS is more of an overhead shooter style but we still cover the same story concepts across all platforms the same.

SEGA Community: Do the Wii and Playstation 3 systems take advantage of the motion sensing technology from these consoles?

Andy Alamano: The Wii features full control of view via the Wii Remote. Also some attacks and other special features will require some Wii actions.

Thanks to Andy Alamano for his time answering these questions!  If you haven’t already done so, please read the rest of the interview over at Marvel.com. 
http://www.marvel.com/news/vgstories.3347

More Iron Man videos for the game which is out TOMORROW - I’m going to see if I can grab some items for a small competition on here.

Before we get to the videos, the SEGA Europe Community Team Facebook group has had some additions (including the videos I’m about to show you) basically it now has a few new applications and also has the most recent blogs from here and the Blognik featured on a feed.  There’s also going to be photos for Flickr visible on here soon if not already.  For more details on some new Flickr photos check out the upcoming blog of mine on the Blognik.

Iron Man - Vignette #4 - The Suit

Iron Man - Vignette #6 - One Man Army

More soon.
AAUK

Yes, you read that right I’ve been told the 360 demo should be available to download today. The PS3 demo version will be making an appearance as well as soon as Sony’s Home system is relaunched in a couple of weeks, so we’re looking at a possible date of May 1st for that one.

Want to see what the demo is like?  There are two videos below here - the first is the trailer for the demo and the second is a trailer made for the Comic-Con event in the US. Enjoy!

Demo Trailer

Comic-Con Trailer

Hello you lot - I’ve just finished uploading a load of new screenshots too the SEGA Europe Flickr account (http://flickr.com/photos/segaeurope) as well as our Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/pages/SEGA-Europe-Community-Team/19581119416).

In fact two games recieved quite a few updates, namely Samba De Amigo and Iron Man both of which look graphically the bees knees - as well as numerous other insectoid joints!  Here’s a few snippets from what got uploaded.

Iron Man

Samba De Amigo

You can find more at the addresses above.

Robert Downey Jr! Stan Lee! New Video! Watch it!

The clever amongst you might realise we haven’t had #1 yet, but nevermind that; this is the first one approved and out of the box - it just happens to be labeled up as “Act Two”.

In this video SEGA, Secret Level and Marvel discuss the challenges in making Iron Man work and the decisions made in order to get a good balance of gameplay mechanics.  Its seriously worth a gander - and we’ve more coming soon! Check it out below:

The video is on our YouTube channel and has also been added to our SEGA Europe Facebook group and it will be added to the Iron Man websites (http://web.sega-europe.com/ironman/) very soon.  ;)

Not many of you have access to Spike TV I’d guess, but I’ve just been told this Friday (28th) Gamer Trailer TV you’ll be able to see a great feature on Iron Man and also find more details on our other Marvel game - The Incredible Hulk.

Edit: Urtheart tells me that it’ll be available to download on gamertrailers.com after it has aired. Nice.

Hi everyone, the Iron Man website has just gone live! At the moment its just the English version but we should be getting the likes of the French, Italian, German and Spanish (or FIGS as we say in the trade) up very soon - plus more!

To get to the site go to: www.sega.co.uk/ironman where you can see a rather snazzy trailer - you can catch and throw missiles at things… MISSILES! - and find various other details about the game.