History in Handheld: Celebrate Iron Man 3 with a rundown of Shellhead's portable gaming appearances

The many Marvel fans among you will already know that the latest instalment in the hugely popular Iron Man movie franchise has just exploded onto cinema screens around the world.

I don't know about you, but I always get the urge to reenact the massive fight scenes at the core of action-packed movies like Iron Man as soon as I exit the cinema.

Unfortunately, I can't. Not in the real world, anyway. I don't have superpowers, I don't have access to advanced technology, and - to be frank - my mid-section is a little bigger than perhaps it should be.

That's - thankfully - where games come in.

Here are ten portable games, then, that enable you (and me) to punch, kick, and, errm, skate your (and my) way to victory as billionaire Tony Stark's alter ego.

Captain America and the Avengers
By Realtime Associates - released on Game Boy in 1994

Marvel's Iron Avenger is one of four playable characters (the other three being Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Vision) in this delectable side-scrolling beat-'em-up in which you're pitted against infamous Captain America baddie the Red Skull.

Hey, you there. Yeah, you.

You should definitely take the SNES version of this game for a spin if you have Ninty's ageing console indoors or a decent emulator on your iOS- or Android-powered smartphone or tablet.

The Invincible Iron Man
By Torus Games - released on Game Boy Advance in 2002

Your lovely-looking Iron Man armour has been stolen by a nefarious lawbreaker. It's your mission, then, to retrieve it. How? By donning a newer piece of armour and beating the stuffing out of various comic book villains.

This side-scrolling beat-'em-up features an energy system that depletes as you use repulsor blasts and shoulder tackles to take down your foes. If you allow this energy to completely deplete, you're rendered pretty useless until it refills.

Thank god in-app purchases weren't the norm back when this title was launched.

The official smartphone tie-in game of the latest Iron Man movie release is a free-to-play endless-running game (yeah, we know) that's absolutely chock-full of IAPs (yeah, we know).

Putting my bitterness at those two facts to one side for just a second, I can tell you that have to take on rising A.I.M. forces and four criminals from the Iron Man comic book series across three randomly generated perpetual locations in this spin-off title.

Tony Hawk's Underground
By Vicarious Visions - released on Game Boy Advance in 2003

You didn't expect to see this game in our list, did you? No, sir, you didn't.

Anyway, Tony Hawk's Underground contains a multitude of unlockable characters, one of which just so happens to be Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit.

Hey, we all love to pull off a couple of Caspers and an Impossible when we're not saving the world.

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
By Vicarious Visions - released on PSP in 2005

Iron Man - alongside Deadpool and Professor X - is an unlockable character in this action-packed RPG, which takes place, as its name suggests, in a mutant-filled X-Men universe.

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse has a pretty nifty "New Game +" mode, which makes you feel like a total badass as you re-play the game with all of the special powers you've unlocked.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
By EA Canada - released on 3DS and PSP in 2005

In this Ehrgeiz-esque tie-in to the Marvel Nemesis comic book series, a variety of Marvel heroes and villains (such as Venom, Wolverine, and, of course, Iron Man) go fist-to-fist with several EA-created brawlers.

There's been an alien invasion, you see, and, naturally enough, it's your job to (once again) save the world.

As you can imagine, you do this by utilising each hero's special abilities and defeating any baddies that stand in your way. Nobody said being a hero was easy.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
By Vicarious Visions - released on PSP in 2006

If you were asked to create an ultimate team of Marvel superheroes, whom would you choose? Daredevil? Nick Fury, perhaps? What about Thor?

In Ultimate Alliance, there are more than 20 playable characters available, but you're forced to create a team good enough to save the world using just four of them.

Yes, sir. You can, for example, assemble famous teams from Marvel's ever-growing collection of comic books, including The Avengers, The Defenders, and the Fantastic Four.

You even get bonuses for doing so, come to think of it.

Sure, Iron Man is capable of saving the whole of New York City from a large-scale alien attack on his own, but can he beat Street Fighter's Ryu in a fierce hand-to-hand brawl?

Download Marvel vs Capcom 2 from the App Store if you want to know the answer to the above question. Oh, and the answer to this: would Wolverine kick Mega Man's butt?

This beat-'em-up contains no fewer than 56 characters. It has multiplayer (via Bluetooth), too.

Iron Man 2: The Video Game
By High Voltage Software - released on PSP in 2010

The Iron Man 2 video game is only loosely based on the movie of the same name.

It's actually set AFTER the plot of the Robert Downey Jr movie, and features a completely original story penned by Matt Fraction (the guy responsible for The Invincible Iron Man series).

As an added bonus, this title enables you to play as War Machine.

You're an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Hydra and some of the world's most dangerous supervillains have begun using a mysterious substance known as iso-8 to tip the balance of war in their favour.

Your job in this card-based battler, then, is to assemble a team of heroes (including Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Thor) and put paid to Hydra's evil plans.

The cards in this battler are gorgeous. That's probably because they were designed by renowned Marvel artists like Aleksi Briclot, Simon Bisley, and Francesco Mattina.