Iron Man 2, the movie, comes to your local zillion-plex this Friday. The advanced reviews have been largely positive, with a caveat that this flick is not as good as the original. Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the movie tie-in games, are both out already, and have not received widespread praise. It's sad, though, because Iron Man is suited to the gaming world, and he deserves a decent title.

With the big metal suit, colorful villains and lighter tone, the Iron Man franchise could make an amazing game, but sadly, this has yet to happen -- where Batman gets Arkham Asylum, poor Iron Man has to put up with shovelware promo-game slop. There have been many attempts to take Stark's Iron-magic into the realm of gaming -- Iron Man and/or his alter ego Tony Stark has showed up in (or been referenced) in more than 15 commercially released video games -- but we're still waiting for the hit. Below are five of Iron Man's most notable video game appearances. They may not be the best games ever, but they're at least interesting..

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: I'd argue that Iron Man's appearance in this 2000 arcade game marks the high point in his entire video game career. It is definitely the most widely beloved game that features Mr. Stark's super heroic alter ego, as every cheap pizza place in the whole country sports one of these arcade machines to this day, and it's also a game where Iron Man is a perfectly viable character who can dish out tons of damage with missiles and metal fists. See for yourself by downloading it from Live or checking out the video above where Iron Man lays the hurt on Mega Man. In case you're curious, Iron Man will be back in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 when it comes out in 2011.

Iron Man: Aerial Assault: This iPhone game is a solid shooter in the old school way, especially solid for an "advergame." It reminds me a bit of 1942, except Iron Man is the airplane. But the best part about this game has to be the price: $.99... of course, maybe a buck for an interactive movie commercial isn't the greatest deal ever.

Tony Hawk's Underground: THUG is a bad game, but you can unlock Iron Man as a skater if you finish the game on Easy mode -- surely that improves this execrable skating experience? No? Okay, you're right. But Iron Man does have some pretty sweet moves, especially for a guy in a metal suit! Check them out in the video above.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2: These super-hero squad based games both feature Iron Man as one of the main heroes, although his role in the game is more crowd control/indirect damage than death-dealing or tanking. An interesting choice, but one that indicates the level of respect IM gets in the video game world -- he has to sit on the sidelines and watch while Spider-man does the real work!

Champions Online: Okay, Iron Man isn't officially a character in this MMO, and you may be breaking both the TOS of the game and infringing on copyrights by creating a character called "Iron Man," but the game features a very robust hero customization feature. Hypothetically, you could make a hero with a power suit, add jet-pack flying, color that bad boy red and orange, and name him  "Steel Dude," Then, you could re-create the entire Iron Man saga with your friends, "Winged-Rodent Person," "Arachnid Individual" and "Superb-Man."