The Incredible Hulk (2008)

I know that at first glance The Incredible Hulk game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive might make your roll your eyes. However, this is a damn fine action platformer and one that I would actually go as far as to say is really underrated. The Hulk is quite a hard character to get right, but this game manages it quite well.

Hulk Smashes The Leader

As a platformer action game from 1994, you have probably lowered your expectations for the story of this game. It may surprise you to know that this game is pretty awesome from a story point of view. The Leader is the main villain and he is up to no good and our buddy the Hulk is going to put him in his place.

What is really neat about The Incredible Hulk is that this game has three different endings, four if you count the one where you do not continue the game. You get a different ending for each of the difficulty levels so the game gives you a reason to beat it on them all.

Green With Envy

I feel that The Incredible Hulk is a game that holds up pretty well in the looks department. It looks like the animated show from the 90s along with many comic book influences. The animation is fantastic, especially for The Hulk who jumps and smashes just as you would expect him to. There is a nice variety to the levels and background details are pretty awesome.

The enemy designs can be pretty repetitive, but to be fair show me a platformer or beat-em-up from this period of time that was not! There are many other famous characters in the game such as Abomination and Rhino who you will have to fight in boss battles. The soundtrack fits the game perfectly and fits in great with the action.

Smashing Them In!

The gameplay is far better than many people realize. It is not just a mindless smash everything in sight… ok, so that is part of the game. But the many different levels are all quite large and have a nice variety to their design. Exploration is encouraged and the levels are far more challenging than you would think. The collision detection can occasionally be a tad off, but for the most part, the game is a lot of fun to play.

Puny Banner!

One aspect of The Incredible Hulk game that never gets talked about is the fact you can play as Bruce Banner. This is a weird way is a “power-up” that you can use at certain points in the game. You get the icon and you can turn into Banner. Why the heck would you want to play as Bruce Banner? Well, he can get into areas that the Hulk cannot and he can also use a gun. It is a nice change of pace, but when you take a hit, you turn back into The Hulk. It is a very interesting gameplay

I know that some people feel that licensed games of this era had the tendency to be not very good. Well, The Incredible Hulk is not one of those games, actually this is a really fun game and one of the best superhero games of the 16-bit era. The game looks fantastic, it is a lot of fun to play and it has multiple endings so it has a lot of replay value too!

Pros:

• The game looks great
• The animation of The Hulk is really well done
• Playing as Bruce Banner is more interesting than you would think
• You have multiple endings to obtain
• Boss battles against some awesome Marvel villains

Cons:

• Some might be shocked at how difficult the game is
• On some occasions, your hits feel like they go through an enemy

We Don't Expect the highest quality from a game labouring under the twin burdens of console port and movie cash-in, but so soon after the porting excellence of Devil May Cry 4, The Incredible Hulk brings everyone crashing back down to Earth. This is an unashamed rip-off, charging full whack for a thinly souped-up PlayStation 2 version of the game, where the higher-resolution mode only leaves the graphics looking more embarrassed and naked. This is an ancient-looking, repetitive and buggy turd.

The story, as with most licensed titles, loosely follows the plot of the film, shoe-horning an extra faction to justify the gamut of repetitive "find this, punch that" scenarios that makes up most of the game. You run around the city of New York, fighting against either the army or The Enclave - a totally generic, group of high-tech terrorists that have popped up in the comics every now and again.

This is an open-world game that might be serviceable if it wasn't so bland, featureless and ugly. You pull off moves with combinations of the middle and right mouse buttons, while also having to move the unwieldy camera. Using the mouse just doesn't feel right, so the Hulk is only really controllable with a 360 pad.

Graphically, it's atrocious. Textures fail to improve at higher resolutions, and the game's engine has a shocking draw-distance - the sudden appearance of trees and buildings is embarrassing. The game's bugs are pretty much the insult to an injury that's the game itself.

Cars explode at the slightest touch, and their AI leads to hilarious situations where they turn around to speed in the other direction on seeing you, only to lightly brush a wall and detonate. Civilians don't seem to notice the Hulk's activities. Enemies get stuck in the side of buildings, and you'll spend the end of some missions jumping about like a blue-arsed fly trying to locate the one remaining Enclave swine.

The Incredible Hulk has no place expecting to be bought and played. And the fact that it's been made under the decades-old 'shit game, doesn't matter' business model doesn't make it even slightly less enraging; in fact, that just makes it 10 times worse.

Overview

From the pages of Marvel comics comes The Incredible Hulk. The mean green fighting machine is staring in his own adventure and he is mad as ever. For all of The Hulk fans out there, a solid title staring Mr. Green has been a long time coming. Unfortunately, after playing Eidos' version of The Incredible Hulk, you may still be looking for something solid.

For the younger generation not familiar with who the Hulk is and how he became the Hulk, let me fill you in. Dr. Robert Bruce Banner was a normal guy who happened to be a nuclear physicist. One day, an exploding Gamma bomb exposed him to a massive dose of Gamma radiation, thus altering his genetic structure. Now, whenever he gets angry or excited, Dr. Banner turns into a huge green monster with superhuman strength. The monster is known as Incredible Hulk.

In his latest adventure, the Hulk has been taken prisoner by members of a team of Super Heroes sent on tactical missions. The Super Heroes goal is to try and convince the Hulk that his powers can be used for good and benefit mankind. Your job is to battle the Hulk out of captivity to confront the leader. All of this to prove that he can be turned to good.

Gameplay

The Incredible Hulk is best described as a side-scrolling adventure game. The object is to battle your way through 14 levels of enemies and puzzles to face the leader of the Pantheons. If he can make it, he will be convinced his powers can be used for good. Unfortunately, a load of Super Villains are out to get in his way and keep him from ever reaching his goal. It is up to you to defeat these enemies and make it through alive.

The Incredible Hulk is armed only with his super strength to battle the enemies. Hulk has learned a number of attacks which even include some special attack he can pull off when he has collected enough extra power. The Hulk can walk, run, jump, punch kick, duck, block, uppercut, grab an throw objects and do a shoulder charge. When he has the power to perform the special moves, he can pull off a sonic clap, floor smash, vortex spin and even call on an emergency team that is out to protect him. All of these moves are nice but fairly unexciting.

You will basically be battling your way through 3D levels that are dark and bland. The object of each level is different but the common goal is making it to the next level. I really just could not get into this game. It lacked original gameplay and was very average. I could not for the life of me figure out why hitting the walls replenished your life meter. The levels have various power-ups scattered throughout that will also replenish power but if you are running low, just start bashing the hell out of the wall. Huh?

One inventive thing about the game is the ability to call on the emergency guardians during fights. These guardians are the Super Heroes that have kidnapped you and are trying to help you. If things start to get hairy, just call upon your available guardian to come down and perform their special power. This was definitely the most inventive aspect of the game.

I will say The Incredible Hulk is very challenging. There are a number of puzzles that must be solved to reach the next level. The puzzles come in the form of switches, finding hostages, located devastating secret weapons and others. This has all of the makings of a cool game but it just does not play up to the potential. We all know a great story only goes so far and it is the gameplay that counts.

I have one last question. The idea behind The Incredible Hulk is that Dr. Banner is a normal guy and the Hulk only comes out when he gets mad. Why is there never any mention of his normal human self in the game? I think it would have been better if during the normal exploration parts of the game, you play as a normal person and when you are confronted with obstacles or enemies, you have to change to the hulk. This would have added a whole new element to the game and, quite frankly, would have followed the story of the Hulk better. Basically what you have here is a game loosely based on The Incredible Hulk hoping to draw in comic book fans.

Graphics

The Graphics in The Incredible Hulk are average at most times. The darkness that is present through the game gets a bit old. This could easily have been a 16-bit title wrapped in a 32-bit case. I found a lot of the items blending into the background and difficult to locate. The Hulk himself looks pretty cool but there is nothing spectacular here.

Bottom Line

The Incredible Hulk is a fairly ho-hum game that could have been better. I really wish they would have incorporated human to Hulk morphing because this is really what the Hulk is based on. I think what you will find is this game wears thin fairly quick and unless you are a huge fan of the Hulk, I suggest renting it first to see if this green machine is for you. For the rest of the world that has no interest in comics but just want a good game, this will probably be a disappointment.