Break stuff!

What is the Hulk? The Hulk is a big green monster that breaks everything in sight. He is your anti super hero. He does good yes, but you always wonder if he even knows if he is actually fighting crime. The Hulk seeks not adventure and fame; as a matter of fact, Banner tries all he can to suppress the Hulk whenever possible. Alas some jackass is always picking on our poor boy and then the clothes start ripping and stuff starts breaking.

I was glad to see the game stayed true to what the Hulk really is. While I am not the comic aficionado, I know enough about the Hulk to know the game is right on the money. The Hulk game relies on you using anything and everything to smash and bash your way though the levels. You will be sent drones of bad guys after bad guys. It is your job to pick up the next pipe and lay into them or pick them up and throw them into a wall. The environments lend well to these tactics as you will find many things lying about for the purposes of a bat or projectile. Once the fighting in the levels start the environment will then break down even more creating more things to pick up and use. I was able to get creative in how to progress from level to level, as sometimes I felt like picking up a guy and hurling him through a window so I can move along. Disposing of a solider comes down to what your heart says really; my heart always said throw him off a building.

Banner is a puss

The game of course has you playing as Bruce Banner. The levels involving him are almost forgettable, and change the rhythm of the game dramatically. From one level you become accustom to smashing everything in sight to the next level becoming a sneaker. Do not think Metal Gear Solid sneaker either it's almost a sneaker in its infant stage. These levels were not too well thought out as you cannot even peak around corners, which of course is a tactic essential to sneaking games. You can fight, although if you do it's your ass. Banner just is not made to fight, he gets rolled every time. You will have to solve small puzzles which make no sense, as well as the tried true formula of box moving. You spend your time in these levels telling yourself to get pissed off so you can Hulk up, alas you won't.

How do the jeans stay on?

The game is presented in a "RoboTech" stylized/cell shaded look. It does not go so far as Zelda in the way of 2D in 3D but uses the cell shading as the texture for the character models, which of course gives it a sleek look. The character models look great, however, the Gama Dogs left more to be desired. The modeling is very close to that of X2 Wolverine's revenge in way of actual character model designs. I found myself very surprised that when the Hulk jumps and lands the ground caves in every time. The environment is very much effected by whatever you do. If you cause an explosion it will cause a chain reaction of othe r explosions and cause damage to whatever is surrounding it.

Hulk up

I will stay as far away from this movie as possible as the trailers just look dumb, however, the game itself I will recommend picking up. It is not very challenging as I know it was meant to be a picked up and played. The Hulk evens out as far as relying on the license to move it off the shelves and it actually being a good game. If you blow through games easily then pick it up as a rental and dominate it. This game is a good stress reliever if you're having a bad day and just want to break stuff left and right. Just zoom as fast as you can through the Bruce Banner levels and you will be ripping into stuff in no time.

Jun 4, 2003 | 52 comments
Mike Carabajal