PlayStation 2

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

Remember that 10 minutes in the film Hulk that were actually good? I know what you're thinking: "Good? In that film? You're talking gibberish!" Well, there's the action sequence in that god-awful flick where our angry pal slaps the hell out of everything in his path. He tosses tanks around, bends cannons as if they were cheap plastic, and lays waste to a major metropolitan city. Now take that small segment and transform it into hours and hours of gameplay. Got it? Good! Now you have The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

In the past, Hulk games have been terrible for the average fan of the genre. The last one was a licensed game based on a awful movie, which made the experience all that more grueling. Just because it was based on a bad movie did not mean the videogame had to follow suit. Alas, not only was the story abysmal, but the company incorporated my two main problems with comic book inspired games. The first is making the game too linear and relying on the story to move you through the levels. If I wanted a great story to go with my game, I would buy the comic book. Secondly, not remaining true to the characters themselves. Almost all the comic inspired games in the past have been guilty of following this formula.

If you're talking about what makes the Hulk a great character, Radical's new game has it in spades. I can't think of a more cathartic and enjoyable vent for rage and stress than the one offered as you hurtle through the city of the green goliath's latest adventure. Ultimate Destruction profoundly succeeds at exactly what a sandbox game like this should; it makes the gamer feel a sense of total freedom to move, act, fight and play.

The Hulk is not a giant. Not in the way that Marvel's Spider-Man or the X-Men take to universal acclaim, anyhow. Look at their movies: great. Look at their games: some of the best in comic book tie-in history. Look at The Hulk's 2003 film and game conversions instead. What do you get? Crap. The Incredible Hulk is nevertheless a Marvel favorite no matter how disappointing his recent merchandising endeavors have been. He's mean, he's green, he's a fighting machine, and we still love him. Hulk just hasn't been able to win anyone over as much as the super geeky, super strong every guy or that team of unique freaks. But, that's likely because everyone was looking at The Hulk franchise the wrong way.

Very few games featuring the Hulk have managed to viscerally convey the brute force and savagery that you would expect given the subject matter. Ultimate Destruction is different though. Although far from perfect in terms of pacing or narrative, it provides a huge free-roaming playground in which you can let loose and just have fun breaking stuff with scant regard for the overall point of the game.

When one thinks of The Hulk, one does not suppose a being skipping lightly through a meadow, stopping to smell the flowers in a most dainty fashion. We are talking Bambi meets Godzilla here; a mean, green oversized destruction machine that only meets monsters bigger than itself, takes a licking, goes nuclear and ultimately always wins.

As a longtime fan of the Hulk since the 1970s, I've always had a soft spot for videogames based on my favorite superhero. Unfortunately, the Green Goliath hasn't had the same kind of excessive treatment over the years afforded to more mainstream guys like Spider-Man and the X-Men, so the selection of titles out there has been somewhat slim. Luckily, Radical Entertainment's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction makes that thin assortment a moot point, as it's the deepest, most accurate recreation of the Jade Giant that anybody could ever hope for (and makes other titles based on Banner's alter ego look like the "Rick Jones Hulk" in comparison).

The storyline, despite being written by former Hulk writer Paul Jenkins, isn’t particularly strong or well told, despite the fact that it’s more than faithful to the Hulk’s comic strip roots. Difficulty can occasionally be an issue too, with large numbers of foes frustratingly able to somehow become a match for the Hulk at the worst possible times, but for the most part these spikes in the difficulty levels can be quite manageable. Ultimate Destruction certainly is a far from perfect title, but it’s one of the best super hero video games we’ve ever played.

Throughout my gaming career, I've stood amidst roaring flames and smoldering wreckage with police sires blaring in the distance more times than I can count. I've carried out incredible displays of unbridled destruction in innumerable ways, though the aftermath is typically the same regardless of the game. As I played The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, I once again found myself surrounded by screaming civilians and the twisted shells of vehicles, but I can say without reservation that I've never had this much fun getting there.

Part of what makes the action so great is how well everything in the game controls. One thing that's held a lot of previous superhero games back is how few manage to make the crazy powers of a given hero easily controllable while still enjoyable to use. Ultimate Destruction gets this part extremely right. Want to make Hulk leap huge distances? Just charge up the jump button, and let him rip. Want to run up walls? Then just run into a wall, and the magic is done for you. You constantly feel like you can do just about anything in the game, making for battle sequences that feel a lot more open-ended than you might initially think. Running along the sides of buildings, picking up stray vehicles to be turned into any number of different weapon types, smashing through anything that happens to come into your path... It's all exactly what you would expect the experience of being the Hulk to be.

"The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction" não ostenta nada de superlativo. Não é incrivelmente longo ou profundo, nem exibe qualidades técnicas dignas de atenção. Tudo que a Radical Entertainment fez foi pensar na diversão de destruir coisas. E não há ninguém melhor que o gigante verde para cumprir esse papel. Ademais, solidificou a qualidade com um enredo conciso e um sistema de jogo bem planejado. E provou que os heróis também podem render bons games quando tudo é bem executado.

This game, along with a wealth of others, is proof yet again that there is a whole genre emerging around the sandbox style of open-ended city-based game play which games like Grand Theft Auto really pioneered. It also goes a long way toward proving my theory that these open-ended games are perfectly suited for comic book adaptations such as Spider-Man and the Hulk. There are some games that are just worth renting and some that are actually worth plopping fifty dollars on the counter for. This is the second kind. Even after you've beaten everything and unlocked the Hulk's different styles of shorts, you'll be back because you'll have a few more buildings to bust into rubble.

Ultimate Destruction improves upon its predecessor in every way, and it's a very enjoyable experience. Playing the role of such a powerful character and having the ability to do nearly everything you can imagine is entertaining, and for the most part it's enough to let you look past the game's frustrating deaths and limited variety of mission objectives. If you're one of those people that enjoys causing mayhem in Grand Theft Auto more than playing the missions, or you like swinging around New York for hours in Spider-Man 2, then you'll love The Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

If ever there was a game that played just as you'd imagine it's The Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction. The Incredible Hulk is known for his amazing strength and the ability to let nothing stand in his way, and the game just about delivers on all fronts. Developed by Radical Entertainment, the people behind the 2003 game based on Ang Lee's movie, Ultimate Destruction is a rather different beast. They've discarded the rather dire Bruce Banner sections, leaving what is essentially a constant stream of total destruction. The game has one main idea and rides with it, and for the most part delivers a joyously entertaining gaming experience.

It isn't easy being a comic book hero. First you must contend with whatever mutation the universe inflicted upon you, then you have to worry when some publisher is going to pump out bargain bin fodder featuring your visage. It's enough to make you hang up your ripped denim shorts.