Hulk

Dr. Banner! Pelted by gamma rays! Turned into the Hulk! Ain't he unglamorous!

Green-skinned gamma radiated geeks hurl crates at one another in Universal Interactive's tie-in to the comic book adaptation by Ang Lee. Though not as pathetic as other superhero offspring like Batman: Dark Tomorrow, Hulk is nevertheless the video-game equivalent of fast food?quick, easy, and disposable. Its main problem is that poor game design choices, like interminably respawning soldiers, robots, and mutant pooches and puzzles that rarely deviate from the crate-pushing ilk, are made to present challenges for a character who can essentially put a skyscraper in a camel clutch. The resultant product is a dime-a-dozen summer-movie-coupled yawnfest rife with comic book in-jokes and jarring corporate product placement.


Still, Radical Entertainment gets points for at least attempting to do something interesting with the Banner persona, whose stealth mission offerings are shoestring-budget Metal Gear Solid vignettes. One thing games like Spider-Man and Wolverine?s Revenge have done right is equip players with the powers and skills of the source characters, and with Hulk, Radical follows suit. You can literally smash buildings and vehicles, use the wreckage as melee or projectile weapons, and perform classic Hulk attacks like stunning enemies by clapping and sending them off into the stratosphere by punching the ground beneath them. And though there's definitely a cathartic joy to be had for the 98-pound weakling in all of us from crushing everything and everyone in sight in a celebration of unbridled destruction, a three-day rental is a much more cost-effective way to revel in it.

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