That big green scary monster called the Hulk is back, this time making his debut on the Nintendo Wii. As you may have guessed, this is a game based on the movie, although not much of the story actually makes it into the game, however it’s for you to judge whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.
You begin the game stuck in a warehouse, trying to escape the hordes of bad guys with guns that surround you, in fact at one point there is even a helicopter in there, here’s hoping that part of the warehouse didn’t have a roof (though I can’t say I noticed). Once you escape from the warehouse most of the game is spent trying to stop the warmongers from destroying New York City, so not much of a story.
The main feature of the game is that you can literally destroy anything in your path, all of New York is yours to crumble (hey wait a minute, I thought we were trying to save the city?). The more destruction you cause, the higher you’re threat level becomes, which mean that instead of taking on foot soldiers you will be facing up to tanks and helicopters as well as men in suits. To combat the enemy you have quite a few moves up your sleeve. First of all you are able to use a charge jump, this is executed by pressing and holding A and will cause you to leap high into the sky and crush your opponents on the way down, you can also grab the enemy and use them as a club against others, this it has to be said is quite amusing when you first see it in action.
As well as your attacks you also have super moves such as accelerated heal, this allows you to regain health at the expense of some rage points by selecting the move and then shaking the nunchuck, this comes in really handy when you are getting low on health. Other super moves include a thunder clap and a ground slam, which are also pretty effective in the heat of the battle.
Unfortunately the game seems to offer little in the way of excitement, although there are plenty of missions, they all get a bit boring after a while, also the enemies become quite repetitive and don’t seem to have much going for them in the way of brain power. Add to these problems the fact that smashing up buildings does get quite samey after a while and it all adds up to everyone’s favourite game/movie tie-in word, mediocre.
The Incredible Hulk also includes some mini-games for you to play, these are found by markers throughout the game and are quite fun for a while, offering a change from the games main missions. Though again they are certainly nothing special, much like the rest of the game really.
Graphically you won’t really find anything groundbreaking, the city feels very empty with only a few people and the odd vehicle here and there, the buildings also look very plain and a bit flat looking, especially close up. The sound improves things slightly, with the sound of gun fire flying through the air and the screams of the public being heard through the Wii-Mote.
Overall The Incredible Hulk is probably best played by fans of the character, it is hard to imagine that anyone else would really get a thrill out of it, not when they could be playing the likes of Mario Galaxy or Zelda. Shame really but perhaps if developers had the time to make games such as these rather than being rushed then they might actually be good.
