Hulk

"Pure mindless smashing action"

GRAPHICS - 7
The cutscenes are a little, umm... Cute. I really think the cartoonish colour shades are kinda cool. It really emphasises the fact that The Hulk is actually just a cartoon character. Though I suspect that the real reason was that the game's graphics developers were plain lazy to make realistic texturing instead. The in-game graphics are nothing to 'wow' about, but it's solid and not as glitchy as some other games. The colours are nicely textured and The Hulk's rage mode glow is kinda nice. It won't win any excellent graphics award, but at least it also won't get much criticism about crappy graphics.

SOUND - 8
Sweet. The Hulk's growls and roars really add into the 'wow' factor. The smash, crush, stomp and smack sounds are also quite nice to hear, but only for a short while. After that it gets a little repetitive and annoying, which is bad. Some of the character voices have nice dialogues, some which are quite funny, making it a little more enjoyable for all with a sense of humour. Then again, the characters tend to repeat themselves, thus becoming annoying in a hurry. If it had a little more variety in voices and sounds, it would've been much better.

GAMEPLAY - 6.5
Sure, it's fun. Who doesn't like running around, stomping little soldiers and tossing tanks around. Only you couldn't toss the tanks and the soldiers do not always die when you stomp them. It's like: ''C'mon man, he can do it in the movie... Why can't I do it here?'' Apparently, The Hulk's power had been knocked down a few notches, and is unable to run and jump as fast or as far as he could in the movie. Also, all this stomping and smashing gets a little repetitive after a while. The stealth missions are also very stupid. Most people play the Hulk so that they could mindlessly smash everything. If they wanted to sneak around, they would have played Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell instead. Plus, there's no actual 'stealth' moves, like wall hugging and wall peeking and stuff like that. Most people will get some satisfaction in the Hulk missions, but that's probably all it has to offer.

STORY - 3
It doesn't make sense. This is supposed to be a *MOVIE* game. Isn't it supposed to have a storyline which is at least somewhat similar to the movie? Why don't we see any spectacular fights in the woods and stuff like that? This is getting a little confusing for my liking. Then again, most people play Hulk for the smash-factor, which makes the story near-irrelevant.

CONTROLS - 6
Ah. Directional keys and four other control keys. Simple. A little *too* simple, I might add. Four action buttons were a little too simple for an average gamer like myself, where we are used to tapping up to ten keys on the fly. The controls are also not complex enough to effectively execute complicated combos and other cool stuff like that, though I doubt there are any cool combos at all in this game. Plus, there is no mouse intergration, a proof of cross-platform development.

OVERALL - 5 / 10
A pretty decent game for casual gamers and little kids. Smashing and stomping everything you see is quite fun, but it gets a little too repetitive and too mindless for strategic gamers. There is not much to criticise about this game, but the same goes for the praises. Recommended for anyone who has nothing else to play for the moment, fans of the Hulk and other stomp-and-smash games like Rampage: World Tour.

PROS
- It's The Hulk
- You get to stomp people
- Nice stomp and smash sounds
- Generous system requirements
- Fun mindless action
- Simple controls

CONS
- You can't toss a tank
- The Hulk in this game is not as powerful as the one in the movie
- The sounds will get annoying after a while
- Mindless action
- Contradicting storyline
- Too simple controls
- Stealth mode

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/03