HULK SMASH! (And Hulk Run Meaningless Errands, too!)

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is pretty much what you would expect from a Hulk game: it's strong on smashing, weak on thinking. Running around wreaking havoc is great fun; completing the story is just a means to an end: namely, being able to break stuff even better. But if you like Hulk for his destructive prowess, this is as close as you're gonna get to actually Hulking out.

I am not a big Hulk fan. I, as well as most of the world, know and love Hulk because he's a big, strong, angry green guy who smashes stuff. Yes, I know, throughout the Hulk's career he's developed from a Jekyll and Hyde clone into a complex analysis of the human psyche, complete with multiple personalities and skin colors to match. While that makes for good storytelling month after month, let's face it: in a Hulk game, screw psychology. We want to be able to break things. And that's exactly what IHUD delivers. If you're looking for a great story, you might be mildly happy, but the story is not the focus of this game. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The theoretical idea of the game has something to do with fighting the Abomination and/or “The Division,” your run-of-the-mill evil corporation. The real idea of the game is to run around in an open-ended, completely free-roaming world and have fun. You can run up buildings (or climb up them by digging your fists into the walls), leap across great expanses of desert or city, surf on a flattened bus, and fight huge robots. Combine that with incredibly destructible environments (even some buildings can be knocked down) and you've got a good time sitting in your console. Before you know it you'll have missiles flying at you from all sides, be punching or throwing those self-same missiles back at your enemies, be hurling cars at soldiers and innocent people, and be busy fighting off airplanes from building roofs, King Kong style. On to the specific areas:

Graphics: 8/10
While they aren't the absolute prettiest thing you've ever seen your console churn out, Ultimate Destruction's graphics certainly do their job well. More importantly, they do their job without slowdown, at least in the Gamecube version. The visuals may seem a little bit plain early on, but the animations are realistic and the game can handle huge numbers of explosions, damage models, and particle effects without any trouble. You can be in huge fights surrounded by enemies, and you'll always know you can count on the framerate to remain nice and steady. And this certainly isn't to say the graphics are anything to laugh at. The model for the Hulk is very detailed, as are the environments themselves. As mentioned before, it's possible to climb up buildings with your hands. Every time you grab onto the wall with your fingers, little chunks of cement go sprinkling down onto the street. Every time you land from a big jump, a crater will appear on the pavement. Same goes for punching a wall. And super-moves...well, 3-block-wide shockwaves destroying everything in their paths have rarely been this satisfying.

Sound: 7/10
The sound is pretty much what you'd expect: screams, explosions, crunches, explosions, tanks firing, and explosions. Especially fun if you have a decent sound system: the walls will shake with your every thundering step, your eardrums will burst with your every sonic clap. Good times had by all. Except the neighbors, but nobody likes them anyway. Just picture them when you hurl an innocent pedestrian at a wall, and your night just got a lot better.

Story: 5/10
Ultimate Destruction's weakest element. There is a story stuck in amongst all of the smashing. Unfortunately, it isn't that compelling. Bruce Banner is working with Leonard Samson to get rid of the Hulk once and for all. The government's after him. Chaos ensues. The story would have been more compelling had the developers not inserted random pages of text after some missions that suddenly move the story ahead drastically. It's clunky, and it just isn't all that great. But you didn't play this for the thinking anyway, right? I thought not.

Gameplay: 9/10
Easily the most important part of a game like this, and easily Ultimate Destruction's greatest strength. This is just pure, unadulterated fun. Running around destroying everything in sight really never gets old. I've spent many an hour just running around picking up streetlights or trees and throwing them as javelins at things, surfing around on a bus (which can also be thrown as a boomerang, or used as a shield), or just running and jumping through the streets. There are also challenge missions that have fun with the gameplay mechanics, having Hulk see how far he can swat SWAT teams descending from a helicopter as he swings a streetlight pole around as a baseball bat, or piling taxis on top of skyscrapers. The player has complete freedom in doing whatever he wants, and it doesn't get old. There are always story missions to complete which, while repetitive, are actually never too much of a hassle. The combat in the game is fun, so it's never too much trouble to grab that next part of the de-Hulkifier in the story mode. Especially when those missions give you smash points which you can use to buy new moves, moves that allow you to send shockwaves across the pavement or create sonic booms with a single clap. The boss fights are also worth mentioning, as they're just epic. The Hulk, being as strong as he is, needs considerable opposition in order to be taken down. Enter huge robot battles, one of which will literally have you leveling a small island. Who needs nukes? Apparently the effects of gamma bombs work just as well. There are so many things to do and break that any fan of the Hulk, mindless destruction, GTA, Spider-Man 2 the game, or action games in general will find something to enjoy.

Controls: 7/10
There's a bit of a learning curve here. You'll pick up the basics without too much trouble at all, but learning and remembering the plethora of moves you'll acquire is a bit challenging. There's always a list of moves at your disposal, but it's irritating to have to check back and forth. You'll remember your favorites, though, so it isn't too big of a deal.

Replayability: 8/10
After you finish the story, you can start it up again (to relive every...wonderful, yeah, that's the word... moment of it!) with everything you had before. The only reason to do this is to gain more smash points, but that's a good reason in and of itself. You will want every move available, since they're all a lot of fun to mess around with. Furthermore, there are comic books spread throughout the city to collect which contain cheat codes that grant the player new costumes (country-affiliated boxer shorts galore!), damage bonuses, or other gameplay changes such as making every vehicle a bus or putting gorilla balloons all over the city. Even when you've finished all of that, Ultimate destruction is a great way to relieve stress if you've had a bad day: boot up your system, cause millions of dollars' worth of property damage, and feel better instantly. Dr. Phil will be out of a job before you know it.

Fun Factor: 10/10
This game is fun. That's all there is to it.

Overall: 8/10
Don't come in expecting a brilliantly executed story; come in expecting a good time with a game that is clearly designed to let the player just have fun. Worthy of at least a rental, and worthy of a purchase for most, since you can always come back and find news ways to be a menace to society. What more could you ask for?

Originally posted on waitingforwednesday.blogspot.com 3/1/06