Iron Man, Batman and The Incredible Hulk have joined forces to create the 2008 summer of super heroes. All three films are expected to draw mega millions, and with such opportunity on the table, Sega swooped in to capitalize on this success with its upcoming Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk video games. We'll review Iron Man in the next few days, but for now, our attention is on the big green machine. The previous Hulk game, Ultimate Destruction, is one of the best super hero games ever, and judging by early footage and screens, it appears that its successor, The Incredible Hulk not only builds on it awesomeness, but possibly exceeds it.
Hulk really knows how to deal with NYC traffic.
As its title suggests, you play as the popular Marvel super hero, who must protect New York City from numerous villains. Similar to the Iron Man video game, Hulk loosely follows the upcoming film and even has Ed Norton and Liv Tyler reprising their roles of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, respectively. However, in order to flesh things out, Sega expands the universe by including numerous side missions, a Crazy Taxi inspired mini game in which you carry passengers to their destinations and villains from the comic book series, such as Blonsky, Bi-Beast and the U-foes (Vapor, X-Ray, Ironclad and Vector). In addition, there's a terrorist group called The Enclave running about that is in need of a beating.
Being that Hulk loves to smash things, Sega drops you into a huge New York City and lets you run amok. You can destroy just about everything, be it buildings, robots, cars (which you can rip in two and use as boxing gloves) and whatever else you can get your oversized hands on. You'll land concussion blasts, fling people (including civilians), chuck lampposts and break pieces of concrete over your foes' heads. You'll also be able to fill Hulk's Rage meter, which will let you unleash all sorts of devastating moves.
Much like Activision's Spider-Man and Electronic Arts' Superman Returns video games, Sega hopes to recreate a living, breathing sandbox environment for you to explore, one that features a main story, but also numerous side quests and secret items to collect. So, it's sort of like Grand Theft Auto in the sense that you can wander off the beaten path.
We've been unable to get our green mitts on it, so we cannot comment on how the game plays, but visually, Sega and developer Edge of Reality have done a great job modeling the city. Hulk has a huge, virtual playground to explore, and with the ability to cause so much damage, we foresee taking some much needed stress breaks. After all, there's nothing like busting through a wall to relieve tension.
With its June 3 release quickly approaching, we'll soon find out whether The Incredible Hulk does the franchise proud. Of course, anything less than Hulk's previous, and critically acclaimed, game, Ultimate Destruction, is unacceptable.
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