Incredible Hulk Gamecube Review

Hulk games have tended to lean towards action smashups and the first Incredible Hulk game was no exception. It was fun, but lacked depth and suffered from hackneyed gameplay mechanics. Thankfully Radical Entertainment didn’t give up on the franchise and produced a vastly improved sequel, Ultimate Destruction.

With a wide-open structure, bevy of crazy moves and destructible everything, it’s a veritable playground for those who like their superheroes to smash rather than dodge.

At the outset you have a basic set of moves to use but these will be added to over time as you accrue’smash points’ – which are earned both by simply destroying things (rewarding all that urban renewal) and by completing missions. As you do you’ll also unlock a series of ‘weaponizations’ allowing Hulk to take the most mundane elements of an environment and turn them into weapons or methods of destruction. You can for example pick up cars and hurl them at enemies, rip a city block to pieces or even wrap streetlights around his fists.

The controls work well enough; you’re a walking tank of destruction after all so don’t expect any real nimbleness. The animation is impressive with Hulk himself having a nice pool of movements to draw on as well as some decent character model detail. NPCs are less detailed but they’re still good looking and there’s a decent amount of variety to the enemies you encounter.

Visually the game does a fair job considering it was produced in 2004. While the textures don’t quite match current generation graphics the game has a very distinctive style that sets it apart from other superhero titles of the day. In particular there are some nice touches such as the trail of broken pavement that Hulk leaves behind him when running or walking through town and the damage caused by grabbing the side of a building mid-fall. The rage attacks also look great with visible shock-waves being generated by the power behind them.

There’s a lot of stuff to do in the game although at times it does feel a little repetitive as you repeat the same basic mission types. Fortunately there are a number of challenge missions that offer a bit of variation and a way to earn extra smash points. These can include races through icon-dotted courses, whacking helicopter-dropped soldiers with clubs or playing “Hulk Golf” by kicking cars around like golf balls. There’s also a fun multiplayer mode but you’ll need to find another player to play with.