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During the past couple years, the trend of comic-to-movie transitions has boomed. Every big budget super hero seems to be getting his/her own movie now. Latest into the foray is The Hulk; everyone’s favorite big, green, smashing machine. The videogame counterpart of The Hulk is somewhat reminiscent of last years successful Spider-Man: The Movie game, both in terms of taking their players ‘beyond the movie’, and by making the world, characters and overall experience truly worthy of it’s comic book license.

The Hulk boasts a colorful array of areas and characters and presents itself with a stylish semi cell shaded look that works surprisingly well with the big, green hero. The graphics are nothing eye-popping, but they are clean, smooth, and easy on the eyes, which is helpful for the long sessions you’ll probably spend playing the game. Each area you’ll come across in the game consists of sharp models and textures and has a substantial amount of detail. You’ll find yourself in environments ranging anywhere from desert gas stations, military bases, and underground substructures. As you rampage through these areas, you’ll notice there isn’t much variety of enemies in The Hulk. As a matter of fact, there is less than half a dozen enemies to face during the duration of the game, unless you count boss characters. The Hulk himself moves fluidly and is very intimidating, as he should be. The green giant is roughly three times the size of a normal military soldier. The game’s story is told through both in-game engine cut scenes and cgi movies, both look very stylish. The gameplay itself does not adapt the stylized look as obviously as the cgi cut scenes do; leaving it a pleasantly varied experience that stays fresh even the second or third time through the game.

When you think of The Hulk, you think of angry, destructive explosions, crashes, smashes, bashes, and so on, right? The game offers plenty of opportunity to make these things happen, and quite often at that. The sounds are both clear, realistic and interesting enough to stay fresh throughout the whole game. The Hulk doesn’t say too much, but the supporting cast of enemies, such as the military guards, has a nice variety of dialogue. During the games cut scenes, Eric Bana lends his talents as the voice of Bruce Banner, which helps to add authenticity to the game. The numerous boss characters that you’ll come across also have a lot to say, may it be speech during the cinematic, or their varied taunts during the epic battles. Overall the games voice acting is above average, enough to keep it from sounding cheesy, but falling below outstanding.

There are only so many ways you can smash something up when you’re a 12 foot tall green killing machine. This becomes very apparent as you play through the game. The games box art suggests an array of 45 different moves to perform during the game, but once you get down to it, you’ll find that they count things such as pushing or pulling crates, crouching, or the number of punches you do in a combo as separate individual moves. Once you get realistic about things, The Hulk only has about a dozen different techniques. The Hulk can grab enemies and toss them across the room, or he can perform any of the few (very few) devastating maneuvers at his disposal. Hulk can also punch and kick his foes, or smash the ground, sending a wave of energy pulsing out at enemies. The Hulk can also interact with the many objects within the levels, such as tables, cars, steel pipes and the like. Once The Hulk wields one of these pieces, he can either throw it at oncoming forces, or he can swing it around, allowing for a few more hits worth of damage on his victims.

The game is split up into 2 parts, one is the ‘Hulk smash’ style level, and the other is the stealth oriented Bruce Banner levels. Wimpy Bruce has an even less limited repertoire of moves at his disposal. He can duck, punch, or knee someone in the gut. This factor is forgivable though, as Bruce Banner is only a lowly scientist and isn’t built to handle fights. The levels you’ll be using Bruce Banner have a much slower pace than the the Hulk levels do, which make them somewhat boring. This will make you rush through the levels so you can get on to more of the smash and trash Hulk levels. The ‘stealth’ gameplay that the game has consists largely of simply not being seen. There are no special moves you can do, or any abilities you have that would make this a fun experience, but rather all you do is simply stand behind a crate, wall, or other structure to stay out of guards view. Banners’ ‘stealth’ missions also involve some puzzle solving elements, as when you come across a locked door, you are made to unlock a security code. Aside from these far and few between levels, the game basically has you smashing up everything in sight, and not much else.

The Hulk controls very well, leaving you able to have everything down pat by the end of the first level or so. There is a punch button, a jump button, a grab button, and a special move button; nothing fancy here. The buttons are mapped to leave your hands in a comfortable position.

At the end of the day, The Hulk is an overall fun experience that really captures the look and feel of the character and his little piece of the comic universe. The game may be lacking in some areas and the gameplay has next to no depth, but it’s fun. That’s really what counts when it all comes down to it. The Hulk can be enjoyable to either hardcore fans, or the casual gamer. A decent storyline, cool stylized graphics, and sheer fun factor helps make The Hulk a worthwhile addition to any fans game library.