GAME REVIEWS: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

VU Games (all consoles)
Game •••• Graphics/Sound •••½
Still fuming over Ang Lee's horrendous Hulk flick? Screw anger-management sessions: only this comic-based beat-'em-up can purge your system of that sleep-inducing psychodrama. But it's not easy being green, even if you do have a staggering 150 attack combos at your disposal. Here, you're hounded by armed forces, 300-foot-tall robots, and gamma-irradiated foes from the "funny" books. Their relentless pursuit sends you on a free-roaming rampage through desert badlands and a sprawling cityscape.

Although the enormous environments are some of the most interactive (read: destructible) you've ever seen, they get a razz for their lack of pizzazz. Still, thanks to the gripping gameplay, you'll get over the so-so sights in no time. Delight in destroying anything that stands in the way of completing 30 retrieval-, protection-, and combat-based missions. Feel awash with euphoria when you crush cars like tin cans, reduce entire buildings to rubble, and pulverize your pursuers with the debris. And Superman better make room on the roof, because Hulk can do the leap-tall-buildings thing, too.

As for replay value, Hulkamaniacs will find over 40 (often gut-busting) bonus levels. One has you using a steel girder as a bat - but you'll belt soldiers instead of baseballs to set distance records.

In addition to 16:9 widescreen, a rousing score combined with the cacophony of shattering glass and shrieking metal gives the game a shot of cinematic flair. And low-frequency freaks get their fix every time Hulk hits the ground after a 40-story freefall. Ultimate Destruction is what the Hulk movie should have been: The Fugitive on steroids. Mr. Lee - Stan, not Ang - will be pleased.

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