HULK
The film comes to the small screen in the form of a videogame sequel. Does it wo
Tags: HULK Categories: Game Cube Reviews, PC Reviews, PS2 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 18th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| HULK (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
The film HULK directed by Ang Lee has gotten mixed reviews for being too cerebral and not capitalizing on the “Hulk smash” metality. Sadly, that’s never been what the story of the character has been about – it has always been a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde kind of tale, exploring the psyche of the duality of man.
And if the above paragraph is too much for you, then you obviously don’t “get” the film either. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, there isn’t a film made that appeals to every person.
The game takes the film only as a starting point though, and provides an entry into the character that many will find more accessable if they want a bit more action. Acting as a sequel to the film, the game picks up the story of Banner/Hulk a year later.
The visual style is more akin to the comic, with a style of cel shading that doesn’t try to replicate the movie’s look (or anything “realistic” for that matter) which works rather well. It isn’t always necessary to replicate the look of film. And while the visual style is a departure, Eric Bana reprises his role (auditorilly) as Dr. Banner, further linking the film and game.
Each of the platforms the game is presented on look exactly the same. The question really is about the controller. ltimately, when it comes to deciding which version of the game to get, it is a matter of which controller suits you best, as none of the 4 versions (PC, GameCube, PS2, Xbox) have any difference to them.
The game spends much more time with Hulk than with Banner, so should please fans that were looking for more action. To that end, there are plenty of attacks that should be familiar to those familiar with the character. Overhead smashes, Atomic Stomp, Sonic Clap and more. Hulk can pick up an enemy and throw him into another, and actually, can pick up a lot of the environment and toss that around as well. The destructability in this game is very extensive, and Hulk can pick up the large chunks of wall and throw them at the Gamma Dogs or soldiers.
While the style of the game is good, the camera isn’t. The game is essentially on rails, giving one path to go down, and the camera sometimes pans around in all directions (particularly in a boss fight) making it hard to detect where Hulk is going.
The boss battles can be frustrating, as you’ll have to defeat them twice. After beating them once, their health meter fills up again. This feels like it was done this way to make the boss more challenging – but comes accross as a cheap effect, it would have been nicer to have some actual difficutly placed there instead of just making the boss live twice.
The enemies in the game take what was presented in the film (the military theme) and translates that rather well into the game world. Banner will never be completely froo from the military and it is intrinsically tied into his past, and it shows in the story of the game and execution. The comic book is also folded into the movie universe here as well, with The Leader being the primary underlying villain for the game. At times, Hulk is presented to the player as Banner’s villain – a theme that is familiar to longtime fans. Players won’t always be Hulk, and as Banner will have to sneak through several levels undetected. This provides a nice change of pace and works to serve the story quite well.
Overall, the game works well for fans of Marvel’s green giant. As a tie in to the movie, it’s a little off (will there be a sequel to the movie, and will it acknowledge the events in the game) but good nonetheless. While there are flaws in the execution of the game, they aren’t major enough to prevent it from being enjoyable for true believers.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
Blends the comic and movie together well Visual style Plenty of "pick up and throw" |
6.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
Camera No exploration Two health bars for bosses |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| The game shouldn't be taken as a translation of the film. This will please action fans more. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: HULK
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 18th, 2003 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, PC Reviews, PS2 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
