In the world of Marvel games there are many that got overlooked. These were not bad games, several came out at a bad time, or people didn’t know about it. Many of these games were AA, but would be ambitious, inspired and have respect for the source material.

Today let’s talk about The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. It came out in 2005 and this game gave a lot of inspiration for games to come. I’m not that big of a Hulk fan, the ‘08 movie was decent. The rest of the MCU he felt like a one note dude who destroys stuff and serves as comic relief.

The game picks up with Bruce Banner on the run from a secret government agency, headed by a guy played by Ron Pearlman. Bruce escapes to a church outside of New York with his friend. He is looking for a new way to try to research and control the virus. You must do missions to find out why the agency wants you, and what’s really going on.

The game takes place around two open worlds and some traditional linear missions. The open worlds are in New York and I believe the New Mexico desert. You can go between worlds by finding a point on your map. Sometimes you’ll have to carry items between them or back to the church. The linear missions locations range from military bases to secret government labs.

The destruction and physics in this game are really good. Most small buildings can be destroyed. Hulk can pick up most things around and use them as a weapon. This can be rocks, trees, cars, trucks, fuel tanks and more. Picking up enemies and throwing them is cool too. You can walk or run, though jumping is the best.

The combat in this isn’t the total power trip you think, but you get those moments. A lot of times it can get pretty hard. Tanks, jets, helicopters can all be coming at you, knocking you down and ganging up on you. For example, missile launcher’s are very annoying, you’re fighting all these vehicles, then you get hit and knocked down for a few seconds and you can die easily. The jet pack soldiers can be a bit hard to fight, but pretty fun. You’ll be fighting them in mid air or pulling them out the air and slamming them down. They’ll use their guns or try to slam you down. Fighting 3 or more of these is a challenge.

The boss fights in this were fine, I met a villain I’d never seen before in Mercy. She has telekinetic powers and can shoot what looks to be gamma radiation at you.. You also fight a Hulk-like creature known as the abomination. Then you fight these giant robots. The only issue I had is with one or two of these it’s not clear what you should do. One of them I had to look it up.

The move set in this game is deep. You thought modern games had big skill sets? This game has more moves than Spider-Man. You buy them with money from missions and challenges. For example, you get the ability to:

• Multiple Ground Pounds
• Throw Tanks
• Jump On & Crash Planes/ Helicopters
• Rip Cars in Half & Make Boxing Gloves
• Grab Missiles & Throw Them Back
• Enhance Your Rage Mode

There are way more skills to get and I don’t think I got them all. Several of the more complex skills come with tutorials for you to do.

Radical Ent. made another good game, and it’s strange there was one or two other Hulk games after that weren’t good. I give this game a 7.5-8 depending on the level as there are times the enemies can be cheap and frustrating. That’s one of the reasons I wish the game was more of a power trip. If you love superhero games give this one a try. Emulate or buy it, don’t cry for a remaster or remake.