With the new Hulk film working its Marvel magic at the box office, seasoned gamers have been bracing themselves for yet another substandard action film tie-in, and with good reason – the sheer number of terrible titles based on movies almost warrants a new gaming sub-genre. Any hopes that The Incredible Hulk might put an end to this nefarious practice were dashed early on; the last game to be adapted from a Marvel film was the awful Iron Man, handled by Sega, as is Hulk.

This third-person action romp pits you as the giant, green smashing machine, in a similar manner to The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on PS2. Despite borrowing voices from the film’s main stars, the game narrative is completely forgettable – all you need to know is that pretty soon Big Green finds himself free roaming in downtown Manhattan. You can run, jump and punch your way around the city, and also pick up and throw most items. Hulk can also execute a number of supercharged moves to take on the army, robots, and other powerful foes such as the film’s radioactive monstrosity, Abomination.

Initially, the game is surprisingly good fun. You’ll jump outrageous distances, scale skyscrapers and do a lot of smashing the place up, all in Hulk’s inimitable style. Collateral damage is the name of the game here; the ground, buildings and vehicles all feel the force of the Incredible Hulk’s presence. From cracks in the concrete, to the fronts of entire buildings collapsing, the deformable terrain is pretty impressive. The streets buzz with traffic and pedestrians, all of which can be punched, picked up, or hurled through the air. With various military units in tow, an almost constant rate of fire on Hulk means that eventually you’ll need to retreat and think about what your next move’s going to be, while flying aggressors ensure that you can’t just find solace atop the nearest tower.

Although there are mission markers for you to find and then complete, The Incredible Hulk is at its best when you’re tearing a random path of destruction through the city. The feel-good factor soon wears off though – imprecise controls, sketchy collision detection, ugly graphical glitches and repetitive gameplay, add up to a frustrating experience. There have also been numerous reports of the game locking up in-game and crashing PlayStations, and while we didn’t experience this first hand, if true, it sounds like another unfinished aspect of the game. The hunt for a decent PlayStation 3 Marvel title continues.

Tom Hopkins