Next to Batman, of all the comic book characters I feel closest to is the Incredible Hulk. It's hard not to like someone that turns into a big green behemoth when he gets pissed off. (At least the way he used to -- before he went through that whole green/grey inner turmoil battle and personal tragedies.) Comic book heroes are a natural fit for video games, the Hulk especially, but they've had few games worthy of gamer attention. Even at the time of it's release back in 1994, The Incredible Hulk (developed by Probe and published by US Gold) only succeeded in being average.

The graphics are fairly slick for the 16-bit era, with a lot of attention on Hulk himself, but everything else is disappointingly drab. Enemies all have the same general look and attack modes but with different skins and the levels aren't very imaginative either. Some of this would be forgivable if there was at least some sort of story stringing the levels together but there isn't. You fight Rhino (best know for his appearances in the Spiderman comics) then suddenly go "somewhere peaceful" which resembles ancient Rome to fight centurions. It's disjointed and makes you feel like you're playing for no reason, no purpose -- pointless.

that accurately model his comic book powers. When Hulk jumps in the comics he covers miles in a single bound, but in the game it's a lot less than that. He has three types of punches and a couple of grab moves, none of which do as much damage as you'd think. Enemies can routinely take four uppercuts or five straight punches to defeat. The two grab moves are extremely limited in their scope and they too don't do much more damage than the regular attacks.

Frustrating the number of attacks is the responsiveness of the controls, which is sluggish at the best of times.

Sound is run of the mill 16-bit. You won't remember the theme song an hour after turning off the game. It's disappointing that Hulk's roar wasn't better utilized.

The Incredible Hulk has much potential as a video game license. With the current power of available consoles, the Hulk might finally be done right. When gamers see what's been done with Spiderman (based on the Sam Raimi movie), Batman (Batman Vengeance) and (the upcoming) Superman for the Xbox, it's a given they'll start to wonder when other marquee comic characters are going to get a video game on the latest consoles. What about Wolverine?

After all is said and done, The Incredible Hulk is not worth your time today.

- Omni