Parents' Guide to The Incredible Hulk

i>The Incredible Hulk's creators took great care in their rendering of Dr. Bruce Banner's iconic alter ego. The Hulk looks just like his big-screen counterpart, with enormously powerful muscles rippling under his lime skin and a satisfyingly emotive face. He's also been beautifully animated. The Hulk has an immense, lumbering gait, and his movements for throwing and punching objects radiate power. Indeed, even his most outlandish exploits -- such as leveling the Chrysler building simply by pounding its stanchions -- seem almost believable thanks to the game's talented artists.

However, the ol' Hulk Smash gets a bit tired after a while. The act of razing a skyscraper carries with it a visceral pleasure, but it's so easy and common in this game that it eventually loses its sensational appeal. What's more, most of the story missions are quite similar to one another -- run to a particular location and destroy this group of bad guys or that structure. Mini-games aren't much better, entailing the repetitive destruction of, say, as many cars or enemy troops as possible in a set time. Plenty of unlockable Hulk skins, classic comic book covers, and concept art help add value for die-hard Hulk fans, but players not invested in the green guy's mythos probably won't derive all that much fun from reviewing his various appearances over the decades. Simply put, The Incredible Hulk is a ton of fun to start, but there's just not enough substance to sustain the average player's interest until the closing credits.