Retro game review: The Incredible Hulk (Sega Genesis) - Is this finally a good retro comic book video game?

retro-room (63)in #gaming • 6 years ago (edited)

Retro games based off comic books have not been too kind to me. So far this year I’ve reviewewed Wolverine Adamantium Rage, Silver Surfer, Spider-man X-men Arcade’s Revenge and Superman and each have been mediocre to terrible. Its sad that the best “superhero” game I’ve played so far has been Boogerman. But being the masochist that I am, I’ll continue to slog through the 8- and 16-bit comic book adaptations looking for something good. Other than Batman, there has to be something good…right?

Today’s specimen is The Incredible Hulk, released by notoriously bad publisher U.S. Gold (not a good sign). The game appeared on both the Genesis and Super Nintendo, but we’ll be looking at the Sega version today. As far as I know, there’s no significant difference between the two versions.

^{Image Source:user silenig on YouTube}

The Incredible Hulk begins with a comic-style intro with animated comic book panels showing Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk and with that, we’re in the game. There’s really no real story — more of an excuse to ferry the Hulk from location to location where he has to fight a plethora of baddies.

The game instantly feels familiar to other side scrolling superhero games of the era, which is a multi-directional sidescroller that frequently throws you into the dreaded “2D maze” that I hate. Hulk has a wide array of attacks at his disposal, but get this — he can only use his best attacks when at full health. As his health drops, you lose access to the better attacks. Drop too far and you revert to Bruce Banner, who can crawl into small spaces Hulk can't fit into, but he's otherwise worthless and dies with a single hit.

This might not seem so bad though, right? The Hulk is tremendously powerful and resilient. Nope, he falls into the same pit as Superman and Silver Surfer where a nearly invulnerable character is easily damaged by peons. Unless you manage to find the hidden health capsules scattered around the stages, you’ll not only be restricted to using his basic attacks, but you’ll find yourself jumping past enemies rather than fighting them to keep your health. Combat is awful, with many enemies having ranged attacks that chip away at Hulk’s health before you can get to them, so its best to just run and jump through the levels to avoid everything but the bosses.

^{Image Source:user silenig on YouTube}

In addition, Hulk’s attacks lack “oomph.” For such an immensely powerful brute, his punches, throws and stops have almost no feeling of weight behind them. You might as well just be a muscular human painted green. But since you’ll just be running by enemies instead of engaging them, its not a big deal. Its is, but its not in the context of this game.

Unfortunately, this game falls into the same pitfalls as its comic book game peers and just lacks fun. It controls OK, but if most of the game is taking one of the most powerful Marvel characters and spending the whole game running by skinny peons, it’s completely failed.

^{Image Source:user silenig on YouTube}

Graphically, the game is quite good. The Hulk is really nicely drawn and animated, as are most of the enemy characters. Background and foreground graphics are nicely detailed (excluding the bland backgrounds of the first city stage) with some background scrolling and animation in some areas. The game is also really colorful, with each stage popping out vibrant and great-looking colors.

Sound and music are a step down from the visuals. Sound effects lack any weight or punch to them with a completely weak and generic feel. Music is much better than the sounds, but it feels totally out of place. The soundtrack is handful of energetic, funk-inspired tunes that sound like they should belong in a generic 2D platformer. I was hoping for something cinematic, majestic or rough and heavy. It just felt like an odd choice.

^{Image Source:user silenig on YouTube}

Looks like my quest will go on, in search of a good retro game based on a comic book that doesn’t suck. I still have quite a few games on my stack to run through its paces, but my expectations drop with each new turd I plug into my Retron5.

The Incredible Hulk is definitely a disappointment. I’ll advise this only for people looking to fill holes in their collection or huge Incredible Hulk collections. If you’re after it, opt for the cheaper Sega Genesis version. A complete copy is not much more than the loose SNES cart.