Why A New Incredible Hulk Video Game Is Long Overdue

Out of all the founding members of the Avengers, none have been so misused as The Hulk. The jolly green giant is one of the most empowering superheroes that could possibly be put in the hands of a player, and his lack of decent representation in both video games and the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes him deserving of a new game all to his own.

The recent Marvel’s Avengers game did a decent job at giving players a foundation for what every Avenger is capable of in a video game, including The Hulk. He’s big, he’s lumbering, he tanks damage, and he smashes stuff to bits. Unfortunately, the game misses out on an important aspect to these fundamental elements: scale. The Hulk isn’t just capable of smashing anything, he can smash the biggest and baddest of anything. This is something which the MCU depicted very well during the moments where Hulk really got momentum going. For instance, in the final scenes of the first Avengers movie, Hulk leaps entire city blocks in a single bound, barrels through skyscrapers, and exterminates giant flying space lizards with ease. That is the minimum level of destruction players should be able to cause in any Hulk game.

So far, there is arguably only a single game which manages to depict Hulk wreaking havoc at an appropriate level: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. This open world title (which served as the basis for the Prototype series) had players leaping, dashing and climbing through cities, duking it out with anti-hulk robots and tearing down entire skyscrapers with a myriad of different moves and abilities. Players were a bull, and the entire game was their china shop. The only issue Ultimate Destruction was that players were limited to two environments, but if the MCU proved anything with the Hulk, it’s that he works in more than just modern cities and desert wastelands.

What A New Hulk Game Could Look Like

The MCU Hulk had a fair share of smashing good moments for the character, but his only solo movie was one of the weakest entries in the franchise. On top of that, the franchise opted to water-down the Hulk’s destructive capabilities in the final movies. Avengers Endgame’s Hulk was an interesting way to include Banner’s “Professor” personality in the MCU, and he had his own unique heroic moments, but when it came to smashing stuff the Hulk had lost his mojo. Before all that, however, Hulk was shown in his prime in a variety of environments that have never been explored by video games, but definitely should. Players should be able to control Hulk everywhere from the alien planet of Sakaar to the divine halls of Asgard. More importantly, they should be able to wreck those places to bits with reckless abandon.

Even more important would be the possibility of exploring Hulk stories that the MCU never touched on. Hulk is at his most fun when he’s a mindless entity of destruction, but that’s also only one part of an extremely complex character. He’s been around for a very long time, and has done many different things from starting (and losing) a family on an alien world, acting as a two-bit vegas mafioso, and even eating the god of the multiverse. A brand new Hulk game has the capability of exploring over half a decade of storylines and character development. Even Ultimate Destruction only touched on one small piece of Bruce Banner’s character. It never even mentioned the dozens of alternate personalities (and therefore other Hulks) crammed into his psyche.

The Hulk is one of Marvel’s flagship heroes, able to embody a whole spectrum of experiences and ideas despite being a single character. Movies routinely depower or neglect him, video games barely know he exists, and comics rarely manage to introduce the nuances of his character to the mainstream. A new video game, on the other hand, would be able to depict the full breadth of what makes the Hulk cool. Players could smash anything and everything in sight across the entire Marvel universe, while still getting a sense for The Hulk as his character is presented in the comics.

About The Author

Jonah Schuhart
(148 Articles Published)

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Jonah Schuhart is a Freelance Writer at Screen Rant. Growing up as the stereotypical gamer, Jonah absorbed everything he could about his favorite video games until adulthood came knocking. He decided to become a games journalist after his dad purchased a subscription to Gameinformer when he was 10 years old. Now, he follows in the footsteps of his early influences, giving his two-cents on the games he loves.

You can also find Jonah on Looper, where he writes about his favorite TV and Movies. Follow him on Twitter @JonahSchuhart, or reach him by email at [email protected]

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