Superhero games are by nature a mixed bag; knowing full well that many fans will buy them no matter what, some publishers just slap the license on whatever game engine and plot they happen to have lying around, and take the result to the bank. Lately, though, some devoted, talented people have been put in charge of some storied franchises, and the result has been some good games. One such inspired gem is The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. It might be the most purely entertaining superhero game ever.
While Ultimate Destruction doesn't do anything particularly new, it benefits by starting with perhaps the perfect video-game character, and from there, it never puts a giant green foot wrong. Players spend no time as indecisive scientist Bruce Banner; instead, they immediately Hulk out into a fairly interesting but easily ignored plot in which they must stop the Hulk process from being used for wanton destruction. The only way to do this, of course, is for Hulk to smash everything. In story missions, in challenge missions scattered about the environment, and while roaming aimlessly about the badlands and the city, players use tight, intuitive, upgradeable controls for said smashing. Also for hurling puny humans over the horizon, using buses as baseball bats, punting horses, hammer-tossing tanks, belly-flopping off of buildings onto gasoline trucks, and generally devoting hour after hour to giggling, large-scale mayhem.