One of Marvel's most famous characters continues to be The Incredible Hulk, having had a highly successful television series, multiple cartoons and two blockbuster Hollywood movies. However, with his every appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems his importance the Marvel multiverse shrinks. Even with the release of Marvel's Avengers, neither Bruce nor Hulk have much of a role to play in the story at large, reflecting the attitude of his movie portrayals.
Part of the reason for this is Universal's grip on the Hulk's cinematic copyright. Marvel and Disney have declined to make a solo Hulk movie due to this, which also severely limits the prospect of a new Incredible Hulk game. With the continued popularity of comic book-based video games, a new Hulk game needs to be brought back to mainstream attention.
Hulk has a rather mediocre track record for video games. He's usually one of the more fun characters in ensemble games like Marvel vs. Capcom or Ultimate Alliance, but his solo outings usually range from decent to lackluster. Often, this is because these solo titles failed to utilize the character's signature strength in creative ways. One notable exception was The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, a 2005 game from Radical Entertainment and Vivendi Universal. Not only did Ultimate Destruction fully capture the essence of what playing the Hulk would be like, but it also had the right idea in taking a lot of inspiration from the comics. Ultimate Destruction is a sandbox action game that primarily focuses on being as destructive as possible.
Remakes of games have been the hot new thing in gaming, with titles such as Destroy All Humans! and Crash Bandicoot leading the way. With the advancement of video game physics engines and graphical capabilities, being able to destroy almost anything and everything as the Hulk should be much more fun and pleasing to the eye than it already was. Even without a complex story to tell, a remake of a game such as Ultimate Destruction would be yet another welcome, nostalgia-inducing trip to a simpler time.
Most superhero games take heavy inspiration from movie adaptations of the source material, distilling iconic moments and obscure characters from decades of history in a neatly wrapped package. Batman: Arkham had a fully-realized Gotham City and a focus on Batman's iconic villains, while Marvel's Spider-Man had a detailed New York City to explore, coupled with an emotional rollercoaster of a story befitting the wall-crawler. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was very ambitious for its time in that it attempted to do both things.
Unlike other licensed video games at the time, Ultimate Destruction eschews being based on a movie entirely. Instead, it crafts its own original story, borrowing heavily from iconic Incredible Hulk storylines. Ultimate Destruction's introduced elements such as the US military's development of bio-weapons, a huge conspiracy in the National Security Agency. It also touched on the more personal aspects of The Abomination's desperate search for a cure for his dying wife, or Bruce's inner torment as he fears the Hulk taking control.
Despite having these great story ideas, their actual execution falls short. Cutscenes are sparse and cut out all but the most immediately important information, leading to scenes that are jarring in transition and tone. A lot of important information has been left to background notes and mission briefings, accompanied by very few visuals and some rather obnoxious commentary by Bruce Banner and Leonard Samson. Even an attempt to humanize antagonists Emil Blonsky and General Ross is left to the wayside, particularly jarring in Ross' case with zero mention of his daughter Betty, or Bruce's relationship with her—an essential element in Hulk comics.
Bruce Banner's dissociative personality disorder and the emergence of different Hulks from it is also something that is barely ever touched upon outside of comics and is ripe for adapting into a video game. Not only does this aspect of the character have a lot of potential in terms of storytelling, but it also in terms of gameplay, as having multiple playable Hulks with their own combat styles would add a lot of variety to break up any monotony from relentless smashing, similar to Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
A new Incredible Hulk game should take cues from Ultimate Destruction as well as other successful superhero titles of recent history. Not only should it be the definitive Hulk experience, it needs to adapt stories from the comics that have yet to be told in any major media. With Universal still holding onto film rights, it's about time for the Incredible Hulk to prove he's the strongest there is once again in a major Triple-A title.