The problem with the Hulk...

I was surfing on Gamespot yesterday when I stumbled upon an article about a Hulk game that's coming out later this year. Now the preview looks interesting and shows that the game has potential. However, something tells me that, despite the nifty tricks you'll be able to do in the game (things like flattening buses to use them as skateboards), it will still suck.



Now I have nothing against superhero games. Quite the contrary. I collected comic books in high school and remained a casual fan ever since. The fact is that making a game based on a superhero is HARD. You have years of tradition to consider if you want to please fans. Any superhero worth a damn has been around since the 60s and 70s.

Not only does a superhero game need to respect the setting, storyline, and overall attitude of the hero, but the game has to be fun. This is where the Hulk becomes a REAL problem. There are only so many things one can do with super-strength before it gets old. Superman can fly and shoot lasers. Spiderman has webbing, wall crawling, and his acrobatic skills. The Thing has 3 teammates with completely different powers. The Hulk... gets stronger when he's angrier. That's it. From a gameplay perspective, the boils down to smashing things (or people) up, and jumping real far.

What can you do when you want to make a Hulk game that doesn't get old fast? How do you keep a gamer's interest for more than two levels? You either shorten the game, or work your imagination to add variety. The "Sonic Boom Clap" was a nifty idea back in the 90s (the first game I played where Hulk could do that was the SNES game... which got old after two levels), but it's pretty much a standard today. Lets hope the people at Radical Entertainment are up to the challenge of finding other fun things to do.

Another factor is game balance. What enemies can you throw at the Hulk to make a fun game. He's THE HULK! Anyone who can survive one punch already ranks among the extraordinary. Someone who can take 5 hits and keep coming BETTER be at least a sub-boss. This issue contributes greatly towards repetitive gameplay. You can't throw boss after boss at the player, so you have to throw enough goons to give him a challenge, and hope he doesn't get bored.

This brings me to the conclusion that the Hulk just plain sucks as a main character for a beat 'em up / platformer game. He'd make a great boss, but playing AS him presents numerous challenges. This isn't the Hulk's fault. The approach just isn't that hot. He works great in fighting games, as the Marvel vs Capcom games can show. MvC-Hulk manages to be strong, yet beatable, all in a way that's fun for gamers, and acceptable to comic book fans. The same phenomenon exists for the X-Men. There was a trend not to long ago to try and make 3D fighting games with the X-Men, and the vast majority of them sucked. They work for 2D (thanks again, Capcom), but 3D X-Men fighting games just don't stay fun for more than 30 minutes. Next thing you know, X-Men Legends comes along and shows that you CAN make a good 3D X-Men game. As long as it isn't a fighter.