The Hulk smashes and smashes and then smashes some more in the latest video game to feature the Marvel Comics green goliath.  As in the previous Hulk: Ultimate Destruction game, the environment here is free roaming.  You can go anywhere and destroy anything and sometimes it’s just fun to have the Hulk bang on a skyscraper until it tumbles to the ground. 

There isn’t much plot to the game in terms of a “big picture”.  You’re plopped down in New York City and you’ll have dozens of missions to complete of varying difficulty.  You’re primary foe is the Enclave, a terrorist organization dedicated to world domination and headed up by group of scientists who are experts in various fields.  In the world of Marvel Comics, it was the Enclave who created “Him”, later known as Adam Warlock.  You’ll face off against the Enclave’s soldiers, giant robots, and other super-powered foes such as the Bi-Beast, the U-Foes, and the Hulk’s nemesis, The Abomination.  However, the Hulk also has a love-hate relationship with the U.S. military.  Some missions will have you battling the military (General Ross still wants to bring the Hulk down no matter what!) and other missions will have you assisting the military in fighting the Enclave. 

The controls are very simple as the Hulk uses his fists for just about everything.  There are a variety of button combos that produce more powerul effects such as an uppercut, a double-fist pound to the ground, and the Hulk’s patented handclap.  The handclap is a necessary move when facing the U-Foes as one of their members is composed of gases and the handclap will stun her.  You can pick up any object on the street from cars and trucks to chunks of pavement to use as missile weapons or to batter your opponent.  The chunks of pavement are also useful as shields when soldiers are blasting you with machine guns.

The Hulk can also jump and it will be the preferred mode of travel as you move from one end of the city to the other with strings of jumps.  You can grab on to buildings and climb up.  Check out the view of the city from the top of the Empire State Building or Chrysler Building!  The coolest thing is that you can just fall off all the way to the ground and not get hurt!

The Hulk has two main meters…one for health and one for rage.  Rage points can be used to restore the Hulk’s health and this is sort of the equivalent of the madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets.  And you will need to restore his health…often.  In fact you’ll find yourself having to retreat from battle quite a bit to quickly restore your health.  In the Wii version, this is done by shaking the nunchuck and then pressing the B button, which frankly is sometimes harder to do than it should be, especially when getting attacked by packs of enemies.  The rage points also give the Hulk a more powerful handclap and other amped up powers.  Rage powers drain and are recharged by fighting.  If you have no enemies around, just start pounding on a building and your rage will refill.

The game isn’t entirely linear.  There are different sets of missions to accomplish and you can jump between them at will.  Exiting to the map will show you where mission destinations are at and you can set a marker by them.  Once you get back to the playing screen, an orange arrow will point you in the direction of your marker.  Hidden throughout the city are health and rage canisters that will slightly increase your maximum capacity.  These are often found on top of buildings or inside a building once you destroy it.

The graphics on the Wii version are better than I expected.  There are times when there are a lot of enemies onscreen and there is no appreciable drag.  The scenery is ok.  You’ll certainly recognize many famous parts of New York but the average building is just that, average.  There’s not a lot of personality to the city that never sleeps.  Some greater variety would have been nice.

As a Wii game, the Incredible Hulk doesn’t take advantage of the Wii’s unique play style.  This is just a button-mashing fighter that uses a Wii controller and that’s not Wii’s strength and it results in occasional frustration.  It’s a fun game but not the best-suited for this platform.