Everybody knows who The Incredible Hulk is; sure, lots of them have probably never picked up a comic book in their entire lives, let alone a Hulk comic book - but he's still instantly recognisable. He's had a long and bumpy road since his comic book inception, from a hit television series to a box-office flop (even though I thought the movie was fantastic...) [Me too, totally did justice to the not-so-jolly green giant! Ed], the big green guy gets around. Ultimate Destruction isn't his first videogame either, as the character has appeared on a large list of consoles over the years - but his latest one will prove to be his absolute best and might be one of the highest points of Hulk's career yet!

The spiritual successor to the movie-based Hulk, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction takes what made that game fun and builds an entirely new experience around that. What we have is a free-roaming game set up very similar to Spider-Man 2 except without the boring fighting engine and side missions. Unlike the last Hulk title, there are no more Bruce Banner stealth missions to slow down the pace. This is a Hulk game, so players who pick it up want one thing: ultimate destruction... and this game delivers, big time.

You once again play Bruce Banner, but always in the form of The Hulk, as he searches for a cure to his curse with the help of a familiar friend. As you progress you'll learn more about your pursuer, come face to face with an Abomination and also have a memorable confrontation with the increasingly worrying third personality of Bruce Banner, dubbed the Devil Hulk. Some cool comic book shout outs come in along the way and there's a good element of mystery to the story, as you wonder what will happen next and when exactly it will come to a conclusion (I distinctly remember thinking I was on the final boss about three times that I wasn't, thanks to multiple epic battles). I'll give the developers credit for creating a better story than most action beat 'em ups offer, but in this genre the real attraction is the gameplay and the developers know this, as they always keep the cut-scenes brief before returning to the action.

The city is your playground and over time you can purchase every single move you love The Hulk for. He can jump amazing distances, run up buildings, grind on giant buses and trolleys and, best of all, destroy anything in his path and then use it as a weapon. See that car over there? You can make steel gloves out of it! How about that bus? Smash it down and then use it as a makeshift shield, or even a boomerang that comes back at you if thrown correctly! Trees and poles can be used as bats or spears, even impaling enemies; wrecking balls can be swung and thrown or you can have Hulk hang onto the steel rope and pull the ball back after attacking with it. Tanks can be swung and tossed through the air at helicopters - speaking of which - Hulk can even leap into the air, grab a 'copter or plane and ride it down, or better yet, kick it out of the air right into another Harrier Jet flying overhead. Oh, and how about boulder bowling?

These aren't nearly all of Hulk's great abilities; you'll discover a plethora along the way, right up until the very last section of the game. Hulk stays fresh the entire way through, thanks to missions that, for the most part, know what the players want out of the game. Very rarely does the game take you anywhere but outdoors, where you can jump giant heights and only once does it make you be stealthy, but it's done in a humorous fashion more for laughs than anything. Throughout the entire game there is not one mission I didn't enjoy and even if I died a few times on them, I still looked forward to going back and doing it again, because of how the game is set up. You have total freedom in your surroundings: the game most often tosses in a horde of enemies and lets you decide how to take them out. In some games this could be a horrible idea but it's what makes Ultimate Destruction such a great game and that should tell you just how fun the core gameplay is. Now consider that you'll earn new moves right up into the last level and the game cannot possibly get old.

Unfortunately, one of - scratch that - the only thing I dislike about Hulk is the length. Like it's predecessor, the game's main story is not that long and you could beat it in a weekend easily, but unlike the original game this one comes packed full of things to collect and unlock - and you'll actually want to complete it. 60 comic books scatter the lands of Hulk, each not only giving you new artwork but collect enough and you'll get some new codes to play with. Also scattered throughout the world are mini-game icons and I know what you're thinking; memories of Spider-Man 2 are flooding in, you can just picture having to rescue little kids over and over, along with other pointless side-missions. You're half right... the missions are pointless, but with that in mind the developers could go nuts with concepts.

How about golf with a gigantic golf ball? How about stacking as many cars on a building as possible, or kicking a car as far as you possibly can? There's vehicle field goal kicking, there's human soldier baseball and even a childhood favourite of mine: hot lava! You know, where you and your buddies get together and pretend you couldn't touch the ground in the living room and go from once piece of furniture to the next? You do that in Hulk, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, trying to stay above the ground. There are hundreds of these games and just about every one of them is a ton of fun. Getting the highest score is not easy either, so you'll be busy for a long time. Collecting things and earning high scores gives you codes that can be used for fun things like low gravity, or cooler things like changing the look of Hulk's shorts or even his entire body (old-school Grey Hulk, anyone?)

Hulk has three different zones: the first is a hideout where you can also go to be safe, called the Church. In Ultimate Destruction you use markers to jump from zone to zone, literally. The other two areas, where you'll be causing most of your destruction are the city and badlands, the latter of which is a big dry canyon area with various small towns scattered around. Each zone is actually quite different and has their own unique things to offer, with the game's missions are spread out well between the two areas. The desert makes for some great open area battles with multiple enemies and in the city there isn't anything quite like running up a skyscraper and doing an elbow drop onto a helicopter below you.

One thing players may become frustrated with is the camera system, but honestly I must say it works surprisingly well most of the time and actually helps keep things more frantic. The camera is usually behind Hulk and you can rotate it/centre it using the right analog stick. You can lock onto an enemy that the camera always follows whilst keeping Hulk in view, creating some very dynamic and exciting camera angles while you're running up buildings or jumping. While locked onto an enemy, using the right stick cycles through enemies or targets nearby. Sometimes you may end up targeting the wrong enemy and it can get frustrating, but it rarely results in death, as Hulk isn't exactly easy to take down.

Which brings me to the difficulty. Hulk can't just be taken down with a few bullets... you'll go a long while before you actually die the first time. This does make the game feel a bit easy at times (not to say it doesn't have its fair share of challenging bits) but it also makes it authentic. This is the Hulk after all, he's not really a super-hero - in this game you can even be a menace and harm innocent people - but you can't expect a few measly bullets or rockets to neutralise him. As you play you're continually pelted with everything from homing missiles to lasers and each attack that knocks you back helps you feel more and more like Hulk. As your health decreases, your attacks seem to be out of desperation and pulling off that final huge attack as your health is in the adrenaline stage (which is just before death, one last rush of energy) just feels great.

Likewise, when your health reaches max you enter a 'super' mode of sorts, where Hulk's mass is at an all time high. Assuming you've bought them, you can pull off some hugely devastating attacks in this state. However, if you're like me, you'll rarely use these and find more creative ways to take out enemies by using the environment around you.

Aside from some of the human character models in the cut-scenes, the graphic in Ultimate Destruction are better than ever. Oddly enough, the bright colours from the last game that made it feel like a comic book are gone and now in this game the graphics are much more realistic and darker, which is odd, since this one is actually based on a comic book. Regardless, the change is definitely for the better. The explosions have been excellently crafted, Hulk looks amazing at all times and everything he does has some sort of graphic reaction; like when you land on any surface it cracks and crumbles under your feet... but most importantly, there is absolutely no slowdown. Even in huge, massive battles with jets overhead, giant enemies below and dozens of objects simultaneously blowing up, the game remains smooth at all times.

Even better than the graphics are the sound effects. As you crash down onto the ground you can feel the impact and Hulk's grunts and roars really add to the experience. As you jump huge distances through the air you'll hear the wind rushing past as you come down to the ground with a huge, crushing impact. Similar to Ace Combat 5, you'll also hear the radio chatter of any enemies around you, which also really helps the experience; hearing the enemies talk about how fast you are or how useless their weapons are against you really helps make you feel like Hulk. A huge orchestra intensifies the gameplay most of the time and is incredibly well done, but often times you'll find the game is even more intense without any music, which is a real testament to how good the sound effects are.

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is simply a great game, despite its relatively short nature. Lots of things are there for you to unlock and for those of you who really love the game, you'll be glad to know that a harder difficulty is available upon completion, but while keeping all the abilities you've bought, something I was delighted with and dove into immediately. The missions are varied enough to keep you going and take advantage of what makes the game fun; if you like classic beat 'em up games like Final Fight or Streets of Rage 2, then Ultimate Destruction is a game you can't pass up. Mindless, destructive fun that has never been done better than this. Go check it out in a hurry, because this could be one of the last great Xbox titles before the Xbox 360.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).