Predictably Incredible
Universal Interactive confirms that, yes, it does plan to base its Hulk game on the movie
Eric Bana's cinematic portrayal of Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk has so far been advertised with a simple, casual trailer of the brutish oaf's emergence and demolition of a poor, defenceless bungalow washbasin. With slightly less onomatopoeic unpredictability, Universal Interactive (a Vivendi studio) chose Monday to announce details of its game of the movie, which will appear alongside the Ang Lee-directed film in June of 2003. In what is becoming a bit of a tradition, for better or worse, movie-based videogames are appearing to coincide with theatrical debuts instead of appearing months or years later, sometimes even alongside a tedious sequel. The other half of this particular trend is simultaneous all formats releases, something of which Electronic Arts is traditionally the master, and UI's Incredible Hulk game is no exception to that rule either. Cube, Xbox, PS2 and GBA versions will all appear in June. Although we know little about the game besides its now-confirmed portrayal of events in the movie, it's probably quite safe to say that big-screen actors Eric Bana (Bruce Banner/Hulky), Nick Nolte (Dad of Hulk) and Jennifer Connelly (bird of Hulk) will have a sum total of nothing to do with the game, except perhaps being imitated badly by semi-reasonable voice actors. Of course, if they did, it would be a tremendous coup for the developer (and a financial drain on the publisher). As would be the involvement of Industrial Light and Magic, who will be providing CG effects for the movie, so it's probably safe to count them out. Hopefully before long we'll know how likely UI is to do Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Marvel comic book hero justice. And in turn, how you will be able to go about dishing out justice yourself. Stay tuned.