Although developed by a different studio, The Incredible Hulk clearly acknowledges the success of Ultimate Destruction in capturing that Marvel Comic gold, since it attempts to copy it wholesale. We use the word 'attempt' because a half-hearted effort is all that it turns out to be.

Ultimate Destruction consisted of two levels - a cityscape and a desert - but The Incredible Hulk features just one: New York City. For anyone who’s played Ultimate Destruction, this will immediately feel like a step backward. But they will certainly try and console themselves in the hope that this will result in a more detailed world, with more to see and smash. Sadly, there’s no such luck.

The game's visuals are a mess. The artists clearly struggled with being forced to recreate Liv Tyler, Edward Norton and Tim Roth, to the point where the models are actually embarrassing. Thankfully, you won’t have to insult your eyes by looking at them for too long, because they only appear close up in ridiculously short cut scenes – some literally lasting all of three seconds. It’s noticeable that the human characters created specifically for bit parts in the game look infinitely better as they strive for their own style. The level of detail attempted was clearly beyond the boundaries of the game's budget. Even the collectable comic covers, among a host of superfluous extras, are scary; and not in a good way.

In-game, the draw distance is appalling, at times equivalent to a PlayStation One title and the partial texture loading is often jarring. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the texture isn’t fully loaded yet or if it was just poor quality to start with. There are also some obscure frame-rate issues, which, unlike Ultimate Destruction, which also suffered when things got extremely hectic, seem to occur when Hulk is doing little more than travelling through the air.

What strikes you from the very moment it starts is how puny the Hulk feels. As he runs around the city, he has no actual weight to him, a bit odd for a creature that’s supposed to be the equivalent of a mutated human freight-train. He leaves no marks in the concrete, despite his considerable mass. Even running head-long into one of the hundreds of identical cars that line the streets is enough to make him come to a jarring halt, when momentum should have carried him through. Holding the jump button allows the Hulk to gain enough power to catapult himself into the air, but he never seems to have enough energy in him to reach the massive height that you’d expect. Next to Ultimate Destruction, which saw you leaping vast distances, he seems even more stunted.

On paper these flaws might seem minor to anyone who hasn’t played Ultimate Destruction, but that game contained all these little touches and had a lot of extra thought put in to it. It was part of what made it a pleasure to play. It’s depressing that the list of dumbing down here is as long as you’d care to make it.

Hulk is still able to scoop up objects, but is no longer able to do this while running, so there’s no more free-style improvisation. He’s no longer able to put down people that he may have picked up, instead being forced to throw them like a puppy at the hands of the RSPCA’s worst nightmare. He’s no longer able to spear enemies with lamp posts, nor are the range of moves and attacks anywhere near as expansive as previously. Aside from two types of punch (no, there’s not even a kick anymore) the player is given rage powers such as a groundsmash or thunder clap, which can be used at any time. When the Fury gauge is filled - by taking damage and being involved in combat - more powerful versions of these attacks can be triggered. However it’s often not worth the bother, since only the Hulk-buster units (modelled on Iron Man’s armour) actually pose a problem.

We could continue making unflattering comparisons, but the rather sombre bottom line is that the game has nowhere near the attention to detail or effort that was lavished on the previous Hulk game. In fact there are only two areas where The Incredible Hulk makes a slight improvement. The first is that it features a ragdoll system which is great for a few brief comedy moments. Second, instead of barrelling straight up the side of a building at full pelt, the Hulk now scales it by hand, in a more realistic fashion.

Causing general mayhem will raise the alert level and once a set limit is hit, the game will dispatch various military units to stop you. At level one this means little more than a few soldiers, but at the maximum of level nine, it includes several heavily armoured Hulk-busters. The only way to remove this wanted level is to avoid destroying anything and wait for it to fade (not an option above the first few grades, since the enemies will pursue Hulk indefinitely) or to just enter one of the subways scattered around the map. As well as removing the alert level, these allow Hulk to travel quickly between various parts of the city, although the idea of an enraged beast suddenly taking a short trip on the subway borders on the ridiculous - even in a game where you play a massive irradiated monster.

Missions takethe typical "expanding on the film" approach, touching on key parts of the movie without trying to gain mileage from a plot that doesn’t actually support a game. However, this approach ages quickly and the missions quickly descend into standard movie tie-in territory. So it’s: move from point A to point B and back again/defeat some enemies/protect something/defuse some bombs; that’s really is as complicated as it gets, and is extensively repeated. It’s to the game's benefit that the main missions can be completed quite quickly, seeing as there’s more fun to be had chewing on a tramps skiddy underpants.

The game does extend things with additional side-missions and searching for Gamma or Fury Canisters. These increase the health and fury meters and this time around feature a Crackdown-style pinging noise to help you locate them. Which, given that Crackdown aped Ultimate Destruction’s style of jumping huge distances, means things have come around full circle. Sadly, by the time you hunt all these down, you’ll have doubtless finished the main game, so they’re of little use unless you’re playing for the Achievement Points.

The Incredible Hulk is nothing more than a shoddy imitation. The developers have had the blatant cheek to try and trick you into thinking it was even half as good as Ultimate Destruction in a bid to get their hands on your cash. It’s impressive that they’ve managed to take a winning concept two generational steps backwards. Those who’ve never played Ultimate Destruction (for shame) will no doubt find the ability to smash things up and rampage around as the Hulk entertaining, but they would be well advisedto just ignore this shallow half-baked movie cash-in and head straight to Ultimate Destruction, which remains superior in every possible respect.