The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga

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The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga

Developer(s) Attention To Detail
Silicon Dreams
Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive
Platform(s) PlayStation
Sega Saturn
MS-DOS
Release date PlayStation
Flag of Europe December 1996 (1996-12)
Flag of the United States February 28, 1997 (1997-02-28)
Saturn
Flag of the United States January 1, 1997 (1997-01-01)
Dos
1997 (1997)
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen
Media CD-ROM
Input methods Game controller
Keyboard

The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga is a video game that was developed by Attention To Detail and Silicon Dreams and published by Eidos Interactive for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and DOS in 1996. The single player, side-scrolling action game is loosely based on storylines from the early 1990s issues of the Incredible Hulk comic book series.

On the EB Games sticker seal the game was listed as "The Incredible Hulk 2: The Pantheon Saga".

Contents

[edit] Storyline

In the 1990s, the Incredible Hulk comic book series featured the Hulk (now with the brain of Bruce Banner) being kidnapped by the Pantheon superhero team/family, and eventually agrees to lead the team to combat global problems such as terrorism and war in the Middle East. The video game only loosely draws upon the Pantheon storyline, borrowing characters but not plot elements from the original comic book.

The video game begins with the Hulk begin captured by the Pantheon and breaking free just as their cargo ship lands in the Pantheon's mountain headquarters. The brief intermission exposition scenes between the levels do not explain much of the storyline. In the first four levels, the player battles inside the Pantheon secret headquarters, until the Pantheon members Atalanta, Ulysses, Ajax and Hector are located and defeated. After defeating them, they become your allies, and can temporary appear on screen to help the player. The storline shifts to several more side-scrolling levels where the player battles super-villains such as Piecemeal, Trauma, Lazarus, the U-Foes and the Maestro. There are a dozen side-scrolling levels that are loosely based on the comic book series, although the game does not bother to try and connect the levels to a cohesive storyline.

[edit] Gameplay

As the Hulk, the player can jump, punch, kick, and pick up certain large objects to throw as projectiles. Aside from the normal health bar, the Hulk also has a gamma energy bar that is depleted whenever the Hulk uses one of his special fighting moves. Along with the traditional side-scrolling arcade-style action, several levels often require the Hulk to solve a puzzle (i.e. locate and smash control panels in a certain order) to proceed in the level.

The game is fairly difficult to defeat, and as many of the enemies and bosses are quick and often have ready access to various projectiles. Adding to the challenges are the certain puzzles that must be perfectly solved in a game, or else you are stuck. The game is almost impossible to defeat in the "hard" mode without the aid of a device such as the GameShark. However, the game does include a password feature.

[edit] Criticisms

While Eidos was well known for its popular Tomb Raider series, video game critics generally panned this game for its weak graphics, sound, and playability. While the game did have some decent 3D graphics rendered on the Playstation, most video game magazine critics panned the game for its average sound, poor hit detection and playability. The dozen levels in the game often do not seem to follow much of cohesive storyline, and this was a similar complaint made with the Fantastic Four video game released for the PlayStation 1 that same year[1].

Fans of the Hulk comic book also criticised the game for having little to do with the comics' Pantheon storyline.

[edit] References

[edit] External links