DESCRIPTION

The Incredible Hulk is one of Marvel Comics' best-known characters. In his human form he is Bruce Banner, a scientist who was exposed to a blast from a Gamma Bomb. The Gamma radiation altered his genetic structure so that every time he gets angry or overly excited, Bruce Banner changes into The Incredible Hulk— a huge, green monster that likes to smash things.

The game opens up with a cinematic sequence of a ship flying to a base located somewhere in the southwestern United States. Inside the ship the Hulk is a prisoner of The Pantheon, a team of superheroes that take on special tactical missions. Agamemnon, leader of The Pantheon, hopes to show the Hulk that his powers can be used to help mankind. However, the ship crashes during its landing and you, as the Hulk, are now set free inside The Pantheon's base.

The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga features five stages with each of the first four stages being divided into three levels. As mentioned above, you begin the game inside of The Pantheon's base. In this level your goal is to defend yourself against the automatic defenses and find Agamemnon. This will require Hulk to perform such actions as smashing glass and hitting switches to deactivate force fields. The instruction manual includes a walkthrough on the first level of this stage to get you started. Once stage one is completed players will be taken to a Scottish castle for stage two. Here the Hulk must rescue hostages and defeat the evil Piecemeal. Stage three features two main villains, Trauma and Lazerus. They have taken Atalanta, a member of The Pantheon, hostage and you must rescue her. In stage four Hulk will do battle with a team of bad guys known as U-FOES. They have broken into The Pantheon's base in search of Agamemnon.

Stage five, titled Future Imperfect, is named after The Incredible Hulk comic book mini-series. Future Imperfect takes place in an alternate reality, one, as the name suggests, in the future. Rick Jones, a friend of Bruce Banner's, has transported the Hulk into the future to help humanity defeat The Maestro. The Maestro is actually The Incredible Hulk of this alternate reality. Therefore, The Maestro is capable of performing every move that you can. Your only hope is to activate a time machine that will eliminate The Maestro forever. After the completion of each stage you will receive a password. Passwords represent a save point as the game does not support a memory cartridge.

Although the Hulk is incredibly strong in his own right, he can obtain power-ups throughout the game that allow him to perform more actions. The primary power-ups are items that restore health and Gamma Boosts that add Gamma energy to a separate meter bar. As long as Hulk has some Gamma he can do special moves, such as a sonic clap, floor smash and vortex spin. Other power-ups completely fill the Gamma meter bar, double the Hulk's strength and provide emergency help. Emergency help comes in the form of one of four characters from The Pantheon — Ajax, Atalanta, Ulysses, or Hector. ~ Jonathan Sutyak, All Game Guide