the best superhero game to date", and David Chapman of the Electric Playground described it as a "non-stop adrenaline buffet that reaches out, grabs the player's attention, and never lets go". Reviewers interpreted the game's free-roaming format as being influenced by Spider-Man 2, and enjoyed the visceral feeling of the combat and rampaging through the city. According to Michael Knutson of GameZone, the game "truly captures the essence of the Hulk comic books". Johnathan Metts of Nintendo World Report viewed it as "one of the most satisfying mayhem simulators I've ever played". John Davison of 1Up.com and Steven Hopper of GameZone respectively compared the feeling of the gameplay's destructive aspect to that of War of the Monsters and Rampage. The boss fights were considered a highlight, with Alex Navarro of GameSpot and Eduardo Vasconcellos of GameSpy respectively deeming them "consistently excellent" and "a true battle of titans". Dunham regarded the boss fights as "[his] favorite end-stage nemeses since God of War and DMC3"; both he and Matt Keller of PALGN particularly praised the fight against General Ross's Hulkbuster for its scale. While critics were satisfied with the game's level of challenge, responses to the missions were mixed. Byron positively compared the game to God of War concerning the intensity of its later missions. Navarro was fond of missions based on "blowing everything up and punching the hell out of all manner of tank and anti-Hulk robot" but was frustrated by quests based around escorting, fetching items or pursuing targets. He also warned of "some annoying sections" caused by large and inopportune swarms of enemies, and Juba of Game Informer was likewise annoyed by the "never-ending salvos of missiles that frustrate your every attempt to do cool stuff". Metts felt that a few missions were complicated and lengthy, and noted that they lacked checkpoints in some cases. Contrariwise, Michael Lafferty of GameZone perceived the missions as "pretty short", and additionally dismissed the side missions as "too simplistic and detract[ing] from the story". Dunham wished for a more varied mission structure, arguing that it "essentially breaks down to finding various ways to destroy things that you can have just as much fun destroying on your own anyway". Vasconcellos cited the frequency of load times as a drawback. While Justin Leeper of G4 was content with the challenge provided by the enemies' artificial intelligence, Navarro claimed that it can "sometimes act up", observing