The Big Game Idea: Level 7 End - A 1UP classic Nov 02, 2006

Below is a series that I originally ran on 1UP in 2006. In it I proposed an original video game based on the Incredible Hulk. I called it "The Big Game Idea." Over a few weeks I described the graphics, game play, visuals, and plot from beginning to end, including bonus features. I made a few minor edits, but it is more or less exactly the same as it was almost 20 years ago. I hope you enjoy it.

Peeps, this is it! After many weeks of writing and illustrating, we are down to the final level of the big game idea. Tell me what you think!

CINEMA: The Hulk has the Abomination in a choke hold. The Abomination is kicking and rolling on the ground but the Hulk will not release him. The Abomination passes out and the Hulk finally lets him go. In the distance the Hulk can see a missile approaching. Two figures are also falling from the sky. The Hulk squints and can see it is the Maestro and the Hulkbuster. Before they hit the ground the missile catches them and explodes a few hundred feet from where the Hulk is standing. The explosion and resulting shockwave seems to disintegrate the Hulkbuster, Maestro, Hulk and Abomination.

We are lost in the middle of a sandstorm. We can see the Abomination is still out. As the camera moves around we can see the Hulk changing back to Banner. The Maestro is walking around in a daze.

In a dream sequence we hear the Devil Hulk talking to Bruce. "Why was there blood on your hands my darling Bruce?" We see Banner walking out of the Bunker with blood on his hands before he changes to the Hulk.

"I - I don't know." Says Banner he sits up in the sandstorm and looks at his hands. They are dry, when he blinks they are covered in blood.

"You killed Betty..." In flashback we see the Devil Hulk fighting to take control of Banner's mind inside the bunker. When Banner beats him for control he is disoriented and stumbling about the bunker. He looks to the side of the room and can see the glass chamber where Betty was, it has been destroyed. There is blood all over the glass and a hand sticking out of the chamber.

"No, that wasn't me, that was a lie." Says Banner. You are lying again. In his mind Banner sees the glass chamber as untouched. "I still have Betty's soul with me, it's right here..." He looks around but the soul is nowhere to be seen.

"You had to kill Betty so that she would finally move on. General Ross was greedy, he kept her alive and suffering. She suffered for too long. You had to kill Betty so that I would live." The Devil Hulk says, the chamber becomes broken once more in his dream. Banner stumbles out of the bunker and sees the Abomination. "Release me..."

In the sandstorm Banner opens his eyes, the memory of the Abomination fades and he becomes the Maestro. "You did this. All of this... Betty is dead because of you... argh!!!" Banner yells out. He falls to his knees. In dream sequence Banner is holding Betty in his arms. The Hulk is standing behind him.

"That's right my boy. He did all of this, now release me so that you may have your revenge..." Says the Devil Hulk, we see he is shackled in Banner's mind. The shackles fall, he stands and leaves Banner and the Hulk behind, trapped in a mirror. The Guilt Hulk rises out of the ground and joins him.

The Maestro is standing over Banner in the sandstorm. His clothes are shredded, his helmet gone. Banner blinks and realizes that it is not the Maestro at all, but rather Ravage in disguise. Banner stands up "It was all a lie?"

"Of course it was. Do you like this?" Ravage shows off the clothes. "I put it together with rags from a small shop. A bit overdone... Not that what I wore mattered... it was to prove to you, once and for all, that the world hates you. They hate you as much as they hate the Hulk. They would never forgive you for unleashing the Maestro... They fear absolute power but who are they to try and stop you? Rather, who are they to stop me? After all Bruce I am the inevitable, I am the future. Your teacher, your Maestro!" Ravage laughs out loud. "But I am much more than that now! I feel the power coursing through my veins. Limitless power to show my true self to the world. Limitless power to crush the Hulk and humanity as well!" He places his hand on Banner and begins pushing him down. "You will die."

Ravage struggles to push Banner down. He releases Banner and begins pulsing with energy. His eyes go white and he begins mutating. He becomes taller, his limbs extend and deform. His ribs separate from his body and curve unnaturally. His forearms split and bend, his fingernails become thick claws. He staggers back and reveals his true form. He now stands about 70 feet tall, the only familiar aspect that Ravage retains between Professor Crawford and the Maestro is his beard and a semblance of a human face.

"You are not the only one that has changed." Banner begins mutating as well. Instead of turning into the Hulk he grows enormous and takes on reptilian features. He is the Devil and Guilt Hulk combined and stands about 45 feet tall. Although not as tall as Ravage he is wider in girth.

Level 7 End
Location: Gamma Base.
Objective: Defeat Ravage.
Learn: All of the Devil Hulk's moves.
Unlock: True Maestro for game + mode.
Level Design: Remember the gamma base? It's all still here, the same hangars, tanks and airplanes except you are now seven times the size of the Hulk. The level looks and feels like a fraction of it's former self. You can kick the largest vehicles and planes over with ease now. You can also walk through buildings and watch them crumble without even lifting a finger. You can pick up and throw objects at each other or use a section of a plane like clubs. Each step leaves a crater and any soldiers foolish enough to rise out of the bunkers fall from the aftershocks.

All of the button moves are the same for the Devil Hulk as they are for the Hulk. The Devil Hulk cannot target lock and jump nearly as far as the Hulk, however he can still cross one end of the level to the other in about three good jumps. The entire time you battle on this level bomber jets and strike fighters attack you from high above. Both Ravage and the Devil Hulk can jump into the air and swat the planes out of the sky. Even though the characters are massive, they only move about 15% slower than the Hulk regularly does.

Ravage fights with a strength and wild ferocity that beguiles his "hollow" frame. He slides and moves with the speed of Giant-Man. He is strong enough to lift the Devil Hulk into the air and slam him into the ground. He has a very long reach and can slash the Devil Hulk open with his long, thick nails. My brother asked if this fight was akin to Wolverine versus Sabertooth. I said it was similar considering the height and reach advantage belongs to Ravage. Both creatures can throw vicious combos that would flatten anything that dares get in the way.

There is no healing factor, no mega attacks and no rage meter to build up. Both the Devil Hulk and Ravage have an x-amount of health that the player can keep track of. The winner is the last monster standing.

The Ravage mutation is based on the unfinished story that Glenn Greenberg had started in the short-lived Rampaging Hulk series. These are his words from an interview.

"Had the series continued, Ravage would have started to mutate and would have eventually evolved into the hideous, frightening monster that I originally envisioned. The character of Ravage kind of got away from me after I turned the plot in for that story, and he became something I had never intended. He didn't look the way I wanted him to, and there was really no time in the schedule to make the art changes I felt were needed, so I had to play the cards I was dealt and hope I'd get a chance to fix things in his second appearance. Had I been able to bring Ravage back, I would have tried to get him back to my original concept. I planned to have him eventually escape from Gamma Base and have another encounter with the Hulk, but in his new, mutated form."

There was a subtext that Ravage could also have been the Maestro, he was as smart as Banner and as strong as the Hulk. I ran a few levels with that idea but near the end I returned to Glenn's concept. Ravage is Ravage, not the Maestro. What would this new, fully-mutated Ravage look like? He was supposed to be hideous and frightening. I did my best to channel Dale Keown and figure out the shape and look. Rather than just be very strong or freaky-looking I combined the two. Instead of representing strength with muscles I did so with height. Then I deformed the skeleton, elongated the arms and gave him thick fingernails instead of sharp claws (else it would have just been another Pitt bad guy). I hope the final look is close to Glenn's idea of the type of monster Ravage would have become.

Players of God of War and Shadow of the Colossus know exactly where I drew the inspiration for the final level. Jaffe and Ueda both knew that they had to give players something unique the final level. They had to literally flip the script. In both games the characters became larger-than-life, they allowed players to see what it's like to play a game as a titan. Rather than pit the Hulk as David vs Goliath against the giant Ravage, which has already been done with the Giganto and Giant-Man, I decided to even the scale and let the Devil out. To make the other characters in the Marvel universe almost feel futile compared to an evolved Ravage and a Devil Hulk. It should make us wish that the Maestro was the only thing the Hulk could become...

The characters that can be unlocked here are the Professor, the shorter Joe Fixit and the true Maestro. You can tell the true Maestro doesn't look like Ravage in a costume and starts off far stronger than the Hulk in game + mode.

So what happens in the ending cinema? You'll have to wait until next week to find out!!! Until then why not visit a comic book store and pick up a copy of the Incredible Hulk #100. You will not be disappointed.

Did I fool you? Did you really think the Maestro had returned, or did you figure out it was Ravage all along? Do you think the pacing works for a video game? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!