With deference to Ang Lee, The Hulk isn't supposed to have ethical discussions with Nick Nolte's mug shot or look sad about his failed relationship with Jennifer Connelly. The Hulk is supposed to smash things. In Hulk (Vivendi, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, $29.99-$49.99), the requisite companion game to one of this summer's most anticipated (and then immediately disliked) releases, the big green guy smashes anyone and everything he can get his crowd-pleasing hands on.

The story takes place one year after the motion picture's South American coda, and has something to do with a powerful orb and a rogue scientist. Story? Who cares! You'll take just about any explanation as an excuse for smashing. The game begins in the desert during one of Bruce Banner's dream sequences, which smartly doubles as your primer for the fairly basic controls. Nearly every object you can see in The Hulk is something you can hit, throw, swing, stomp or crumble. There's a genuine satisfaction in lifting up a robot, holding him above your head for show and then throwing him into an oncoming group of soldiers hot on your trail, killing them all.

As the bodies pile up, the analog controller's vibrate function goes buck wild, like some strange product advertised in the back of the Adam & Eve catalogue. Sure, there is a Metal Gear Solid-style stealth mode here and there, but this game is all about gleefully breaking things. Every character in the game is rendered beautifully and given smooth, comic-book curves with a thick line of shadow. They aren't too beautiful to spare from your wrath, mind you. Even the transformation from Banner to Hulk has a grace and class to it that is miles removed from ham-fisted. — Jon Solomon

Whipsmart

Taking place shortly before the events in Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (Lucasarts, PS2, Xbox, PC, $29.95-$49.95) has you donning the fedora for a globe-trotting romp in search of priceless artifacts. Along the way you'll encounter Nazis, netherworld spirits and a gigantic octopus. (Sadly, however, Short Round is nowhere to be found.) Although the constant brawling and sometimes overly tedious Tomb Raider-inspired puzzles can get a bit frustrating at times, it's a small price to pay to be able to crack the whip and kick some ass Jones-style. Featuring gorgeous graphics, John Williams' classic score and often insanely fun gameplay, this release is almost enough to make you forget that the next Indiana Jones film is still at least two years away. — Chris Cummins

Sea Minus

Not quite following the track of the Pixar blockbuster's plot note-for-note, Finding Nemo (THQ, PS2, GameCube, xBox, Gameboy Advance, $19.99-$39.99) is a fairly charmless game obsessed with sending fish through rings. Travel through endless underwater hoops of all sorts (power rings, speed rings, bonus rings, etc.) as one of three different fish. Changing perspective from level to level, the camera follows either Nemo, Marlin or Dory from the front, back or the side depending on the particular challenge. The game's many cut-scenes are DVD-quality, taken straight from the movie, which only draws attention to Finding Nemo's general graphic weaknesses. THQ does not come close to taking full advantage of everything the PS2 can offer visually. The characters' voices are the same as those in the film, and there is a certain pleasure in hearing Albert Brooks urge you to press the action button. Control is easy, as the game uses only two buttons, one for "speed" and one for "action." Despite this ease of use, if you're going to make a game for a younger audience, should you really make it so simultaneously dull and difficult? It was only eight levels in, once the game stopped being filled with rings and became more about cooperation and problem-solving, that I felt even a tinge of the movie's appeal. — Jon Solomon

Delay of Game

I heart Lara Croft -- her adventures, her cool demeanor, the fact that she's a girl who kicks ass and solves mysteries. The first thing I noticed about the much-delayed Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (Eidos Interactive, PS2, PC, $44.95-$49.95) was how pretty Lara's world is. Looking from TR1 to TR6, you can see how far the graphics have come. For starters, her boobs are much more rounded and lifelike. They actually jiggle. And the game has a smoother, more seamless look than its pixelated predecessors. The controls were frustrating at first, but you get used to Lara's new, more complicated way of moving. The game does have a bug; the frame-rate has a tendency to slow down and make everything get all Matrix-y. Though message boards are alight with praise, most reviews are pretty unflattering, especially since Angel of Darkness was supposed to come out in October. Jeremy Heath-Smith, development director of Eidos, stepped down in shame. Maybe all will be forgiven by Christmastime, when the seventh Tomb Raider is due out. — Amy Schuler

The Zombie Stomp

Technically, Resident Evil: Dead Aim (Capcom, PS2, $39.99) -- the new edition in the time-honored R.E. series -- probably ties in best with last year's big-screen adaptation starring Milla Jovovich and a bunch of mutant dogs. But this is a smart, cool little adventure game that deserves better. Let's all pretend it's called 28 Days Later. As in that movie, our hero sneaks around, confronting (and occasionally avoiding) a vibrant population of moaning, vomiting zombies. Much of Dead Aim takes place on a boat where the undead are lounging around the floors of ballrooms, staircases and cabins, hiding important keys and herbal medicines in their tattered zombie outfits. They don't all stay down after you kill them, which makes sense because, like, they're already dead when you first meet them. Everything is dark, gory, moody and usually devoid of ambient music -- mostly you just hear your footsteps clanging and echoing off the metal walls and floors (perhaps you just came from tap class?). Far from a shoot-'em-up adventure game -- though you and spunky, ass-kicking special agent Fong Ling have enough weapons to re-kill an army -- a lot of Dead Aim is about skulking, exploring and trying doors and switches. And when you meet the lanky, white Marilyn Manson-looking psycho lady with the one big polar bear paw, you better just run. That girl is poison. — Patrick Rapa