The narrative involves the Hulk attempting to thwart the world domination bid of his nemesis, the Leader, while engaging in combat with other arch-rivals.

Falling below 5% Gamma will transform the Hulk into Banner,[3] whose only means of offense is a gun with two shots,[4] and who cannot sustain any enemy attacks without dying.

Other collectibles include extra lives, often found in rooms only accessible to Banner or via Hulk-Out mode, as well as three hidden "continue coins".

In the summer of 1992, Mean Machines writers Richard Leadbetter and Julian Rignall were invited by U.S. Gold to create the scenario for a Hulk-based video game.

However, Marvel Comics objected to the prospect of killing humanoid characters, which influenced the final game's robotic enemies.

[11] The game was unveiled at the Summer 1993 Consumer Electronics Show – by which time it was only five percent complete – and was originally slated for a Christmas release.

[15] The game's instruction manual includes a short introductory comic titled "Revenge of the Leader" that was written by Christian Cooper, penciled by Scott Benefiel, inked by Jason Rodriguez, and lettered by Jon Babcock.

The variety of fighting moves was appreciated,[a] though the controls were considered slow and imprecise, with Captain Squideo of GamePro and Jeff Lundrigan of Game Players citing a difficulty in timing jumps.

[1][13][14][23] Computer and Video Games derided the combat as tedious, stating that "if the Hulk could kill opponents without too much trouble, this could have been good".

[20] Skid, K. Lee, and Takahara Yagi of Diehard GameFan, as well as Andy Dyer of Mega, commended the hidden rooms and switches, which they said contributed to balanced gameplay and the length and challenge of the levels, though Yagi opined that some extra play mechanics and special effects would have made the game great rather than good.

[1] The reviewers for Electronic Gaming Monthly complained of unavoidable enemy attacks, which Danyon Carpenter observed was exacerbated by the lack of defensive techniques.

[14] Lundrigan and the Enquirer of Diehard GameFan felt the game was unoriginal and without any of the special features found in more recent titles.

He dismissed the game as "yet another dull platformer with crap beat 'em up bits thrown in for good measure" that was no better than Data East's Dragon Ninja.

[2][5][20][22] Critics enjoyed the music,[13][15] which was described as "jazzy",[23] "swingbeat",[2] "1970's funk",[24] and "hip hop",[4] though Yagi warned that it "does start to grind on you after a long level".