It's time to do a gross injustice to three upcoming games by summarizing them in a few sentences. But honestly, it's not that much of an injustice. I was really taken when recently attending previews of three upcoming videogames by just how similar they all are to a certain well regarded title from 2005...

-Prototype (Sierra/Radical, October): Remember "Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction?" This one comes from the same development studio, except instead of a lumbering behemoth who can destroy anything and anyone in his path, run up walls, jump onto helicopters and destroy them, and turn his environment into weapons, it stars a lithe guy with parkour skills and mutant powers who can destroy anything and anyone in his path, run up walls, jump onto helicopters and destroy them, and turn his environment into weapons.

-Iron Man (Sega/Secret Level, May): Remember "Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction?" "Iron Man" is just like that, except instead of running and jumping through environments as you wreak havoc and weaponize enemy vehicles, you fly and shoot rays while wreaking havoc and weaponizing enemy vehicles.

-The Incredible Hulk (Sega/Edge of Reality, June): Remember "Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction?" "The Incredible Hulk" is just like that game except... except... ummm.... well, he climbs up walls instead of running up them. That's a difference? Right?

This isn't necessarily a criticism. "Hulk: Ultimate Destruction" is a fantastic game -- one of my favorite action games ever, in fact. So I can hardly blame developers for drawing inspiration from it. And of course I don't mean to suggest that these games are total rip-offs. I'm sure they have plenty of original elements in them. But the similarities are striking, to say the least.