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The Simpsons: Hit & Run Game Review

The Simpsons: Hit & Run is a 2003 action-adventure game developed by Radical Entertainment for the Windows, GameCube, PS2 and Xbox systems. It’s truly a phenomenal game.

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“Ugh, my ovaries!“

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This was a big hit when it came out back in 2003 and it remains one of the best games of that year and obviously the greatest Simpsons video game adaptation ever created. This was such a faithful recreation in almost every single element that I was blown away. It genuinely feels like being in the world of Springfield and for that alone the game deserves immense praise.

The story is all about these mechanical bees who spy on the people of Springfield with security cameras and it is up to the Simpsons family (and Apu!) to stop them. Eventually, it is revealed that Kang and Kodos are behind all of this, which was a very solid twist that worked. The two were very funny toward the end as well, and that brings me to my next point – the humor.

Wow, is the humor amazing in this game. It pleasantly reminded me of the best early seasons of this show. While a couple of lines spoken by Lisa were cringe-worthy in a surprisingly SJW manner, most of the dialogue is otherwise outstanding and perfectly in line with each character. The game is at its best when poking fun at itself as the characters acknowledge hilariously that they are in a video game. The meta humor is superb here.

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Going back to the plot, it is mostly fine. It’s nothing outstanding really, but the alien tech and conspiracy was interesting to unravel nonetheless. As for the characters, the game is divided into different chapters of sorts where you play each member of the Simpsons family along with Apu for some reason, but I did not care what that reason was as Apu is incredible here. He is actually my favorite character in the game as he is so funny and endearing throughout. The other two standouts are Bart and Homer, both reliably stupid and very funny in some of their silly observations.

One of the most commendable aspects of Simpsons: Hit & Run has to be its world building. What they did here was truly astonishing, especially having in mind that the show itself wasn’t as clearly defined in its locations and geography. But the creators of the game managed to make Springfield look very much real and lived in along with populating it believably with the most famous buildings from the show. Just getting to visit the Springfield school, graveyard, hospital, astronomy tower and all else was wonderful and it’s a true treat for any fan of this classic cartoon series.

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This Simpsons game came out at a time when GTA games were all the rage, and clearly that sandbox genre was very influential on this output to say the least. In fact, some may even say that the game is a rip-off of the aforementioned Rockstar powerhouse. Still, that doesn’t matter as quality counts at the end of the day and Hit & Run makes perfect use of the GTA formula while even managing to improve upon some elements in the process.

There is the main campaign that follows the plot mentioned above, but players are also given the choice to complete side missions and races as well. There is even a fantastic treat for all the completionists out there such as myself through many different collectibles. The game is divided into seven levels that function as different story and character chapters basically. Each one has many different collectibles to complete in order to 100% the game. I ended up doing just that after it took me quite a while, though not as long as the main campaign, which is incredibly difficult, but more on that later.

This is one of the games where the open world and sandbox elements trump the campaign and certainly most fun can be had collecting stuff while exploring the town of Springfield. When you finish all the main missions, you can complete street races, which are very well imagined and so much fun, especially in the post-commentary of the characters. The collectors cards are also awesome as each depicts an item lifted from one iconic Simpsons episode or another.

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There are also gags to complete throughout each area that can be entered or explored. Kwik-E-Mart ended up being the most valuable of these places in terms of the sheer number of gags included in that iconic shop of Apu’s. Wasp cameras are another side quest that has you destroying all these wasps interspersed throughout town. This is probably the finest A.I. element in the entire game as the wasps start from being super easy to then reaching very difficult levels as they evade your attack and zap you with electricity.

The two final side quests in each level are character clothing and vehicles. The former is another delight for fans of the show as it includes so many iconic and hilarious outfits worn by each playable character while the latter is the core of the game. Yes, this game involves a lot of driving to the point that it might be called a racing game first and foremost. Thus, it’s hugely important to buy the best car possible. There is a plethora of valuable cars here and their stats are diverse and it can be felt as each is different in speed, hardiness etc. I personally preferred the faster and smaller cars over the big, strong vehicles, but that’s just a personal preference. Each car is unique and important in their own way. Again, these vehicles are all lifted from the show itself, which is super cool and fun.

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The Simpsons: Hit & Run is definitely a driving game at its core. If you hit too many passengers or objects, the police arrive. This is why the game is called hit and run. When they catch and arrest you, you end up losing fifty coins. Coins in the game can be found mostly by destroying the wasps and box crates, but these are somewhat sparse in number, so the police is actually a very big nuisance in all the missions that are themselves already very hard, but with the police added sometimes almost impossible to finish.

Yes, I certainly found this game to be too difficult, even for me as a big fan of hard to beat games. I don’t understand why almost nobody is talking about this. Maybe it’s just me, but I ended up dying countless times in each and every one of the later missions before successfully finishing them. I did like the missions, especially those where you get to destroy another car, those were especially entertaining, but the decision to break them into parts was a very problematic one as when you die in the middle of it, you are taken back to the very beginning, and that simply shouldn’t happen in a 21^st century game in my honest opinion.

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Although the missions are very difficult, the level design done on them is fantastic and at times genuinely inspired, especially as it relates to destroying vehicles and collecting stuff. The game devotes so much time to driving that the platforming elements may seem as an afterthought and I wished to have seen more of those elements as those that we got were uniformly terrific. Yes, the jumping is difficult with the very unintuitive camera on display, but for the most part it was just wonderful exploring the town on foot. My highlight has to be the power plant platforming challenge as well as getting to Mr. Burns office. Those parts were truly brilliant and very imaginative.

The game also has a knack to hide the collectibles in very secluded places, which made for such a wonderful exploration experience. The sound throughout is terrific, albeit the score wasn’t as good. Some of the themes are good and fitting for the show, but others during driving were too rock-centric and not fitting for this series whatsoever, plus these rock tunes were super annoying in their almost hard rock resemblance. The music is definitely the weakest part of an otherwise stellar game.

Graphically speaking, it works fairly well. It’s nothing particularly outstanding, but it’s not dated all that much, which is a big accomplishment for a 2003 game. The characters looked faithful to their animated counterparts, and although the game isn’t done in the hand-drawn but rather CGI style, the designs are mostly terrific and the whole game is polished and stylistically serviceable.

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Sometimes, the glitches are problematic, especially during driving in certain levels, but for the most part the game runs smoothly. The camera could have been better, but it’s mostly okay, especially for this era. The game is also very long in both the main campaign and side quests, which made for a very enjoyable sandbox journey.