The Simpsons: Hit & Run
U.S. Release Date: September 16, 2003
The GameCube Archives Score: 8.0/10
The Simpsons premiered on television when I was in the second grade. Knowing full well this was an animated sitcom featuring a fourth grader with a potty mouth and an attitude problem, along with a frequently belittled dad, and adult humor, I didn't even attempt to slip it under the radar of my TV-strict mother. I watched with jealousy as my cousin, who could watch whatever he wanted, marched around in his "Don't Have a Cow, Man" Bart Simpson T-Shirt. Eventually, I forgot the show existed. Nearly seven years passed, and one day my little brother and I got home from school, popped on the TV, and low-and-behold, there was
The Simpsons, now in after-school syndication, starting from the beginning. We made a couple bowls of ice cream, sat down, and laughed our heads off.
With a full hour of
The Simpsons, five days a week, we caught up in no time, then watched the eighth season live that fall, just catching the show in its prime. That was a great few years of Simpsons extravaganza, enough to endear the show to me for life, even though the seasons that premiered when I was in college began to show a change in direction from the brand of humor of the show's first decade.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run came out late in my college tenure, when I was just starting to slack a little on my video game duties, and I totally missed it. Thankfully, my son has been asking me about The Simpsons lately, and on a trip to the Lafayette Play N Trade, I noticed
Hit & Run for the GameCube, complete, for a ridiculously low price, picked it up, and have just spent 20+ hours soaking in beautiful nostalgia.
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| As a matter of fact, yes, I would like to resume. Also, hi, Barney. |
The first thing standing out in this game before anything else is not only how accurately
Hit & Run has recreated the town of Springfield, but just how much access it gives the player to Springfield's every nook and cranny. The town can be explored by car or on foot, and just about any location a fan can think of is visitable. TheKwik-E-Mart, the Android's Dungeon, Moe's, the Simpson's house, the nuclear plant, Mr. Burn's mansion, Ralphie's sandbox, the tomacco patch...if you remember it from the show, you can probably go there. The environments are highly interactive, and populated by every major and almost every minor character from the show's first fifteen years. You can even visit Selma at the DMV. What's better, all of the voice actors from
The Simpsons TV show are here to provide hours of dialogue.
Hit & Run is as immersive a Simpsons experience as you're gonna get, and a fan's dream. In addition to many variations on the show's theme song,
Hit & Run is also chock-full of music from the actual show. From a simple brand perspective, no corners are cut.
Thankfully, the actual game set in this world is also pretty fun.
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| They even included Conan O'Brien's monorail! I was wondering what happened to that thing. |
The Simpsons: Hit & Run is composed of seven levels, featuring seven missions each (and there are also bonus missions). The game takes a page from the Grand Theft Auto series, featuring missions mostly centered around vehicular mayhem. Each level features a different star character, with Homer and Bart featured as the protagonist for two apiece. They'll have to do anything from following another car, to smashing another car, to getting away from another car, to snatching up items falling from another car, with some missions featuring multiple objectives. There are also missions that take place primarily on foot, particularly ones where the player must collect enough coins to purchase a needed vehicle or outfit. Thankfully, coins are littered across Springfield, hidden in some obvious and not-so-obvious places. The player can also pick up some coins by...destroying another vehicle with their own. Vehicular missions often carry a time limit, but the coin-collecting ones really let the player stretch their legs, and take their time exploring
Hit & Run's open world Springfield. Of course, during these on-foot missions, you can hop in a vehicle at any time. The player can also gamble on themselves in numerous different car races to make money, but those are impossible, and I hate them.
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| So much, I want to ram them! |
The game features many different vehicles, some featured in the show itself, like Homer's Mr. Plow truck, or Marge's awesome Canyonero. They all control differently, and all can take and dish out varying degrees of damage (thankfully, vehicles can be repaired). For instance, Otto's school bus can take considerably more hits than a random compact car you might carjack. Yep, you can carjack vehicles. Run in front of them on the road, they stop, and you can boot out the driver and hop on in. Thankfully, the simple control scheme for driving, featuring a simple forward and reverse/brake two-button system, along with the GameCube controller joystick, is easy to use, and responds well. The physics engine is beautiful, with cars naturally careening off obstacles and each other all over the highway. The on-foot controls aren't quite as tight as the driving ones, but they work well enough, allowing the player to run all around Springfield, jump and double-jump, and kick anything standing in their way.
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| Canyonero! |
The 3D character models look a little awkward, slightly reminiscent of that Treehouse of Horror episode where Homer got transformed into 3D, but they're solid enough. The actual 3D environment of Springfield looks wonderful, though I can't help but think how great the game would have looked had this come out a year later, and the developers been influenced by
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's cell-shading cartoon graphics design. Then again,
Jet Set Radio pulled the technique off three long years before
Hit & Run was released. Considering cell-shading wasn't exactly a popular technique in the early 00's, though, I guess I can give
Hit & Run's developers a pass.
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| I mean, just look at this hideous sunset! Also, does sarcasm come across in text? |
The not-quite-perfect graphics are only a minor complaint, though.
Hit & Run has two bigger issues--the first is a difficultly spike around the fifth level, where time limits for missions suddenly become seemingly impossibly constrictive. Routes have to be run perfectly, with every available shortcut utilized. The developers must have realized this was a problem because after the player fails a particular mission enough times, the game gives them the option to skip it.
The other issue is that
The Simpsons: Hit & Run is a bit glitchy, with enemy cars sometimes seeming to jump ahead of the player, and other random cars driving around town seemingly hellbent on accidentally ramming into you at the absolute worst moments. There's most definitely nothing game-breaking here, but these moments are certainly frustrating. Also, the game features a radar meter with a tiny portion of the level map visible at the bottom right of the screen--I wish you could actually access a full map--it would make learning Springfield's layout much easier!
And finally, there's a "Hit & Run" meter, whose bars fill any time you hit one of the game's numerous pedestrians, light poles, mailboxes, other street items, and other cars. Fill the meter all the way, and Chief Wiggum and the Springfield police come for you. The fuzz are very difficult to escape from, and when they catch you, you have to pay a $50 ticket. I like this mechanic...I just wish the meter filled a little more slowly.
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| Time to crank up the N.W.A.! |
Thankfully,
Hit & Run's pros heavily outweigh its cons. In addition to all the positives I listed above, the game features numerous collectibles, including seven collector cards strewn across each level. Collect all seven, and the player earns a track on the unlockable multiplayer mode (don't let the box trick you--this isn't a multiplayer game, until you've collected all seven of one of the levels' cards). The multiplayer isn't anything to write home about, a minor homage to the NES'
R.C. Pro-Am., but it does work well as a nice little bonus.
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| Yes, the pregnancy test! |
More than anything, though,
The Simpsons: Hit & Run is worth playing as a way for a fan to visit Springfield. Those not acquainted with the show will find a lot to love, and surely enjoy exploring the game's wacky world, experiencing the silly, humorous fun of its alien-centric story, and ramming through Springfield's streets. For me, though, while I greatly enjoyed most of the gameplay (outside of some of those unfair later missions), I most loved getting to re-visit Springfield after being away from the show for so long.
Hit & Run is an excellent reminder of just how brilliant the first decade of
The Simpsons is, to the point that the enjoyable gameplay almost feels like a bonus.
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| The only acceptable way to end this review. |
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