The Simpsons: Hit & Run PS2 Review @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 04, 2003

Review: "I blame Whitey"

Gamers have been looking for the perfect Simpsons game for a long time. For some reason Matt Groening's creation is held to a different standard than most other licensed games. The word perfect is thrown around a lot when people describe what they want out of a Simpsons game and perfect is the furthest thing you can get from some of these most recent Simpsons games. But this being the year of the sequel/rehash, the good folks at Vivendi went back to the drawing board and came up with a game that could be called Grand Theft Auto: Springfield. It's not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction when it comes to Simpsons video games.

You can see the parallels to GTA as soon you first load up the game. Hit & Run follows the same mission/free form exploring style that GTA is known for. You can't Сjack cars, but you can go up to any car and "hitch a ride", effectively stealing it. You can attack anyone on the street by kicking them in the shins. The Hit & Run Meter works just like the Wanted Meter and as soon as you cause too much damage Chief Wiggum will chase you down.

The game deviates from the GTA series by having multiple playable characters. Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Apu are all on the case to see why black vans and spy cameras are hanging around Springfield. And then there's that pesky bright light that comes out of the sky and sucks people straight up into some strange flying object that just might be unidentified. So while it's like GTA in style, Kang and Kodos would definitely only fit in the Simpsons version of GTA.

With all this talk about GTA, it's only natural that I talk about it some more. Compared to GTA, Simpsons: Hit & Run feels so much more straightforward. The game is very centered around it's missions as opposed to GTAIII where the missions were almost secondary to just walking around and beating people. There's no sense of exploration here, each level with hundreds of buildings and you are only allowed to enter two or three of them. Even talking to people on the street is no good because there are only a handful of them in each level as well. Radical promised an interactive Springfield but it's very limited in where you can go, what you can do, and who you can talk to. Even the side quests of finding Gags and Simpsons Collector Cards are more things you find by accident during missions than true side quests.

While the game is not as free form as GTA, the missions still have their charms. Most missions revolve around doing something in a car (and why shouldn't they when the game uses the Simpsons: Road Rage engine?), whether it's following someone, racing someone, destroying someone's car, timed item collection runs, or a simple fetch quest. And much like Simpsons: Road Rage, these missions get repetitive real fast. After a while they start feeling the same and only the items you're collecting or who you're racing are the only things that change. The trademark Simpsons humor puts a smile on your face even when you perform the same missions over every level with just a few cosmetic changes. And that humor is much more risque than your noraml Simpsons episode. I swear to god Smithers told me to "Eat dick" and I know Apu yelled "out of my way cracker" during his mission and even Lisa says "I blame Whitey" when she fails.

Maybe the writers were trying to grab some of GTA's mature flavor, but ultimately all of the jokes here are Simpsons staples created by those that create the show. There are literally dozens of characters that are given speaking roles in this game and they all sound great (and above all, they're funny). And the barbs at video games in general makes me wish the show would go back to video games more often. I still believe that the Video Boxing is one of the all time classics. This needs to be looked into. The Collector Cards relive some of the greatest Simpsons moments (like cutting off the head of Jebediah Springfield) and the Gags recreate some of the best short jokes from The Simpsons (including the full demo movie from the Larry the Looter game). But I think best of all are the various cars and clothes you can outfit our favorite family in. Seeing Homer actually run slower when he's dressed as Homer in a Muumuu is priceless.

It's obvious that Hit & Run uses an enhanced version of the Road Rage engine as the two game's graphics look very similar. Everything is polygonal and it could be said that the look is hit and miss because some characters look good and some just don't. The levels themselves though are pretty good, and just like in Road Rage, a lot of formerly forgotten locations come back including the Escalator to Nowhere, Wall E. Weasel's, Mr. Burn's Casino, Truckasaurus and the Springfield Squidport. Yes, the environments do look good, but if any series is calling out for the use of cel shading, it's The Simpsons. Just look at the recent Futurama game, cel shading made it beautiful. The music however, is pure Simpsons as the remixed theme plays often and just great tunes in general that you would expect to hear on The Simpsons. Good job there.