The Simpsons Hit & Run Impressions

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The lesson is: Our God is vengeful! O spiteful one, show
me who to smite and they shall be smoten!
- Homer

Doh! 

On a whim I rented The Simpsons Hit & Run while I was checking the local Blockbuster for D&D Heroes. IÂ'm glad I did, it turns out that this is easily the greatest Simpsons game IÂ've ever played. ThereÂ's something about this GTA-lite title that finally breaks the middling franchise mold and actually offers something fun on its own aside from the added bonus of fresh Simpsons content and voice work.

Hit & Run obviously draws a lot of inspiration from RockstarÂ's Grand Theft Auto 3 but narrows the scope of gameplay down a bit so younger players can progress through the game without having to drive around for too long trying to figure out what to do. IÂ'm getting ahead of myself as bit though, letÂ's take a look at the basic premise.

The game starts with a cut scene showing mechanical bees flying into Springfield, one of which that gets crushed by a full 3D Homer. The over-arching plot is about these bees while various members of the Simpsons crew have their own sub-plots going on as well. You control Homer first running some delivery missions for Marge, trying to destroy SmitherÂ's car before he gets to work and more GTA-like missions. Once you finish up all the missions in one area of town with Homer you then get control of Bart in a new area and do a fresh set of missions and with BartÂ's unique storyline.

Doh!

There are two parts to this game that really shine. First, while the graphics are 3D the game still manages to bring the town of Springfield to life and looking much like the show. The second and most obvious plus is all of the original voice work done by the same cast that does the series. There is a ton of content in here and a lot of it is on par with the show in terms of laugh out loud moments. Some of the catch phrases Homer says while driving do get repetitive but by the time I started getting tired of them I was moving on to BartÂ's area.

In terms of direct comparisons to GTA 3 there are a few with some differences. One, you can hop out of your car any time and jump into someone elseÂ's. The difference is you donÂ't steal the car, you catch a ride. You still control the vehicle but your character is in the passenger side while the random NPC is driving it. You can also hop out of your vehicle at any time and kick objects, people and bees once in a while. Like GTA 3 some missions have you on foot for a little while but for the most part youÂ'll be driving.

Throughout the game you can collect coins which can be used to buy new vehicles from Gil, new outfits (like the muumuu for Homer) and other such things. You can also lose money in some car races or getting caught by the cops although so far IÂ've found the game to be fairly easy with few re-tries needed on most missions.

Would you like a squishy?

Bottom Line: From what IÂ've played so far you should be renting The Simpsons: Hit & Run if you like the Simpsons at all and you may want to consider a buy if youÂ're a hard-core fan. I donÂ't know how long the game will take to beat but with all the extras to buy and the easter eggs to see I could imagine getting more than a weekend out of it.

Who doesnÂ't want to hop in an army jeep with Grandpa and drive over the comic book guy?

- Certis

Comments

Best game ever man.

I've just been waiting until pay day (Friday) to buy this.  Everything I've says it's pretty good and the phrase "best Simpson's game ever" has been thrown around a lot.  My girlfriend really likes Road Rage so she should love this too.

This game is pretty much for everyone, even if they are not real gamers. However I already blew my pay-check on personalized iPod. Ouch...! <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

It's good, but not great. My friends and I gave this a rental this evening, and found that while the first area (where you play as Homer) was pretty good, the second area (playing as Bart) was less so. The sheer number of timed missions was really causing immense amounts of displeasure. Add to that the fact that the little green 'go this way' arrows tend to take you the longest way possible, and well.. we were getting fairly frustrated. I still think I like it, but I can definitely see how it qualifies as a rental vs a solid buy.