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- Price: £39.99
- Players: 1
- Widescreen: No
- Dolby Digital 5.1: No
- 60 Hz: No
The Simpsons: Hit & Runfollows on from last year’sRoad Ragegame, although that one was released any time between 2001-2003 depending onwhich platform you chose.
The show has really dipped in terms of quality in the last few years, butthis game still retains the original style of humour that makes all theearly seasons continually worth watching. All it takes is the usualcatchphrases, not endless, pointless appearances by famous people we don’tcare about and have no real relevance to the show.
Basically, this is a mission-based driving game with various sub-missionsalong the way. It’s very GTA3/VC-inspired with slightly different controls insome respects, such as the reverse button, so I would’ve liked an option tochange them. You’ll also collect coins along the way and there are variousthings around town that you can smash into, kick or simply jump up and downon like Crash Bandicoot
You’ll play as various Simpsons characters starting with Homer and eachlevel is preceeded with a humourous newspaper front page, such as level one’spicture of Homer and
- “Local man ruins hot dog eating contest –
contestant disqualified for vomiting”
plus the extra sideline, “Study: 90% of video games start with easy tutorial level.”
Initially, Bart will take you through the tutorials, which can be turned off,and before long you’ll come across the numerous catchphrases such as whenHomer picks up a coin, “Mmm.. brain likes shiny things.”
In fact, here’s a slice of more references to past shows I found soon afterstarting to play the game.
There’s “Behold Frostillicus”, where Jasper the blind man stored himselfin Apu’s freezer to be thawed out some time in the future, Milhouse shouting,“I swallowed my retainer.”, Nelson the bully laughing, Homer’s Muumuuoutfit, for when he ballooned to 300lbs so he could claim as disabled and workfrom home, and also his Chosen One outfit from when he became the leader ofthe Stonecutters club.
In Moe’s bar you can have a go on the Love Tester and in Apu’s Kwik E Mart,play “Larry the Looter” (well, see Homer fail as he did in the series). In fact,there’s a massive amount of gags that relate back to individual episodes soare providers of plenty of hilarity for real fans fo the show.
The graphics are fun and colourful, but will no doubt look a tad better-definedon the Xbox release. The sound is frantic and includes everything you knowabout the TV show in terms of the theme and extra episode-specific momentshere and there.
Anything bad about it? Well, there’s limited scope of vehicles and thecatchphrases spoken by by the cast tend to repeat themselves quite often.There’s also no real depth to the challenges laid out before you. Still,on the plus side it really does engage your attention and it’s actuallyalways interesting which is more than can be said for most recent games, andwill have all Simpsons fans coming back for more.
For those who watch all the repeats regularly (since most of the new episodesare woefully lacking), you’ll love this. Non-Simpson fans may as well getGrand Theft Auto Vice Citysince they won’t begin to appreciate the effort that’s gone in here.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.