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The Simpsons Hit & Run
Cropped PAL region cover art
Developer(s)	Radical Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Vivendi Universal Games
Designer(s)	Debi Laezman Darren Evenson Chris Mitchell Joshua Mitchell Jeff Plumbly Sheik Sahib
Artist(s)	Vincent Chin Jaroslav Chorny Anshin Chu Dustin Condie Brad Dixion Kevin Fink Aryan Hanbeck Eric Madill Mike Marraffa Sanela Mickovic Robert Peet John Zhongyi Wang Ross Young
Writer(s)	Matt Selman Tim Long Matt Warburton
Composer(s)	Marc Baril
Engine	Notepad Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Windows
Release	Windows
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

The Simpsons Hit & Run is an action-adventure video game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. It was released for the GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Windows in the United States on September 16, 2003 and in Europe on October 31, 2003. The game was developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games. The story and dialogue were crafted by writers from The Simpsons, with all character voices supplied by the actual cast.

The game follows the Simpson family and the citizens of Springfield, who witness many strange incidents that occur in Springfield. When several of the citizens take matters into their own hands, they discover that two aliens Kang and Kodos are filming a reality television series about the populace. To make the show more interesting, the aliens release a new version of the popular soft drink Buzz Cola that makes people go insane, into Springfield's water supply. With help from Professor Frink, however, Homer is able to destroy the aliens' spaceship, and Springfield and its inhabitants are returned to normal, for Springfield standards.

The game received generally favorable reviews from video game critics. Praise focused on the interpretation of the Simpsons television series as a video game and its parodical take on the Grand Theft Auto III video game, while criticism mostly surrounded its gameplay. The game received the award for Fave Video Game at the 2004 Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards. As of June 2007, over three million copies of the game were sold.

Gameplay

Hit & Run has seven levels, each with missions and a unique plot. The player can only control one specific character in each level. The game's playable characters are Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Marge Simpson, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. When traveling by foot, the player character can walk, run, and perform several attacks: a normal kick, a jumping kick, and a smashing move. To drive, the player can either commandeer one of the vehicles that litter the road, a feature taken from Grand Theft Auto III, or use a phone booth to select a car. The game's driving missions are also similar to those of Grand Theft Auto III. In both games, the player races against other characters, collects items before a timer runs out, and wrecks other cars.

The game has a sandbox-style format that emphasizes driving, and the player controls their character from a third-person view. The character can perform certain acts of violence, such as attacking pedestrians, blowing up vehicles, and destroying the environment. The Simpsons Hit & Run has a warning meter that indicates when the police will retaliate for bad behavior. Located in the bottom-right corner of the screen, the circular "hit and run" meter fills up when the character runs people over or destroys objects, and it will decrease when they cease doing so. When completely full, several police cars chase the character for the duration of the hit and run.

Each level contains items the player can collect, such as coins, which can be used to buy new cars and outfits that are required to progress through the game. Coins can also be used to purchase costumes, some of which are required for missions. The player can also collect wasps strapped with cameras and Itchy and Scratchy cards. By collecting all 49 of the latter, seven in each level, the player unlocks a special The Itchy & Scratchy Show video. Several events can cause the player to lose coins; because the character cannot die, injuries cause the player to lose coins. If the player is close enough to police cars for a certain period of time when being chased, they will be fined fifty coins.

Plot

Mysterious happenings are occurring in Springfield; a horde of robot wasps descend upon the city at the beginning of the game. After a tractor beam kidnaps Bart outside a stadium, Lisa attempts to find her brother by exploring the town for clues. She learns that the black sedans that have been appearing around town are connected to Bart's disappearance. Lisa eventually finds Bart on a ship in Springfield harbor. He appears to have memory loss and is mumbling unintelligibly while occasionally mentioning the sedans and Buzz Cola, the "new and improved" cola drink recently launched by television personality Krusty the Clown. Marge sets out to learn what has affected Bart. As she investigates a crop circle that recently appeared in Cletus Spuckler's crop field, Abraham Simpson tells Marge that the crop circle is an exact replica of the Buzz Cola logo. Marge gives a can of the cola to Bart, which snaps him out of his stupor. Bart reveals that the new Buzz Cola is a mind-control cola produced by aliens. Marge decides to purge Springfield of the cola, but in spite of her valiant efforts, the drink still maintains its popularity.

Inspired by Marge's efforts and remorseful for selling the cola in the first place, Apu tries to discover the source of the cola. Snake Jailbird tells him that the cola trucks are registered to the Springfield Museum of Natural History. Apu and Bart decide to go inside the museum, where they find a meteor as the source of the cola. They eavesdrop on a conversation between aliens Kang and Kodos, who are masterminding a scheme. Apu and Bart learn that the wasp cameras are filming the antics of Springfield for an intergalactic reality show, Foolish Earthlings. The aliens are using the cola to make people insane, by which time Kang and Kodos will distribute laser guns among the populace to drive the town to a violent massacre sure to draw many viewers.

Apu is frightened of the aliens and cowardly refuses to help any further, so Bart takes it upon himself to foil Kang and Kodos' plan. He asks Krusty for help, but Krusty informs Bart that he has already helped the Duff Brewery set up free laser gun stands around Springfield. Bart then goes to his father, Homer, for help, and the duo quickly pursue Kang and Kodos to the brewery. However, the aliens escape, and before departing, they reveal that they have already released Buzz Cola throughout Springfield's water supply. As the cola seeps into the ground, it releases the un-dead from the Springfield Cemetery, who invade Springfield. When Homer collects supplies to protect his family and home from the marauding zombies, he decides to pursue a black sports car—which he believes belong to the aliens—to the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. The car, however, belongs to Professor Frink, who has discovered the aliens' weakness: nuclear waste. He plans to use the space ship's tractor beam to suck up cars that are loaded with drums of nuclear waste. After successfully loading Frink's car, along with three more, into the aliens' tractor beam, the ship explodes. The following day, Springfield is returned back to normal.

Development

The game's developer, Radical Entertainment, received the rights to create games for The Simpsons franchise when they demonstrated a playable prototype. Radical released its first The Simpsons game in 2001 called The Simpsons Road Rage, a parody of the Crazy Taxi series of video games. After Road Rage was released, the development team for Hit & Run decided not to create a direct sequel to Road Rage. Instead, Radical wanted to steer the franchise's video game series in a different direction by giving the game engine a complete overhaul. The developers felt that everything else needed a new approach, while only the driving portion of Road Rage was worth keeping; in Hit & Run, enhanced traffic artificial intelligence is introduced, which makes computer-controlled vehicles react better to the player's driving. The developers also decided to add an exploration element to the game to make players get out of the car and navigate the area on foot, so that the game offered a better experience of Springfield.

When developing the game's graphics, the team decided to include landmarks from Springfield. The player is able to enter some of them, including the Kwik-E-Mart, Moe's Tavern, Springfield Elementary School, and The Android's Dungeon and Baseball Card Shop. During Hit & Run's development, 20th Century Fox, Gracie Films, and Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, played important roles in bringing the Simpsons universe into a 3D environment. All character voices were supplied by the actual cast, and the series' writers wrote the entire story for the game, including dialogue. Tim Ramage, the associate producer of the game's publisher, Vivendi Universal Games, considered it a blessing to have the opportunity of working with the Simpsons cast, along with the writers, who Ramage called "the best there is [sic]".

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
Game Informer	GC: 85%
GameRevolution	Xbox: B
GameSpot	PC: 8.0 out of 10
GameSpy	PS2:
IGN	Xbox: 8.0 out of 10
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	Xbox: 88%
Play	Xbox: 83%
TeamXbox	Xbox: 80%

The game was released by Vivendi Universal for the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Windows in the United States on September 16, 2003 and in Europe on October 24, 2003. Several reviews considered Hit & Run to be the best Simpsons game to date, and it was given generally favorable reviews, receiving an aggregated score of 81% from Metacritic for its Xbox version. Praise focused on the move from the Simpsons television series to the video game format, while criticism targeted the game's gameplay and graphics. Hit & Run won the award for Fave Video Game at the 2004 Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards. Over one million copies of the game were sold as of June 2004, and three million as of June 2007.

A number of reviews complimented the transposition of the Simpsons television series to a video game. Game Informer and GameSpot commented on how well the game depicted the fictional city of Springfield from the television series, and called it the most accurate representation of Springfield ever put into a game. Official Xbox Magazine said that the game did the show justice, and Play Magazine felt that it was "essentially the show in real time", summing up its review by calling the game a "truly great cross-over product". GameSpot thought that the humor that the game offered included many excellent self-referential jokes, and TeamXbox concluded its review by predicting that the game would be extremely appealing to gamers, especially hardcore Simpsons fans. Entertainment newspaper Variety surmised that Hit & Run was the first Simpsons game to include humor comparable to what was in the television series.

Hit & Run's parodical take on the Grand Theft Auto III video game was praised by several reviewers. It was considered to "deftly satirize Grand Theft Auto while being almost as entertaining" in a review by GameSpy, which suggested that Hit & Run improved several gameplay aspects that it borrowed from Grand Theft Auto, including instant mission restarts, a superior guidance system, and an easily accessible collection of vehicles. Official Xbox Magazine agreed that Hit & Run was an excellent game in its own right, and found the game to be a "brilliant" clone of Grand Theft Auto. The combination of the Simpsons universe with the gameplay of the Grand Theft Auto series was also praised by IGN as "pure brilliance".

Positive reviews of Hit & Run focused on its graphics and gameplay. Play Magazine appreciated the virtual world that the game offered, describing it as "grandiose in its expanse and artistic rendering". GameSpot found the gameplay to be very engaging. The game was found to be "very fun and very funny" by Zach Meston of GameSpy, and Game Informer called it "nothing short of astonishing". Despite positive reactions, the game also had serious issues that were brought up in several reviews, which focused on the game's bugs and glitches. Both TeamXbox and Game Revolution pointed out that Hit & Run had a few gameplay issues and graphical shortcomings that included strange artificial intelligence behavior and a broken camera system, which they felt hindered the overall experience of the game.

References

1. ^ Torres, Ricardo (2003-09-05). "The Simpsons: Hit and Run Preview". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
2. ^ Perry, Douglass (August 28, 2003). "The Simpsons: Hit & Run Preview". IGN. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
3. ^ Hopper, Steven (2003-12-23). "The Simpsons Hit & Run Review". GameZone. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
4. ^ McCutcheon, David. "The Simpsons: Hit & Run Guide". IGN. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
5. "Hulk video game a made-in-Canada affair". CTV. 2003-07-31. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
6. ^ Kinnear, James. "The Simpsons Hit & Run Interview". Gamers Hell. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
7. Scalzo, John. "The Simpsons: Hit and Run preview". UGO. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
8. ^ Mr. Tickle (October 2003). "Hit & Run". Game Revolution. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
9. ^ "Hit & Run". Game Informer: 134. October 2003.
10. ^ Navarro, Alex (2003-11-13). "The Simpsons: Hit & Run Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
11. ^ Meston, Zach (2003-09-24). "The Simpsons Hit & Run". IGN. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
12. ^ Perry, Douglass C. (2003-09-16). "The Simpsons Hit & Run". IGN. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
13. ^ "Hit & Run". Official Xbox Magazine: 82. October 2003.
14. ^ "Hit & Run". Play Magazine: 78. September 2003.
15. ^ Bush, Eric (2003-10-13). "Hit & Run". TeamXbox. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
16. "Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (GameCube)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
17. "Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (PC)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
18. "Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (PS2)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
19. ^ "Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (Xbox)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
20. "The Simpsons: Hit & Run overview". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
21. "2004 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards!". K-Zone. Archived from the original on 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
22. "Vivendi Game Unit Slashes 350 Jobs as Sales Fall". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
23. "Simpsons Hit & Run". BusinessWeek. 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
24. "EA signs Simpsons". Variety. 2005-11-02. Retrieved 2008-12-17.

External links

• The Simpsons: Hit & Run at IMDb
• The Simpsons: Hit & Run at MobyGames

• The Simpsons video games
• 2003 video games
• GameCube games
• Xbox games
• PlayStation 2 games
• Action-adventure games
• Video games developed in Canada