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A fair game that Simpsons fans will like

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 45 / 49
Date: November 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A swarm of robotic bees has invaded Springfield, plus strange black surveillance vans are popping up everywhere. They're taking pictures of everything, from the air, through your windows, and even the girls' locker rooms; and Mayor Quimby demands to see the footage. This irreverent premise sets the stage. You start off as Homer Simpson, looking remarkably like the same Homer from the "Homer in 3D" episode, and perform various tasks usually involving a race against time or another character. For instance, you'll find yourself racing against time to collect all the items you borrowed from Ned Flanders (then loaned out to other people), or you may join Marge in a duel to damage a truck filled with mind-corrupting videogames before it makes it to the local shopping center.

Some say this game borrows from Grand Theft Auto, but it feels more like Mario Kart. Gold coins are all around and collecting them allows you to purchase different vehicles or outfits. It feels very "console-ish" with only a basic action button and kick button and you're definitely better off driving with a gamepad in hand. Even the mouse provides little use other than to look around. As you progress through the different missions, various sub-missions and bonus missions pop up. Completing these will unlock additional cars which can prove useful, but more likely necessary, later in the game.

I found the missions themselves to be fun, but some required expert level knowledge of the areas in advance, such as shortcuts or secret paths, in order to be completed in time. What this means is you are frequently subjected to playing a mission, failing it, then retracing your steps to learn the area before starting over, which can get annoying. In addition, the camera tends to get stuck at times, forcing you to step away from a wall or building before your character can be seen again. Finally, while a Simpsons spin is put on each mission, most are simply the same old point A to point B mission over and over again.

That said, it's not a particularly bad game. All of the original voice actors make the universe faithful to the show, plus it'll run decent on a midrange computer system. Simpsons fans in particular will enjoy the varied cast and landmarks, from Moe's Tavern, to Fat Tony's Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club, to the Jedidiah Smith and Lard Lad statues. In addition, there's 49 collector cards scattered among the levels which will supposedly unlock an Itchy and Scratchy episode once they are all found.

Hit and Run is not particularly innovative in any area, but it's a good looking game and a quick, escapist diversion with plenty of gags that fans of the series will appreciate.

Hope the review helped.

Awesomely frustrating

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: January 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you suffer from high blood pressure or a low pain threshold, then for the love of Jebus, do not buy this game. It's a bunch of fun, it's funny, the graphics are good, the sound is great, and yes, it's like GTA3 but without the violence. You are given a whole world to play in, several characters to inhabit, plenty of vehicles and bonus missions and a dozen other lovely goodies. Perfect for the kiddies or, sickeningly, the kid in us all.

What you are not given, however, is a chance. All in all this is a very short game - you can play the story missions all the way through in under a couple hours. What makes it last longer than three episodes of the television show, however, is the insane level of difficulty in the mid to later missions. Not only are they mind-numbingly repetitive, but they are just ridiculous in their execution. You are given time limits and minimum distance from the vehicle/item, otherwise you fail the mission. There's no reason for these time limits - not that we're looking for reason in a fantasy world - but nevertheless they seem only to serve to make the game more difficult and, hence, stretch out the playtime.

Some missions you will try over a dozen times, maybe twenty or more. Even the game realises it's too hard - if you fail a mission something like five or more times, it gives you the option to "skip" that mission and move on to the next one. Only the next one's going to be much worse.

Another thing is that you aren't sufficiently rewarded. Play through a mission, tearing out your hair and chewing your fingernails to pieces, screaming obscenities at the computer and kicking the cat, and finally you reach your objective with a second to spare, black smoke pouring out of your vehicle. And what happens? Do you get a new vehicle, some money, some kind of bonus powerup? Very rarely, if at all. Instead you are immediately transported into the next painfully frustrating "collect 'em all" or "smash 'em up" or "race 'em there" (yes, there are only three types of mission) task, which is twice as hard as the last. Pretty soon you get bored of the whole thing, playing the same annoying missions over and over just to progress the story. And the story's ridiculous, but we didn't expect anything else. What we expect as game players is to be given some sort of pat on the back for a job well done - not just another two lines of dialogue for the fanboys. We want better vehicles, better weapons, something, ANYTHING. Sure, from time to time you'll get an extra car, but that's it. And if the mission's too hard, you're not even given the satisfaction of finally *winning* it - you just have to skip to the next one.

What I propose Vivendi do is implement some sort of sliding difficulty scale. If the game realises that you're having a hard time, it should automatically give you an extra few seconds on the timer for your next attempt, or make your car slightly tougher, or give you more "strikes" before the cops turn up, or marginally improve handling. I'm a pretty good gamer, but I've been stuck on the final mission for about thirty tries, and yes, I've skipped a few others before that one.

Besides that, there's only one way to finish a mission. Unlike GTA3, where you are usually given the freedom to explore and try different approaches to an objective, with Hit & Run, there's just one way to do it - go as fast as you can and take all the shortcuts you find, and try not to hit anything along the way, or else the stupid cops will appear out of nowhere and annoy you even more. This gets old fast, and when you couple complete linearity with the eye-bleeding difficulty level and repetitiveness of the missions, it's hard to recommend this game to anyone.

However, the saving grace is that this is, yes, a Simpsons game. All the characters are there doing their various wacky things, and dialogue from the actors has been recorded especially for the game, making it an occasionally hilarious experience. You get to explore all of Springfield which is a bunch of fun, take on a few self-imposed sidequests (destroy all cameras, collect all cards, make as much money as you can to buy cars and clothes by smashing stuff up, find all the gags etc.), or just generally goof around. These things save the game from mediocrity, but only barely. If this was anything but a Simpsons game, I would advise you to stay well clear of it. But as it stands it's a potentially worthwhile purchase for the fan (when the price drops a bit), so long as you're not too keen on actually "winning" the game.

If you want a game like this with challenges you can actually *overcome* through your own ingenuity, and not just sheer luck or digital dexterity, then stick with the GTA games, or True Crime. And if you just want a laugh, try an old adventure title from Lucasarts. But if you want to learn to hate your computer, then sure, buy this.

Solid rental

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 17
Date: November 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is what I call a "quickie" game: guilt free, temporarily satisfying, and over with in time to make appointments. There isn't really enough in here that makes this game worth the asking price, as the missions are over in a hurry and your ability to explore Springfield is fairly limited. For the most part, all you get to see of the town is the outside of buildings, and all you do is drive around completing a series of overly similar missions.

"Collect *insert item here*", "Stop Smithers", "Go to the Kwik-e-Mart", "Talk to Marge", etc, is all you can expect from the game. There is no interaction with characters, the different vehicles add nothing to the game, and it all becomes tiring very quickly.

For this, you can expect to lose up to 1.8GB in hard drive space if you opt for full installation, which is needed to ensure smooth running of the game. In the minimum installation, the game ran with "hiccups", and this is on my 2.6Ghz, 512MB RAM with 3D video card system. In my opinion, the demand on the computer isn't worth the ultimately unsatisfying game.

As a rental, for a few bucks you'll get what you pay for. To buy you're much better off getting a game with more depth and replay value.

Does the Simpsons proud...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Alot of reviews about this game have been bringing up point that this is finally a "good Simpson game" in a gimmicky like fashion. However, The Simpsons have had a string of great entertaining games and software on the PC with the AfterDark! Simpson screensaver collection, to the Simpson's Cartoon Studio and Virtual Springfeild. However if we talk about console is definately the best with maybe a minor expection of the Konami arcade game.
What's so good about it? Well essentially it's just a Grand Theft Auto clone but the game itself is fun because of the environment in which you are surrounded and it stays very accurate. Devout fans will notice and pick up on all the places you've seen from the show, for example Moe's Tavern being next door to the music store or Mr. Burn's impressive back garden while casual fans will have the joy of seeing all their favourite characters, voiced by the real actors, spouting all their trademark personalities.
It's a fantastic production with one major criticism: Some of the missions are just too unforgiving. In some missions where you need to chase a vechile while picking up items, the mission will automatically fail you if you're not close enough to the item even if you are close to the vechile. But besides that this is worthy game for all Simpson fans.

Best Video Game Ever!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

For those Simpsons fans, this game is a must have. I can tell you that almost all of the video games bearing the Simpsons name have been disappointing; however, this one will win over any person that enjoys the TV series. This game is a solid Grand Theft Auto like game. The animations are great and is truly funny. Hit and Run has a few drawbacks:

- Gets Repetitive
- Control is a little awkward with some camera angles
- Difficulty of scenarios jumps back and forth between levels

All in all the Simpsons Hit and Run is fun and the price is right.

Very fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: November 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Finally. You get to explore Springfield, which is reason enough to play this game. It's almost an added bonus that the game is quite fun to play, too. It runs quite smoothly on my machine (Athlon XP1600, 640DDR, GeForce4Ti4200 (128)) and the installation was a snap. I am extremely happy with this purchase.

This is definitely the best Simpson's game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game has some of the best humor and gameplay (ease of controls and responsiveness) of any game I've played in the last year or two.

It takes good things from other successful games, such as Grand Theft Auto and Crazy Taxi. These include the ability to drive almost anywhere in your environment and even hit pedestrians (without animated violence), while completing missions in a limited amount of time.

If you hit too many people either in their cars or while they're on foot, or if your destroying telephone poles and other objects gets out of hand, the police will come after you. You can evade them, but sometimes it's challenging to complete a mission at the same time. This provides an extra challenge in case you think some of the earlier missions are a bit boring.

This is easily the best simpsons game by far, with the best replay value (which is important to me when buying games).

Lastly, addressing all the reviews saying that the game is too hard... I found some missions frustrating, but it wasn't anything extraordinarily hard. You may play a few missions 2 or 3 times, but they've got such good replay value, that it just makes it that much more satisfying when you do complete a mission.

What are these other reviewers talking about?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I saw good reviews for this game elsewhere, then almost didn't buy it after reading the reviews here. What a mistake that would have been! First of all, I stink at driving games. I especially stink at games using the keyboard to steer (although you can use other methods with this game if you want). However, I've found this to be the best/most controlable driving game I've ever played.

Many of the cars are regular cars and they respond the way you'd expect (aside from when you're crashing through telephone poles, trees and people). The levels are well designed. They require a little exploration and thought. Without cheating, I was able to find all the secrets, beat all the races, get all the cards, etc without spending forever on a level.

The key to remember is that THIS IS A GAME! If you can't beat a race in level 1, don't sweat it. It's non-linear, for the most part. Unlike bad games, you can go back and try again. There was one non-critical race that I tried at least 20 times, skipped it for a while, then went back. I then realized a trick that I was missing (hint - you can get out of the car). DOH!

Bottom line - this game is super fun. If you even like the Simpsons, you should get it. If you're a big fan, you MUST get it. If you find it frustrating, you probably should spend a few minutes thinking instead of mashing the keyboard. If you have a teenager nearby, ask them for ideas.

Last note - the only negative is that the language is pretty bad at certain points. I know it's the Simpsons. But it would have been nice to have a filter to just turn off about 3 or 4 words that get repeated over and over.

Simpsony fun, but REALLY cheap level design

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 15
Date: March 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed the Simpson-ness of the game, but if it didn't
have the Simpsons factor the game would not be worth-
while. The missions are fun at first but become
tedious and annoying after the 80th time you have to
try them because you car flies out of control for no
reason just before you cross the finish line.

There are some glitches with controlling your character
on the PC, especially when you are on foot. Also, if
you take certain shortcuts (which you HAVE to do in
order to finish some of the missions) all the objects
around you disappear! This is a pretty cool effect,
but it makes it impossible to drive if you can't see
the road beneath you or the buildings beside the road!
(This might be a PC-only glitch.)

However, the worst part of the game is the level design.
Come on! THREE unique levels?!?!?! The other 4 levels
are just repeats of the first three with slightly
different missions. OK, the last level is pretty
cool looking, but it's still just a repeat (and a
truncated one at that) of level 1.

The levels are also annoyingly designed; each one is
essentially a big loop. Most missions require you to
drive from one end of the loop to the opposite end.
This gets old really quickly.

The music, sound effects and voiceover acting are all
really good. I guess they spent all their money on
the actors so they didn't have enough left over for
level design and gameplay.

Quite impressive.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was a rabid fan of the Simpsons for about the first 7 years of the series. I have since become a passive viewer. The games released, that were based on the show ,were usually mediocre at best. While the show has always been ingenious, the games never really were. That aside, this game IS ingenious. The real cast voice-overs are incredible. The driving physics are realistic and clean. The various choice of vehicles is nice. The ability to use the mouse (in most situations) is also a very good pc feature. The graphics are also absolutely superb. The game is essentially mission-based, with homer (and others) being sent out to perform certain 'acts' for the family, with an occasionnal stop-off for a random,and mindless, race. The whole city of springfield is included here in a very immersive 3d map that has one surprise after another. Most everything is destructible. But, there are a few things i feel are negative. The 'randomly' placed comments that are thrown in by the characters begin to grate on you after a while. They have a nice supply of phrases to spout, but once they're all said, they lose their edge very quickly. Also, about the mouse controls. While control is very good overall, there are times that they make gameplay more difficult. When you get close to a wall, you tend to 'hug' the wall, rendering the mouse temporarily useless, until he gets 'away' from that wall. Then ,free look returns. That particular problem only raises its' ugly head whenever you're out of the car doing some minor platform gameplay. There is not much of the platform stuff in the game, so it shouldn't deter from anyone's reason to own this. This game is truly too good to pass up. For a simpsons' fan it is paradise. Even for a non-simpsons fan. Easy to learn controls. Very responsive controls. And a truly unique world created by lunatics, make this game a true success. Thank you, MATT GROENING! You are a master of human-tradgedy. ADDED INFO 11/27/03 : I just finished this. WOW! The entire game was fun, and what an interesting twist at the end! I won't give it away, but you get to expierience one of the most beloved episodes of the simpsons series. HINT : It happens only once a year! I love this game even more now, and i WILL be playing it again!

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