My first Retro Review with many more to come in the future. Retro Review's in my eyes will be pre-Xbox 360/PS3 generation. Instead of just scoring them on how good they are, I'm scoring each game out of 5 on how well they hold up today.
Simpsons Hit and Run released in 2003 and was developed by Radical Entertainment. This is a game I've always held in high regards, being a big Simpsons fan growing up I played this a lot. It's a GTA clone, more friendly to a younger audience and starring the Simpsons, sounds great, right?
The game spans seven levels, most levels have a new area of Springfield to explore and every level you change character. Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Apu are all playable (Homer and Bart star in two levels). Each level you're free to explore by your own means, and it's worth doing. There's lots of detail and you'll recognise so much from the show. Even better, you can enter some of Springfield's well know locations like Moe's and the Kwik-E-Mart. You'll also find lots of your favourite characters out and about too. There's a mass amount of vehicles and you'll remember seeing most of them, the Plow King and Marge's Canyonero are just a couple for you to drive.
Each level has seven missions, most missions are racing, destroy a vehicle and collecting items on foot and in vehicles. There's plenty of missions and most are fun. As well, each level has four races, doing all four will unlock a new vehicle. Each level has three costumes for you to wear relevant to each character and straight from the show. There's lots of collectables to pick up, cards featuring an item from the show, coin boxes and mechanical wasps for you to destroy.
The driving is perfect, easy to control and really fun to do a. Doing bad things will cause the police to chase you down. Fighting, driving into people and smashing objects around the world all contribute. The fine is fifty coins if you get caught. You'll need your money to buy new vehicles and outfits, so drive safely! Each level also has a special mission, featuring a character from the show who gives you a task and you'll unlock their vehicle.
There's so many secrets, hidden areas, gags that are taken from the show and even a zombie level as the final level. Some of the most fun levels are the destruction ones, there's something so satisfying about smashing into a car and blowing it up. Careful though, bang up your own car too much and you'll blow that up. Not to fear though, as you can go to a phone booth, which is where you spawn your vehicle's, and there you can pay a small fee to repair your car. The racing missions can be frustrating, sometimes you feel you did everything you could to win and still come up short.
14 years later, I played Hit and Run and went through all seven levels. I loved every minute on my return. I had as much fun on this as I did over a decade ago. This game easily holds up today, if you never played it, why? Go get it! All we need now is a remaster and a sequel.
5/5
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