Before I get underway with this article, I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to let you inside my head. Feel free to take a deep breath before you take the plunge and be careful when resurfacing. Ready? Good.
Before writing this article, my thought process went like this:
My Brain: Cool. Well, you could do a retrospective article on The Simpsons: Hit and Run. It’s one of those games that I think people remember with a certain fondness and you’re a pretty big Simpsons fan.
Me: Yeah. That’s a good idea, Brain. Thanks, dude.
My Brain: Happy to help.
Me: Oh, hang on. I forgot…or rather, you did...
My Brain: Nope, that was Memory. Don’t just be dealing out blame cards willy-nilly now.
Me: Okay. Sorry. It’s just…my PS2 is broke, man. And since Sony don’t allow for backwards compatibility anymore that means I can’t revisit the game. How’m I supposed to write the article now?
My Brain: Ask Memory.
Me: Hey, Memory. You got anything on The Simpsons: Hit and Run?
My Memory: Yes.
And so, I’ll be writing this quasi-review/retrospective look at The Simpsons: Hit and Run almost entirely from my memories of playing the game about ten years ago.
The Simpsons: Hit and Run was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube consoles and was met with generally positive reviews, with most agreeing that it was absolutely worlds better than preceding Simpsons video games such as The Simpsons: Road Rage and The Simpsons Skateboarding, which had critics letting out more annoyed grunts than Homer Jay Simpson himself. And I have to agree. Although I do have a bit of a soft spot for the equally-panned The Simpsons Wrestling.
The game has seven levels, each containing a variety of missions and focusing on one of the five playable characters, which are Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Apu. The storyline progresses by the end of each level and is suitably madcap, ultimately leading to an alien invasion style twist featuring Kang and Kodos. The basic gist of which is that Kang and Kodos are using a new brand of Buzz Cola laced with something that will make the town go crazy and inexplicably raise the dead in order to get ratings for their reality TV show - Foolish Humans. Or something. Along the way, Bart gets abducted, Lisa plays detective, and Apu helps Snake Jailbird with his community service.
While some of the missions do get a bit repetitive as the game progresses (most involve collecting various MacGuffins or destroying things, for instance), generally there’s enough variation to make for a positively cromulent game and one which I have enjoyed reminiscing about.
My Memory: How was that?
Me: Yeah, not bad. But you did actually do a little bit of research to jog yourself, didn’t you?
My Memory: No. You did.
Me: This is getting needlessly confusing.
My Memory: I agree.
D'oh!
Did you enjoy The Simpsons Hit & Run as much as we did? More importantly - Did you, in fact, complete it?
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