• Massively Skateable Springfield Environments

• Get Tricky on Springfield Landmarks

• Shred and Grind Head To Head.

• Events will set off hidden animated gags just like you'd see in actual Simpsons episodes

• Fun and funny multiplayer driving modes for up to 4 players

The Simpsons is like Grand Theft Auto 3 in that missions involve driving a car around a city, and sometimes walking around. Instead of one huge city, there are 7 levels, comprising of one of three different subsections of Springfield - the neighborhood, the downtown, and the marina district. All the Simpsons haunts and characters are there. The Kwik-E-Mart, the Nuclear Power Plant. It's all there. You play as Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Apu.

Unlike other Simpsons games, this is a polished game. It's fun to explore the places and characters. There are many side missions and gags to do as well. Unlike GTA3 though, the sense of being in a living, breathing city is just not there. The main part of the game are the story missions. There are a total of 49 of those to complete. The missions are all a variant of race someone, gather something, or beat the clock. After a while, the repetitiveness of these missions begin to pine away at the novelty. The multi part missions are terrible in that failing a latter part of the mission causes you to restart the whole mission again. Couple this with the bad traffic AI and sometimes you just want to break the controller.

There are some other things that frustrate me. The Multi-player is terrible. All it is a cheap race that looks exactly like an NES game (the 8-bit version). It should not have been included. Also, the beginning levels are way too easy, and the latter levels are way too frustrating.

All in all, it's a good game and I recommend it to any true Simpsons fan out there, but don't expect miracles.

Pros:
Hilarious
Tons of obscure Simpsons references
An actual fun and polished Simpsons game
Great for exploration

Cons:
Missions are repetitive
Traffic and AI are badly designed
Stuck on some missions
The "multi" player level is an insult to gaming.

Time to Complete (Story missions only): 17 hours

Frustration Level: Medium/High

Difficulty Level: Easy/Medium

33 of 35 found the following review helpful:


Best. Simpsons game. Ever.  Nov 07, 2003 By Bilbo Baggins "mighty hobbit"
This is without a doubt the best Simpsons game ever because it comes the closest to doing something that I've always wanted a Simpsons game to do and that is let you play an episode of the show. Most Simpsons games have you doing silly nonsense like wrestling and fighting aliens and don't allow you to really interact with the Simpsons world. Although it is not quite as interactive as I would like. For instance you can't talk to people very often unless it is part of a mission. Although they well talk quite a bit if you kick them in the head. As far as the gameplay goes, there are several types of missions but they basically fall into several broad categories. There are missions where you have to race people. Another mission is the trail where you have to follow another vehicle and keep them from losing you and another mission that is the complete opposite in which you have to lose someone. Some missions have multiple objectives, which can be annoying, especially since failing one objective means you have to go back and sart the whole mission over. There are also missions where you have to wreck other people's vehicles. This is the closest this game ever gets to Grand Theft Auto which is what this game is based on. The only thing that I don't like is that this game gets really hard really quick. Another bad thing is there is no map that comes with the game unlike Grand Theft Auto. The only thing you have to guide you is a small radar like thing and green arrows to quide you in the general direction you want to go. However, in order to beat the harder levels you need to find the shortcuts which the arrows do not point out. in order to find them you have to scout out the area before starting the mission. Luckily, you can skip missions after repeated failure which is good for people who suck at these type of games, like me. I'm on the marge level now and I have only beaten one of the levels. I've skipped at least three of them. Other than the somewhat severe difficulty however this game is great. Any Simpsons fan will love it.

16 of 16 found the following review helpful:


Awsome Simpsons Game  Oct 12, 2003
This is an awsome Simpsons Game.It's preety much GTA in the simpsons, except theres no guns or blood. There 7 levels in which you play Homer,Marge, Bart, Lisa,and Apu.The missions are really fun except for a couple impossible ones,which you can skip (a good idea for a game). You can also do a lot of other things besides missions, like street races, and getting collector cards. You can change peoples look too. Its also cool because its almost exactly how springfield looks in the show, with the simpsons house, the kwikee-mart,moe's tavern and all of the other places. This game is very fun to play especially with friends. OK now for some of the bad things. The camra angle gets stuck. In some of the missions you will find your self doing the same general thing as another mission.There might be a few graphic gliches, and the multiplayer is just plain bad.Well thats about it,BOTTOM LINE:every character in the simpsons will be involved in the game, so if your a simpsons fan definetly get it!!If your not a simpsons still get it!!

17 of 18 found the following review helpful:


THE SIMPSONS GO GRAND THEFT AUTO!!!!  Sep 20, 2003 By Kyle Dana
I just got this game yesterday and it is the greatest Simpsons game since probably Barts Nightmare on the SNES and Sega....This is not only a GTA replica but its also has a platform game touch to it with the double jump and coin collecting.... The Simpsons Hit and Run has everything, you get to play as Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, and Apu... You can walk into the Kwik-E-Mart, Moe's Tavern, and other Simpsons hotspots from the show. Being able to walk around is soooo cool because you get to see everything from the show if it was on the show it is in the game like the garden on top of the Kwik-E-Mart, the Salt Factory behind Springfield Elementary that melted the snow storm, the Nuclear Power Plant (even Homer's work station) EVERYTHING... and another one of the coolest things I really think is you don't only see unknown people walking on the streets but you see well known characters walking around like Lenny, Krusty, Lou the Police Officer, and alot of others thats one of many things that make this game really Awsome there is just to much in the game to tell you about.... if your a simpsons fan and even if you haven't really watched the show this is a really fun game a HUGE MUST HAVE FOR SIMPSONS FAN WELL WORTH PAYING THE PRICE FOR IT!!!!

13 of 14 found the following review helpful:


The best Simpsons game yet... but with flaws.  Oct 01, 2003
Yes, it is a semi-ripoff of the Grand Theft Auto series although there are no guns, hookers, or bad language. This game is appropriate for kids and is really a must have for 'Obsessive Simpsons Fans'.

THE GREAT:
-All the voices are done by the Simpsons cast, and you can find almost all the main and 'B' characters. Gil, Captain McCallister, Bumblebee Man, Comic Book Guy, Snake, Hans Moleman, Jasper, Cleatus, Frink..
-The dialogue is really really funny.
-The game is very open ended and has hours of game play.
-The town of Springfield seems like the actual town.

THE NOT GREAT:
-Made by Vivendi.. see Spyro Enter the Dragonfly.
-Camera can get stuck. I mean absolutely stuck without view of your charachter.
-Almost all of the gameplay is a 'timed mission' game. This can get old and frustrating.

BOTTOM LINE:
If you are a PS2 jockey & a Simpsons fanatic you will not be able to stop playing this game.
Cannot hold a candle to Ratchet & Clank.

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