The Simpsons Hit & Run retrospective review | minimme

most of my memories with the simpsons hit and run are actually about its advertising I think this might be the first game that I remember seeing ads for and they were everywhere it felt like posters for the game were up in not only every videogame store but in every department store and shopping center - and the kids magazine I collected aptly named Kay's own shout outs of all the Aussie kids that remember it ran a competition to win the game and appears - that I actually remember entering but I didn't win and for one reason or another I never actually owned the game myself until now so my experience playing hit and run was limited to friends houses and mucking around in the first level in high school to kill time so while I have some good memories and some leftover fondness for the game I certainly don't have that childhood undying love for it that I know a lot of people my age do turns out all that advertising worked really well on us because of this I feel like I can cover hit and run a little more impartial II than you might expect it's often touted as one of the best licensed games of all time and it's pretty much always touted as the best Simpsons game of all time so as a Simpsons fan and as a licensed game connoisseur let's dive in to see what exactly makes this game so special to so many people and as sacred as it is let's see how it misses the mark in some ways I need your chainsaw to chop up attacking zombies but then how will I defend myself Oh moe moe dude the weapons go to save people who have loved ones yeah I guess so it's funny going back and reading the mostly 8 out of 10 hit and run reviews from way back in 2003 of course Grand Theft Auto was all the rage back then with Vice City breaking records earlier that year and GTA 3 changing the landscape two years earlier so the reviews of this pretty much all unanimously make GTA comparisons which is fair enough like with its open-world renditions of Springfield it's mixed on foot and driving gameplay and its police chases the influence is undoubtable with many reviews going as far to say that this is GTA parody or satire but aside from some self referential tutorial screens and the very occasional fourth wall breaking line of dialogue there's actually not a lot of parody going on here it's a fairly cut and dry sort of game in that aspect and the handful of meta jokes that there are don't aim for much more than a quick laughs but if you set your mind back to 2003 before the big indie boom normalised fourth-wall breaking before modern internet meme culture and before a lot of other open world games would flood the genre it's not hard to see how these small gags were enough to pass this as parody at the time press the Y button to get into the car and don't take all day this is just the tutorial it would have been quite refreshing in fact the writing in its entirety would have been and still is quite refreshing mostly because the show's writers wrote the whole thing including the dialogue which is specifically important because the overarching plot about alien surveillance and robot wasps takes a backseat to just moment-to-moment one-liners and sight gags it feels like everything that pedestrians yell or the character you're playing as yells while driving is really quotable it's that focus on the moment-to-moment humor that gives the game a really good first impression starting it up and driving around as Homer might not be the typical big hook set piece opener instead opting for the complete opposite where you're just driving to the kwik-e-mart for some icecream and coke but there's just so many things to grin about you'll almost always see at least one joke on the screen at any given time and if you can't see one then you can likely hear one beyond that though that carefully put together open-world if you can call it that is just a joy to be in as a fan of the show you can tell Springfield was hand designed to squeeze in as many secrets recognizable locations and deep cut references as it could it rewards you for exploring with the semi hidden locations like rooftops and backyards filled with interactive jokes and collectibles to find which fans like myself would appreciate as fans and kids would appreciate because kids love this sort of thing kids also love smashing stuff which hit and run really caters to pretty much everything that isn't tied down and then some things that are can be knocked over whether it's by kicking it or crashing into it and that includes pedestrians who'll flail about after the slightest touch there's this wonderful story like during development where the team didn't want to show you series create a map graining that you could kick pedestrians thinking that like he disapproved but as soon as he picked up the controller as Homer he kicked Marge across Springfield and loved every second of it hit and run really taps into that Bart Simpson esque childlike chaotic mischief as you watch all the physics objects fly everywhere and run over the laughs and Milhouse's of the world it's essentially a Simpsons themed toy box that invites you to muck around with all the pieces and see how they react irrespective of any arbitrary restrictions the bouncy carefree just have fun toy box approach is to some extent this games lightning in a bottle moment it immediately says to you that this is the game that really only cares about you having fun so jump in run over the be man and have fun of course it run over enough be men and crash into enough things to fill up the bar around the radar and you'll get a hit and run where the police will start chasing you and the police here are unfortunately quite unfair and overpowered it's a shame because not only did GTA prove how fun police chasers can be but the title of this game would imply that they're more fun than they actually are being so annoying they work as more of a deterrent for crashing into things which might be the point that in a lot of ways they do literally feel like the fun police also I hesitate to call this an open world because it's actually more like a large elaborate circuit the radar usually only shows one path and when it does split with an intersection it always loops in on itself and rejoins that single path to continue the circuit this is the case for not only the first suburbs area but also the games other to downtown and Harborside maps both of which are distinct and similarly great the reason their circuits is because hit and run is way more of a driving game than you might expect it's it's certainly more of a driving game than I remember and thank God it is because the platforming is awful its floaty imprecise slow movement unless you sprints and too hard to control if you do it almost seems like the developers knew how bad it was because the amount of main story platforming missions can be countered on one hand being on foot is frustrating and clunky but it just doesn't really matter on the other hand I was really surprised by how good the driving feels I remember it being way more floaty than it is and while every vehicle does have incredibly high acceleration that's actually pretty necessary given how cramps the streets are you often unavoidably crash into things and need to quickly speed up again so thank God you can and it ends up being really really fast paced the handbrake drifting feels grippy in the right ways and the vehicles control uniquely enough that it genuinely matters what you're driving whether it's a school bus or a fly broomstick it's quite smartly put together radical entertainment the developers behind this did the Simpsons road rage two years earlier a game that was so much of a crazy taxi clone that they got sued for it so it kind of makes sense that the car handling in hit-and-run feels refined our road rage is in a lot of ways a sort of beta version of hit and run with it's open levels it's constant dialogue and it's weird doughy Simpsons graphics in fact Hit & Run was originally conceived as a sequel to road rage which explains the focus on the driving road ragers levels are much more complex in the sense that they're not just circuits like they fit more of an actual open-world definition and because of this it can be easy to get lost or take a wrong turn if you don't know what you're doing like if you take the wrong shortcut in road rage that can ruin your entire run but in hit-and-run they seem to have wanted to take this element out of the game with the map design destinations in hit and run are always cleverly placed between shortcuts so if you see a shortcut in hit and run you should always take it because it'll virtually always take you to where you're going so really all you need to worry about is driving as fast as you can not blowing up your car and hitting as many shortcuts as possible and because the game is so fast-paced you wouldn't want to worry about anything more than that for the most part there's really only a handful of mission types in the game that repeat in different ways whether you're up chasing someone down racing someone collecting items falling out of someone's vehicle or trying to get somewhere within a time limit in fact this game is filled to the brim with time limits and with all the driving it's far more comparable to driver than to Grand Theft Auto and just like driver the time limits are often really strict so you'll need to learn where those shortcuts are and hit them every single time and once you've realized this it all just boils down to how skilled you are there's no planning your route there's no high-level strategy it's just drive fast don't crash and hit the shortcuts which is really awesome in a way it's very pure so part of me is hesitant to even say this but it does get repetitive over time due to this simplicity and due to the repeating mission types part of the problem is that you just master it pretty quickly after you've played the first three chapters as her Bart and Lisa respectively the locations start repeating themselves and you'll pretty much be as good at the game as you're ever going to be it doesn't help that every character controls exactly the same on foot which i think is a missed opportunity like why not give them unique character abilities and again the overarching plot is really quite poor with its ugly pre-rendered cutscenes and it's whatever alien plot which just hammers home the repetitiveness of it all because there's nothing really to look forward to story wise the rest of the game past chapter 3 is just as good as the start of the game but only because it's basically the same as the start of the game that's not to say that the rest of the game is forgettable though I'd forgive anyone who forgot that appoo had his own chapter one of my more vivid memories with this is watching friends try to beat the very last mission which has since become one of those famously difficult levels that gets talked about like it's the stuff of videogame legend towards the end the difficulty really really spikes and the final handful of missions basically fail you if you crash into walls which isn't a thing anywhere else in the game so you really do have to drive near perfectly to beat these missions and even then you still might unavoidably crash due to the random element of the traffic but I kind of love this though like by this point they've already shown you the whole game so why not just throw in some blindingly frustrating missions at you it's especially amusing thinking of the millions of kids out there trying their little hearts out to beat this like it either taught those kids some resilience or it's the source of their lingering anger issues in all seriousness though this really is a perfect game for kids like like I get it I see why everyone loves this game and it goes further than just the mischief and the collectables like obviously the extremely fast pace and the fun colors and the gta4 kids appeal of it is a big part of this and there's something to be said for the dozens of unlockable clothes and the vehicles that kids can work towards but it's also important to acknowledge that hit and run is one of those games that's so filled with obscure secrets that make the game feel a lot bigger than it is like for example the world theming changes depending on your consoles date so on Christmas it'll be Christmasy or on Halloween it'll be Halloween II and there's secret vehicles to find including a monorail and there's just so many cool Easter eggs to find not to mention the unlockable multiplayer minigame that I feel like is only in the game so that they can say one to four players is support on the back of the box but hey it's still one of many cool unlockables like it's just not hard to imagine kids back in the day bonding in the schoolyard over secrets and theories and stuff they did and found in the game most importantly though the simpsons hit and run is a kids game that doesn't treat kids like they're kids it doesn't limit them in what they can do going as far as letting them beat up and run over people and it doesn't pull any punches with the humor as it has more adult jokes in there and it clearly doesn't hold back with the difficulty this there's just a really free feeling to it compared to other children's games and because of this it's also a very entertaining game for adults too now I know I said it's repetitive and it absolutely is over decent stretches of time but that's all offset by just how fun it feels every time you boot it up the poor overarching plot is drowned out by moment to moment gags and the simplistic gameplay is drowned out by moment to moment thrills it's a game that sacrifices long-term satisfaction for short-term joy and that's not as bad of a thing as you might expect like just like your favorite phone game or your favorite arcade game hit and run is fantastic in short bursts and that's perfectly fine so as late as I am I'm still really really glad that I played this it has that uniquely sixth-generation heart to it that not many games do and as far as I know this was a complete mess of a development so it's amazing that it turned out as good as it did and it's even more amazing that it still feels like a real labor of love and it now quite easily sits in my eyes as as well as most people's eyes I think as the best Simpsons game ever made it's not a mind-blowing gaming experience or anything and it's really not groundbreaking in any way but it's a jovial fun game that stood the test of time way better than many other open-world ps2 games and and it's easily earned its millions of sales to me and it's made me jealous of all those kids that grew up with it and with that we wrap up the simpsons hit and run video I hope you enjoyed it thanks for watching if you want to support liking and subscribing and commenting and all that helps with the algorithm and there's also patreon and I want to thank my patrons including all of them including the ones coming up on the screen and especially including my $5 patrons and up Adam Beals analog man Blake Barnett bogey on lion Kate in the dingo chef Chris Bush cos we will hope I'm pronouncing that one right Devin Grand Isle Dominic jucoky evil chicken Gary pay hero I saw mini-me making babies behind the bike shed with lab cat Lucas for a civic Maximilian Kunzman may erase mazaki Melanie G moustache a duct tape mrs. mini-me peaceful kumquat ritalin for kids TR test drive unlimited to the mighty mega link Thomas dams guard trap Laura Ross Travis Trixie Emerson under 10 hours riding on games and is indicative as always thank you for support I hope you all had a good holiday season happy new year and I hope you all enjoyed the video I'll talk to you all later bye

Channel: minimme

Views: 350,071

Rating: 4.9423676 out of 5

Keywords: minimme, the simpsons, the simpsons hit and run, hit and run, simpsons hit and run, the simpsons hit and run review, homer simpson, playstation 2, the simpsons hit & run (video game), the simpsons game, mini me, minime, hit & run, radical entertainment, bart simpson, simpsons game, simpsons hit and run review, xbox, gamecube, simpsons hit and run gameplay, the simpsons hit & run review, the simpsons hit and run gameplay, video games, best simpsons games, video game review, pc

Id: 4qPcbaNmcss

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BlueHighwindz]

Seems like this game is getting a lot of attention lately. It’s a fantastic GTA clone, but weird that people are remembering it now.

[u/juicyManhole]

it’s funny how minimme is reviewing nearly every game i played growing up as a kid, especially driver 3 and the sims games both on game boy. it’s almost cathartic watching those videos

[u/frosty_frog]

Man I hope one day we get remasters of this and Road Rage. Wouldn’t mind The Simpsons Game being re-released too, it was also super fun

[u/LucarioSpeedwagon]

Watch Out for Fireballs did an episode on this game last month that I quite enjoyed. I don't know how well-known that podcast is or isn't, my barber recommended it to me. Funny to see this game pop up back into the consciousness recently - I remember being very disappointed in it as a 12-13 year old who loved Road Rage.

[u/Aphelion1756]

I have thought about this game for over a decade and how much I loved it as a kid.

Really should find a way to replay it.

[u/Machinevartin]

If you take off nostalgia glasses it is just mediocre game with Simpsons characters. Missions are worst than in Mafia 3 and that's hard thing to achieve.