The Simpsons: Hit & Run

GREAT GAME !!! on October 21, 2007

In the name of everything that is wrong with videogames, how is it that America's most wonderfully dysfunctional 2D family has finally landed a videogame that's worth its weight in pixels, parts and flat-meat Krusty Burgers? After years of miserable, half-realized, floundering attempts at videogames, how is it that someone has finally, finally created a videogame, with the Simpsons in it, that's any good? God only knows.

The Simpsons Hit & Run doesn't choke. Perhaps it's because Vivendi Universal Games and longtime developer partner Radical Entertainment finally found the right game formula to snatch. Perhaps The Simpsons' time has simply come. Either way, you can forget The Simpsons Skateboarding and the Simpsons Road Rage and you can forget, finally, The Simpsons Wrestling, because the gloomy path of misery, wasted money and doomed Simpsons frustration is over -- at least for now

There is no secret to this game's success, make no mistake about it. Like all of the other Simpsons games, the idea behind Hit & Run is flat-out snitched from another more original concept. This one happens to be borrowed from Rockstar Games' seminal Grand Theft Auto series on PS2, which has sold, well, more than anything else on Sony's console. It doesn't need an explanation anymore, GTA just is what it is.

Radical has smartly, deftly adapted the Simpsons universe to the wanton madness that made GTA such a thrill, and has filled it with the pure character, humor and color of the yellow fivesome. The result is familiar yet surprising. There is freewheeling car jacking, flagrant pedestrian smashing, rampant city destruction; there's the ability to enter into building's interiors, a scope of missions all too familiar to GTA fans, and characters that can even change outfits. Overseen by Matt Groening and Gracie Films and penned by writers from the TV series, Hit & Run is equally funny with the show, but the vehicle is different. Now, instead of watching the Simpsons, you're in control of the Simpsons.

Naturally, there are some major differences between Hit & Run and GTA, which is a good thing. While the level of morality is decided upon by the player, there are results for one's actions, much like GTA. The Simpsons, however, don't carry weapons; There aren't any machine guns, flamethrowers, or machetes to arm oneself with here. There is no mature violence here. Instead, players control five characters (Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Apu), each of which can drive a car (yes, they're cheating a bit on that front) in a progressive story, and they control much like platform characters. The worst physical assault that can be displayed for any one of the playable characters is to kick another. The lack of mature violence, replaced with comic violence, is the biggest difference, and there is nothing noticeably different that the characters do in Hit & Run that they don't do in the TV series. So parents, if you let your kids watch The Simpsons,, there is no reason yo