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Release Date: December 25, 2003
Developers: Radical Entertainment
Publishers: Vivendi Universal Games, Fox Interactive, Gracie Films
Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Windows
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Rating:7+

The Simpsons Hit & Run is an action-adventure video game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. It was released for the GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Windows in North America on September 16, 2003, In Europe and Australia on October 31, 2003 and in Japan on December 25, 2003. The game was developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games, Fox Interactive and Gracie Films. The story and dialogue were crafted by writers from The Simpsons, with all character voices supplied by the actual cast.

Well the game was set in springfield, which isn't really a suprise because its a simpsons game. It was a 3D free roam-er id a 3rd person view, which was great as i love 3rd person games as you cant see what outfits your person is wearing in 1st person. The game takes you through many different scenery going from springfield to Downtown. The characters were funny especially homer when he crashes he yells out different phrases like 'D'oh' or 'I'll pay back the damage in back rubs!'. Overall the setting was pretty amazing, The Simpsons game series were always really good, and that why i love their games.

Well the gameplay was rather enjoyable. The missions were almost all done under a time limit or collecting items, most of which require you to be in a car, only few were done by foot. There were only 5 playable characters which are Homer, who drived the original pink simpsons car. Bart, who drived some kind of really quick racecar. Lisa, Who drived their version of 'Barbie' convertible. Marge, who drived a 4BY4. And Apu who drived a gold sports car. All the cars really told you something about their character, like homer, who doesn't really care about much so he drives a bright pink car. Bart, who's the shows rebel and likes danger, so he drives a very fast race car. Lisa, who drived some kind of 'Barbie' car which suited her little girl personality. I dont really know why marge drives a 4BY4, but its blue like her hair anyway. One aspect of the game that made it like GTA was the fact that when you did enough crimes you HIT&RUN meter would fill up, once it filled all the way up the police would chase you until the meter would run out which was annoying when i did it by accident, but pretty fun going full speed doing jumps and stuff trying to outrun the cops. Also in the game their would be a bunch of coins in each level, these coins would be used to buy new cars, outfits( Which were pretty cool as you could buy a Ninja outfit for bart) and were needed to progress through the game. This kept the game more open, and make you explore all of the map in the hope for some more coins. These coins can be lossed by either getting injured or getting caught by the cops. I only came across 1 glitch on this game but it was a pretty funny one, because you can kick people on the game, sometimes when you would kick someone instead of them falling over, they would just launch into the air, which had me in fits for ages. The one problem i came across was the final mission, which was probably the hardest mission i have ever done, at first i thought it was just me, then it came up in a convo between my mates and they couldn't complete the game either, that was probably the only downfall to this game. Overall the gameplay was pretty unique, funny and great for all ages!

The games graphics were pretty good, although there were a few bugs when playing that i would get my car stuck in mid-air and it would just be trapped there, twice as bad when its a rare car. the visuals were pretty good though, they basically had the same graphics as GTA 3, so they were pretty enjoyable graphics, although now they may not be as 'fresh' but there were certainly more that good back in 2003/4.

The controls were the basic Driving/Fighting/Action controls. These controls were pretty easy, as the game's age rating was 7+. The controls basically suited GTA, which is what the simpsons were trying to get at, making a classic simpsons game with a twist with GTA and it worked off. The buttons weren't hard to get the hang of, just the basic A to jump X to kick ect.. Overall the controls were really easy and well suited to the game.

The game was released by Vivendi Universal for the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Windows in the United States on September 16, 2003 and in Europe on October 24, 2003. Several reviews considered Hit & Run to be the best Simpsons game to date, and it was given generally favorable reviews, receiving an aggregated score of 81% from Metacritic for its Xbox version. Praise focused on the move from the Simpsons television series to the video game format, while criticism targeted the game's gameplay and graphics. Hit & Run won the award for Fave Video Game at the 2004 Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards. Over one million copies of the game were sold as of June 2004, and three million as of June 2007.

Overall The Simpson Hit&Run was a pretty humorous version of GTA 3 which was also a very good purchase of mine, the gameplay was fantastic, i loved the way no glitches ruined the game, but the only glitch that was on there was funny as anything. The cars,outfits,locations we all good, the missions were pretty easy but the last missions was super hard! Overall the game was a great hit.