America's favorite family settle in for this week's Game On (The Simpsons)...
Officially the longest running American sitcom of all time, spanning 495 episodes over 22 years, The Simpsons has become the most significant pop culture phenomenon of our time. In this week's Game On I take a gander at 2003's GTA-inspired The Simpsons: Hit & Run, a free-roam adventure released for PS2, Xbox, PC and Gamecube. Can Springfield's favorite family retain their charm in this ambitious tie-in?
Comics. Monopoly. Posters. Backpacks. Videogames. Aged 10, when Springfield's finest were still playing advert-free on BBC2, these were amongst the items of Simpsons merchandise you'd have found littered around my bedroom - now relegated to the dusty recesses of our attic. I fondly remember watching the show with my Grandad after school on Fridays, and looking back it's clear that The Simpsons have been playing in the background of every significant moment in my life. I'm not alone. Ask anyone for their favorite episode and you'll be bombarded by an entire checklist of classics - Bart Gets An 'F', King-Size Homer, Lisa The Vegetarian, Principal And The Pauper, The Last Temptation Of Homer, etc. etc. Honestly, Matt Groening's iconic family can account for at least half of TV's greatest belly laughs, but also for some of its most poignant moments (Homer sitting on the hood of his car during the end credits of Mother Simpson almost moves me to tears). The show's recurring characters - from Ned Flanders to Sideshow Bob - have all had an episode dedicated to them at some point, meaning that The Simpsons universe is also as real a community as you're ever likely to visit. My first experience with their videogame adaptations came in an arcade, with Konami's legendary 1991 side-scroller. Later titles on home systems were less successful, playing it safe within the realm of genre - Simpsons Wrestling on the PS1 and Road Rage on PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. With Hit & Run, however, Radical Entertainment cracked a winning formula, never to be beaten...
The cover art for The Simpsons: Hit & Run...
Hijacking cars, demolishing property and drop-kicking pedestrians ("It's a bad day for generic characters everywhere") aren't everyday occurrences in the Springfield we all know and love, but Radical Entertainment pulled off a successful gamble when they chose to style their sandbox adventure around the format of Rockstar's controversial GTA series. Actually, despite the simplistic and repetitive mission design, it's arguably a more innovative title than the much-revered GTA III, which Hit & Run often parodies in its self-reflexive script ("I hope kids at home don't imitate my hitchhiking"), authored by show regulars Matt Selman, Tim Long and Matt Warburton. An advanced HUD system, fluid car handling, responsive AI and a wide-ranging (and easily accessible) selection of costumes/vehicles are all elements which contributed to making Hit & Run a cleaner, more defined game than GTA III, which for my money is the most overrated entry in that series. Re-playing Hit & Run this week I was thrilled to discover a title every bit as enjoyable as I'd remembered - a tongue-in-cheek open-world adventure to rank with the best of them.
What's immediately gratifying about Hit & Run - outside of its daffy plot and bold colour scheme - is how much freedom it allows the player. Spread across three distinct environments, there are a total of seven levels in the game, each holding seven (routine) missions and a number of sub-quests (races, collectible cards, etc). As Homer you'll first find yourself in the famous Simpsons' suburb - replete with that polished pink sedan on the driveway - before moving onto the town centre with Bart and the harbour with Lisa. Missions are manually activated and signposted on the intuitive HUD system (still one of the best I've ever seen), so from the very first minute of gameplay you're free to explore all that the game has to offer. The driving controls are immediately impressive - each car has a corresponding stats screen, detailing in a star rating system the speed, weight and handling of each vehicle, which is especially handy when selecting one for mission-specific tasks (ramming, collecting, etc). From here the choice is yours. Want to stop off at the Kwik-E-Mart? Why not? Apu's famous convenience store hosts a number of great gags (Frostillicus) and an icon for buying clothes (Homer's muumuu outfit is a particular treat). The power plant and elementary school are also on offer for brief visits, and each hold secrets that will help toward gaining a 100% achievement rating for each level. Attaining such a rating will take around 90 minutes in each level, but each have high replay value and co-op options add to the fun.
As players progress through the game its missions provide a greater challenge, and despite sticking closely to the same chase/race/collect formula, the learning curve will extend right up to the madcap, doomsday-themed ending. Eventually you'll build a pattern for each level - knock out a few wasp cameras, hunt for coin crates, buy mission-specific vehicles from Gil and then rocket around the streets looking for gags and races. Due to the dense level design, zippy car control and jazzy score (provided by Crash Bandicoot composer Marc Baril) this never becomes a chore, and the game should land a laugh every couple of minutes (even discovering a Mr. Sparkle collectible card made me smile). Of course, story missions are the priority of gameplay, and they're fun too, but the appeal really does lie in driving around and experiencing all that this rich sandbox world has to offer - Frink's laboratory, Comic Book Guy's store, and the moment where Mr. Burns calls Amelia Earhart a "hussy", insinuating that he had her shot down (eek!). Despite a few technical glitches the world is practically spotless, and exploring it should provide hours of entertainment for fans of the show. And if you don't like it? Well, that's a paddlin'...
Next week Game On jets off to the future for the PS1 tie-in to Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1997)...
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