Simpsons Hit And Run Vs Road Rage

The Simpsons: Hit & Run was a super fun Simpsons game from 2003, where the town of Springfield has become addicted to the drink 'Buzz Cola' which leads to insanity. Playing as the Simpsons family and Apu, you must uncover the secrets behind this new craze sweeping the town. The game is no longer being sold or developed.

The Simpsons s the funniest thing on TV. Fact.Matt Groening's legendary cartoon series is rich with immense characterisations, from Krusty the Clown and his love of porn to the incomparable comedy genius of Homer Simpson and his mortal fear of sock puppets. But, however amazing the series is on your goggle-box, the recent wholesale ripping-off of game ideas for The Simpsons: Road Rage (Crazy Taxi) and The Simpsons: Skateboarding (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater1) on console has left a taste in the mouth as bitter as one of Apu's famous chutney squishees.

Cel-Shady

So, how is The Simpsons: Hit & Run? Well, to say it borrows from Grand Theft Auto would be an understatement on a par with mentioning that Barney Gumble likes the odd tipple, but Hit & Run is actually a bundle of fun and could actually be The Simpsons' best videogame outing yet. For starters you have a gorgeous, cel-shaded 3D Springfield to explore on foot or by vehicle, complete with famous landmarks such as the Bowl-a-Rama, Mr Burns' nuclear power plant and the Simpsons' family home. You can even enter some of the buildings, so a visit to Moe's Tavern will allow you to have a play on the Love Tester machine, catch Bumblebee Man on his break and see the poster adverts for The 7 Duffs that include Sleazy, Queasy and Remorseful.

Sounds Familiar

Then there's the fantastic voiceacting from Dan Castellaneta and all the regular cast from The Simpsons, with some genuinely laugh-out-loud dialogue created by the series' writers, including Homer's aside about stupid Flanders getting happiness from religion and Principal Skinner's warning to Bart that he'll get him just like I got Charlie in 'Nam'. Download driver benq joybook r43e.

Certain phrases start to grind after a while (Bart's don't have a cow, man' springs to mind), but there's enough variety to keep you playing in search of more sick jokes and brutal one-liners.

Hit & Run's gameplay is generally based around simple story-driven missions for the main characters of Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge and Apu, involving timed tasks, ranging from collecting copies of the violent videogame Bonestorm II by crashing the Simpson family car into the delivery van, to rounding up escaped simians from Dr Nick's Screaming Monkey Medical Research ntre. Navigating around Springfield is simple enough with ap in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, but just to make sure, developer Radical has placed giant green arrows on the road pointing you in the right direction.

In addition to the main sections, there are a heap of bonus missions you can complete, which include street racing, destroying flying waspcams (part of the ridiculous plot), pulling off successful visual gags and finding special Collector Cards (see 'Worst. Episode. Ever' box). However, you also have the Hit & Run random element from the game's title, which involves a hectic car chase around Springfield if you commit a crime within donut-eating distance of Police Chief Wiggum - get caught, and you're busted and slapped with a heavy fine.

Each of the playable characters has access to over 40 vehicles from the show, including Homer's Mr Plow snow vehicle and Cletus the slack-jawed yokel's pick-up truck. But you can also stop and get in any car you like, such as Comic Book Guy's Fat-mobile, although in a distinctly crime-free twist, you sit in the passenger seat next to the character.

Ay Carumba!

Some PC gamers will hate the idea of The Simpsons: Hit & Run - basically, that it unashamedly uses the GTA model and jemmies The Simpsons licence into it. Yet, despite that, Hit & Run actually turns out to have a great deal of charm - even though it'll probably only entertain you for a day or two at most. The car handling is somewhat sluggish compared with other driving titles and the camera often wanders off into uncharted territory when you go on foot -especially in the uninspiring platform sections.

While The Simpsons: Hit & Run may not win any gaming innovation awards, for fans of the series the opportunity to take a virtual tour around a fully-realised Springfield will be harder to resist than a gigantic fresh donut with chocolate sprinkles and icing. Mmmm.. plagiaricious.

This page details one or more prototype versions of The Simpsons: Hit & Run.

A late PS2 prototype of the Simpsons Hit and Run was leaked on Jan 23, 2019. Almost all of the game's content is finalized, with most of the differences being relatively minor. This version contains an odd bug if emulated where the characters appear upside down when driving vehicles.

• 2Level 1
• 3Level 2
• 4Level 3
• 5Level 6
• 6Level 7
• 8Audio differences
• 9Oddities

Map file

In the root of the game disc is SRR2.MAP, a file that maps out all of the game's backend functions. According to this file, this specific prototype of the game was a nightly build.

Level 1

Level 1 cutscene

• The level 1 cutscene still uses the earlier models. The animation is also more slapstick and comical than the final's.

S-M-R-T

• Lisa's science project is placed in front of the Family Sedan, meaning you can simply drive into it to pick it up.

Petty Theft Homer

• Barney's cooler pickup is placed further away from him in the prototype.

Flowers by Irene

• The cutscene's audio mastering is unfinished and very inconsistent. This is especially noticeable with Homer's line 'Marge, that black van is spying on us' being 9 dB louder than the rest and clearly clipping.

The Fat And The Furious

• Due to a programming mistake, Homer's initial line when talking to Mr Burns is overridden by him saying 'There he is!' (a line that goes unused in the final game) This line is likely supposed to play in the stage beforehand, when you first see Mr Burns, however one of the programmers made a mistake and put it in the wrong stage. In the final game this was never fixed, but due to some other changes to game's code, it is instead overridden by the correct line.

Stonecutters' Tunnel

• A music track (stone_cutter_spoof) unused in the final game plays around the area of the Stonecutters' Hall. It is unknown why this was changed.

Power Plant

• Unlike the final game, the power plant has a reverb effect when you are inside. Interestingly, the reverb also affects the menu sounds in the phonebooth, and this could be part of the reason it was removed.

Level 2

Better than Beef

• The location of the satellite is moved further away from the player.

Level 3

General

• The texture used on the platform near the red ramp that leads to the C-Spanker shortcut is different.

Level 6

Going To The Lu'

The circle HUD icon was changed from a kid to a bus in the final game. Interestingly, the image was the only part of the file that was replaced, and as such the bus is still named 'kids.p3d', is still located in the Objects folder (instead of the Vehicles folder) and uses a blue-purple background colour, unlike the yellow colour of any other vehicle icons.

Set To Kill

A timer was added in the final version of the mission. This was likely done to increase the difficulty of a late-game mission, as without it the mission is very easy. Maybe they overdid it a bit..

Level 7

Rigor Motors

The final objective to enter the Simpsons' house is still present. This was commented out in the final.

Text differences

Some of the text is a tad different.

Any mention of the PS2 memory card was made less verbose.

Text was made more specific.

The text that appears upon collecting all the collector cards in the game is different.

Audio differences

banjo_main

The audio mastering on this track is slightly different.

Oddities

minigamecam

A misplaced version of minigamecam.p3d is loose inside the main art folder. This model seems to use an earlier format that provides export data. With it, the following details can be found:

• Models were made in Maya.
• The game's project folder was referenced as 'Simpsons 2', the first game is likely The Simpsons:Road Rage which was Radical's previous entry.

Vehicle scripts

Logic pro x windows getintopc. TT.con is missing from the prototype, despite the model assets being present.

Misc

• Handling is still called 'stability' in the Phone Booth UI as seen in some earlier screenshots.

• The sun flare effect is incomplete and can still be seen through walls.
• You do not perform a victory dance animation upon finishing a bonus race.
• Wasp AI is more aggressive to dodging attacks than in the final game.
• If your memory card is unformatted, the prototype has the option to format it for you, while the final game just displays an error.
• There are a number of differences in the startup screen videos:
  • The Fox Interactive music is different.
  • The Gracie Films video appears to be taken directly from the TV series, while in the final game it has a higher quality.
  • The Radical Entertainment video uses the same sound effects as The Simpsons: Road Rage, with the added recording of Snake's voice which is present in the final game.
• The bonus cutscene, 500 Yard Gash, has some extended sequences and certain parts were reanimated.

• Level 7 actually contains some road nodes for the area past the blocked bridge, although they are extremely limited.
• The Phone Booth Menu accessible with the Unlock All Vehicles cheat code contains entries for a set of vehicles listed as 'N/A XX' (the X's being replaced with numbers), as well another vehicle listed as 'Charred Husk'. Selecting the former will have no effect, and selecting the latter will spawn the wreck vehicle that can be driven after certain vehicles are destroyed. Driving this vehicle over a Wrench pickup does not do anything.
• If a player exits their vehicle during a stage where a 10 second time limit to re-enter the vehicle is given, and then triggers the next objective on foot, said timer disappears and the player can be out of the vehicle from then on. In the final game, the timer continues regardless of the fact the player triggers the next objective or not.