The Simpsons: Hit and Run features a great storyline plucked straight from the heads of the series' writers and made both 3D and interactive. For some unknown reason, surveillance vans and cameras have started appearing all over Springfield, USA. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out who it is that is trying to spy on the lovable Springfieldians.
Along the way, you will be able to unlock almost 50 different vehicles (including the soap box winner 'The Honor Roller', and the classic Plow King), by either earning them in missions or races or by buying them from Gil (the perpetually down on his luck salesman). Along with these vehicles, you can also stop any car you see and get in it.
There are a total of 7 levels where you get to play as Homer, Bart, Lisa and Marge, as well as that great Kwik-E-Mart manager Apu Nahasapeem... Nahasap... Nahasapeemapetilon (whew, try typing that three times fast). In order to complete the missions, you will need to destroy other cars, race against others, collect items and much more. The missions require you to effectively drive your vehicle without destroying it (and even if you do - sometimes it is still possible to drive it) as well as run around on foot.
In each level, there are several side missions you can try your hand at if you aren't the type of person who is content with just beating the game. There are several Collector Cards in each level that will allow you to reminisce over fond episodes from the series, as well as gags that will make you laugh when you activate them.
You can also buy different costumes for each character. I loved having Homer romp around in his blue and pink flower print muumuu or Bart in his Masked Ballerina suit, not to mention Lisa in her State of Florida Costume.
There is even an unlockable multiplayer aspect to Hit and Run, though I found it to be the least appealing aspect of the game. If you gather all of the Collector Cards for a level, then a Bonus Game is opened. These games consist of races where you choose one of the five playable characters and race around a small track. The problem I had with this feature was that it just didn't seem to fit. The bird's eye view of the track makes the racers and the track itself seem really small and it seemed out of place from the immersive 3D worlds that make up the rest of the game. I can see something more in the line of a demolition derby with you against (up to) three of your friends tearing up Springfield in everything from Mr. Plow to Otto's School Bus.
But overall, I must commend Radical Entertainment for their fine eye for detail and obvious desire to make sure the Simpsons' world stays true to what we have seen in the series. You all get a resounding Good Jorb!
