Simspons Hit & Run

Grand Theft Auto Springfield (as it should be called) is a delight.  I have been playing it on the PS2 for much of the last week and have been having fun the whole time.

The game is supprisingly challanging which is a bit of a relief and suggests that the creators wanted this to be a genuine game, not just a cash in.

There are many other ways in which it is clear that effort and love has gone into the project.  The voices are acted by the real performers from the show and the phrases and speeches they are given to say are absolutley in keeping with their characters.  Most of the off the cuff phrases are straight from episodes of the show.

The parts of the game I've played so far (which are the first two levels and feature Homer and Bart), have involved mostly driving challanges.  In Homer's, the plot was not entirely convincing.  He was trying to uncover a plan by Mr Burns and usually I would have though him far too lazy to do this and would have expected Bart and Lisa to do it.  Still Lisa's section is starting next so perhaps she will take it up where he left off.

The plot of Bart's section was a bit random and, on reflection, I think plot might be the area that lets the game down but for gameplay fun it is unmissable.  You can buy lots of different cars to own yourself and pretty easily swap between them or just climb into any vehicle on the street.  The visuals might look bright and blocky but the cars have their own characteristics and the the game has plenty of subtelties behind it's cartoonish exterior.

When I played Resident Evil Code Veronica X (see previous entry), I wondered if the PS2 had perhaps not been a huge leap forward from the PS1 but in the three years RECVX and Simpsons Hit and Run it seems that leaps forward were made in the way games played.  In this game the camera follows the character as they bound dynamically around the game world, swinging into line behind them when they change direction, and the right stick can be used to look around though 360 degrees.  In other words, the controls are like the controls of a modern 3rd person game.

There are boonus missions and races you can take part in and items to collect and loads to do and everyone should visit the game version of Springfield.