Great Game but Left Room for Improvement
User Rating: 9.1 | The Simpsons: Hit & Run GC
What can I say, I recently played this game from start to finish making sure it was 100% complete. For those who don't know, this game is a cross between a driving game like Grand Theft Auto and Super Mario 64. At times you will be required to race and at other times you will need to get out of your car to explore a 3D environment hunting for collector cards, gags and wasps. Actually, I liked some of the driving, but mostly liked exploring the 3D environment in hunt of the required items mentioned above. The graphics were very nice and the levels were surprisingly big. So big in fact, I was worried they'd be reused throughout the game; and they were. In total, there are 3 large levels and one gets a make over but is reduced in size later. Visually, everything was crisp and well designed. When driving around, you actually feel as though you are in a town. The background is filled in nicely with quality buildings and imagery. The sound is nice and it appears the original cast did the voice acting. You can even talk to some of the characters in the cartoons (when you find them) to hear random responses. A lot of the dialog is funny and even got a chuckle out of me. My biggest complaint about this game is the races. A few of the races seemed to require luck to win. For instance, in level 6, you have to race laps around the town square. Your opponent gets a noticeable head start and generally drives a perfect race. He also seems to be faster than you when you are ahead and if he rams you, it is all over (actually, that seems to be the case in most all of the races on the back half of the game). If you get lucky and get a good start, you can catch him by racing tight corners, but then he seems to go into ram mode. So, how do you beat him. I simply raced the same race over and over again waiting for him to make a mistake which occasionally he does. If it happens, it is generally in 1 of 2 places. You must race a perfect race at that point and you can be him. So what is the problem? I don't like games that require a bit of luck to beat. That and a few of the races it seems like the computer goes out of its way to ram you and ramming is a one way street. It does not seem very often that you will come out ahead by ramming the computer. All in all, even though I found some of the races both frustrating and annoying, after I beat the game, I would have gladly welcomed more levels. If they make another game with the same quality I will definitely buy it. 
