The Simpsons: Hit and Run review:3 stars (Not bad but not great) - This is the second Simpsons video game I bought. This one is alot more involved with the charcters and the story line than the other, but it isn't the easiet game to complete. I have been stuck on the same area for a month, to a point where I had to walk away from the game and try something else. if you love the Simpsons, you will love this game.3 stars (Simpsons GTA Style) - Simpsons Hit+Run for the Xbox is an adventure game with a lot of racing. If your kids have been begging you to buy them Grand Theft Auto, but you refused to do so becuase of the mature themes and violence, Simpsons Hit+Run is a good substitute. You can drive around Springfield, stealing cars, breaking objects, like phone booths, mailboxes, benches and lamp posts. When you steal a car, you don't actually see your character pulling someone out of their car, instead you see the screen go black then suddenly you are in it and can drive it. Everything is done in a sorta cartoony fashion and the violence is almost zero. You can actually kick people to the ground, but it looks silly and fake. When you destroy objects and kick people around it begins to fill a law meter. when the law meter is full the cops will come after you, arrest you and take away a bit of your money as punishment. So there is punishment for doing bad things, but again the violence is cartoony and fake. You'll also be able to enter most of the buildings and explore inside them trying to find gold coins, game cards and gags. Everything from the Simpsons cartoon is in the game. I really loved the graphics which were colorful and well drawn like the cartoon, but it looks even better because everything is in 3-D! There lots of secret areas, boxes with gold coins, cartoon gags and best of all they used the same voice actors from the t.v. show! So if you liked the show you will enjoy the humor in the game. Each level has you controlling different characters. The first level has you controlling "Homer", level two is "Bart", level three is "Lisa" and there's more. You can walk around and explore on your own or you can talk to any of the characters scattered around town who'll give you a mission to play. Most of the missions involve racing from one check point to the next others have you finding objects or destroying things. When you complete a mission, you'll be awarded gold coins which then can be used to buy new: cars and clothing for your character. I love the fact that the game is FREE-FORM (go anywhere, do anything), the levels are fun to explore and I loved the fact that they included so much stuff from the show including the voice-acting, but too many levels are similar, there is too much racing with your car! I wished they added more mini-games and better interactions with people and more vehicles. I wanted to ride boats and fly copters, but it does not let you do that. However, I think kids will love this game and adult fans will also enjoy it.

Pros:
+FREE-FORM gameplay
+excellent graphics
+excellent level design
+excellent music
+excellent cars
+excellent voice acting
+looks like the tv show
+good sense of humor

Cons:
-too much racing in cars
-not enough mini-games
-you cannot swim
-you cannot ride boats
-you cannot fly copters or blimps
-little character interactions
-needs more in-door levels
-needs more character abilities
2 stars (Beautiful Recreation of the Simpsons but terrible game play) - The game reproduces the world of the Simpsons faithful down to the humor and the voices. Unfortunately, as a video game it's more a test of memory than a game of challenge and skill. The more times you go through the maze the quicker you get. You can drive mostly any vehicle that comes along but it's best to stick with the assorted lots offered in the menu. I wanted badly to like this game since I love the Simpsons and got this game for the kids. They stopped playing it after running into so many false level-endings. That's where I took over fresh from playing "Need for Speed: Underground". You become various characters driving around Springfield to find clues to a mystery regarding black vans and crop circles. The automatic camera controls are by far the worst. It jumps erratically from chase view to overhead view if you get stuck in a tight corner or running on foot. This greatly interferes with game play. The physic's gravity is terrible. I had my car hanging on the pier edge forever unable to decide whether to fall or not. The graphics is 3-D cartoon. At times, I find myself manually circling the camera several times to see where items are positioned and where the ledges are "really" located to jump on. The vehicle jump cam is also a big problem. It's set to "On" by default but can be turned "Off" in Options. It's no good if I can't see where you're going to land after doing a ramp jump. The task themselves are simple but after getting to a certain location or collecting such and such an items under a time limit, the player is then immediately tasked to go to another location before time runs out to start yet another part of the level. There can be 2-4 parts to these levels and failure at anytime along the way results in the player starting the level all over. There is no way for anybody other than the programmers themselves to get through all the levels the first time. The game is unforgiving making a wrong turn or get stuck by a car will mean doing the level over. There's no room for error. When tasked to go to a location, you have to rely heavily on the overlay map and green arrows on the road to know where to go while dodging pedestrians and vehicles that to me seem to have a death wish to jump into the path of your vehicle. Hitting the items gains you coins. Another problem is that some items you can crash through and some items are solid like the Rock of Gibraltar. There's no way to tell the difference without trial and error. If too many items are hit in a certain amount of time then the police comes in hot pursuit of you. If you're caught; you pay a 50 coin fine. Finally, the game cheats the player by running over your character trying to get to your vehicle, placing your vehicle way down the street or stopping the game with time still left on the clock. I'm sure that the creators licensed the game to the video game developers and may have even wrote a basic story plot but as the video game part it's totally weak. By changing the XBOX's clock to holiday dates like Christmas, Springfield will change it's appearance to match the holiday moods. This is true of Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. It's good enough just to drive around Springfield and forget the missions.
The Simpsons: Hit and Run Features:
Adventure
Racing
Flying
Video Games
Xbox (x box)
Microsoft
Action
Brave jam-packed routes and time-saving short-cuts
Compete for passengers in 2-player split-screen action
For 1 or 2 players
Features over 30 of your favorite Simpsons characters
Huge levels with over 100 Springfield landmarks

The Simpsons- Hit and Run is the Video Game version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 19.88USD.