{"id":1527,"date":"2012-10-29T11:19:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T11:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2012-10-29T11:19:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T11:19:36","slug":"my-top-100-59-the-simpsons-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1527","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #59 &#8211; The Simpsons: Hit and Run"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1530\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/simpsons.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1530\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1530\" title=\"simpsons\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/simpsons.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"908\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/simpsons.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/simpsons-211x300.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1530\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2003 &#8211; Vivendi Universal (PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When looking at video games based on <em>The Simpsons<\/em>, one can&#8217;t help but look at the ones that started\u00a0it all; <em>Bart vs. the Space Mutants <\/em>and<em> Bart vs. the World<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I loved renting those games, but I think I only ever beat the first level of both games once.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t know if it was the colourful graphics, the music, or what&#8230;\u00a0 but from time to time, I had hankerin&#8217; for some <em>Simpsons<\/em> gaming.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure why I was willing to put myself through such punishment, but I digress.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back on both of them now,\u00a0I realize that they were just\u00a0poorly designed games.\u00a0 I never played <em>Bartman\u00a0Meets Radioactive Man <\/em>on the NES, maybe because I was a little bit older when it came out, and\u00a0less willing to put myself through that kind of\u00a0torture again.\u00a0 Many <em>Simpsons<\/em> games came and went on various platforms, with <em>Bart&#8217;s Nightmare <\/em>on Super NES actually being the closest they came to a genuinely good game.\u00a0 I rented it a few times, enjoyed a few of the levels quite a bit, but quickly realized that the bad parts of the game outweighed the good ones.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Simpsons Wrestling <\/em>was a critical bomb that I thought for sure would temporarily halt the production of games based on the cartoon juggernaut, but\u00a0I was wrong; <em>Road Rage <\/em>came out at around the same time the Xbox and GameCube were released, and its <em>Crazy Taxi-<\/em>inspired gameplay won over a bunch of gamers and critics alike.<\/p>\n<p>Imitation is indeed the most sincere form of flattery!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T3nP9z0YjKg\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>GTAIII <\/em>and <em>Vice City <\/em>were massive hits, so it was just a matter of time before everyone got in on the free-roaming, open world\u00a0bandwagon.\u00a0 <em>Hit and Run <\/em>did just that, and brought a fully explorable (and secret-filled)\u00a0Springfield to the masses.<\/p>\n<p>The plot involves the Simpson family (and Apu) investigating a series of strange events caused by a\u00a0doctored version of Buzz Cola being introduced to the story&#8217;s water supply. \u00a0Get in a car, travel, get out, do some exploring for bonus items, do missions at your own pace, or just take a minute to\u00a0see the sights\u00a0in a fully realized 3D version of Springfield.\u00a0 As the game progresses,\u00a0various\u00a0landmarks from the show will make appearances;\u00a0from the obvious locales like the giant pile of burning tires and Springfield Elementary, to the more obscure references like the staircase to nowhere and the world&#8217;s largest toilet (from the episode with Abe&#8217;s exploded kidneys), there are tons of easter eggs for the longtime fan to discover.<\/p>\n<p>I enjoyed the heck out of this, enough to crack my top 60.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1531\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/jasper.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1531\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1531\" title=\"jasper\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/jasper.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/jasper.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/jasper-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1531\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jasper makes an appearance both in AND out of the Quik E-Mart freezer. Classic!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; When looking at video games based on The Simpsons, one can&#8217;t help but look at the ones that started\u00a0it all; Bart vs. the Space Mutants and Bart vs. the World. I loved renting those games, but I&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1527\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,32,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-simpsons","category-top-100","category-xbox"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1527"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}