In today’s age of remakes and remasters, seemingly no game is safe from calls to get the modernization treatment. While some games would undeniably benefit from a facelift, others hold up perfectly fine. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug after all, but at what point do we look forward instead of just looking back, and call for a sequel rather than a remake or remaster? In the case of The Simpsons Hit & Run, there have been plenty of calls for a remaster, but with 20 years having passed since the original, with both game design and The Simpsons itself having evolved immeasurably in that time, a sequel would be way more appropriate.
In order to properly develop a sequel recapturing the magic of the original Hit & Run, it's necessary to understand what continues to make that game so special. At its core, Hit & Run is one of the best GTA clones of its era. By emulating the open-world format of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, it was the first game to really give players the freedom to explore the iconic cartoon city of Springfield. And by peppering each playable borough of Springfield with recognizable locations, Radical Entertainment effectively put the player in the show.
But simply recreating the visuals of the show wouldn't have been enough to craft a convincing experience; it was in the gags and references that the world of Hit & Run was brought to life. Gags like the love tester in Moe's bar, the bomb shelter in Flanders' backyard, and the head of Jebediah Springfield toppling off the rest of the statue gave the player fun tidbits of the show to interact with. And references like the area code billboards and the Duff beer factory plainly labeling simple Duff beer as Duff, Duff Lite, and Duff Dry gave the game a sense of history as though it was another episode of the show existing in canon. All these elements combined with an original story and voice acting from the original actors are what made Hit & Run so memorable.
So you can see why fans are clamoring for a remake. The idea of a sequel is one that I see discussed significantly less. So the question remains: why remake Hit & Run rather than make a full-fledged Hit & Run 2?
The Simpson's Hit & Run was released in September 2003 between seasons 14 and 15 of the show. So while the first game had 14 seasons of content to reference and draw inspiration from, the second game would still have those original 14 seasons to populate their new Springfield plus an additional twenty more, as well as the movie.
That much additional content could easily fill a sequel with more modern references, like the infamous temporary gym teacher who shouted "Bombardment!", making the Frinkasonic MHV or the Homer drivable vehicles, and of course, seeing and interacting with Spider-Pig. Once again the sequel could pepper the game world with interactive gags like shooting out the lights to create what Chief Wiggum would call a "Lightmare on Elm Street" from season 27, episode 9, feebly covering up the sinkhole in the Simpson’s backyard as seen in The Simpson's Movie, and turning on a TV to see an episode of Itchy, Scratchy and Poochie.
The references should remain at the heart of a Hit & Run sequel, but the actual game that serves as the foundation would be radically different. A huge part of the success of Hit & Run was in how blatantly the game was a clone of its GTA contemporaries. Because the template series has evolved in the last two decades Hit & Run 2 would need to, once again, borrow from the more modern GTA games.
GTA 5 did away with gating parts of the map behind story progression, instead allowing the player to have access to the entirety of the game's expansive map from the beginning. A Hit & Run 2 could build off that success in map design by building out three fully explorable cities connected by a network of highways with a smattering of the show's local more exotic landmarks in between. By including Springfield, Shelbyville, and Capital City the developers could bring the show to life in a more fully realized way than ever before.
Missions could involve main, secondary, and tertiary characters as vital NPC’s in subplots that have you visiting numerous iconic locations from the series. You could visit Kirk Vanhouten in his sad studio apartment in Capital City, climb to the top of Mount Springfield to dethaw a long-lost member of the fighting Hellfish, or engage in a skiing mini-game on Mount Embolism, in reference to season 11, episode 10.
Over the years the cast of characters that inhabit Springfield and the surrounding area has grown into the hundreds. These characters could make for immersive side quests like foiling a classic Sideshow Bob murder plot, preventing Superintendent Chalmers from firing Principal Skinner, or cruising around town sabotaging Mayor Quimby's campaign for re-election.
The myriad characters that have appeared in the show over the years could make for dozens of memorable NPC interactions. Newer characters to the show like Jessica Lovejoy, Duffman, and Surly Duff could make cameo appearances. More central characters like Mona Simpson and Apu could make their return to the franchise in their own side quest subplots that fill us in on their whereabouts since their most recent appearances on the show or build out their backstory from before the show began.
The character-switching mechanic was the single most significant change introduced in GTA 5. This mechanic allowed for storytelling from multiple perspectives and the game's three protagonists moving through more meaningful arcs. Now, I know not everyone loves the multi-protagonist format of GTA V, but it feels tailor-made for a Hit & Run sequel. There's almost limitless comedic potential in changing characters on the fly and interrupting Homer asleep at work, Marge running errands, Lisa practicing her saxophone in the park, or Bart skipping school to go to Duff Gardens.
And of course, with the improvements in hardware that have taken place over the past 20 years, the sequel could provide not only a much more extensive Springfield experience but also a significantly more dense one. Fully rendered building interiors like the entirety of the nuclear plant, the Springfield mall, Krusty Burger, or even Bart’s tree house, could function as the backdrop for more specific level-based experiences.
The Simpsons Hit & Run is still completely playable and not held back graphically, so what exactly is the point of a remake? Sure, a Hit & Run remaster on modern consoles would be welcome, but the game’s community–which has been playing and modding (check out out the Donut Mod) the original religiously since 2003–deserves a fully-fledged sequel.