An ambitious The Simpsons: Hit and Run fan remake is now complete, but its creator says it will never be released.
Creator Reuben “Reubs” Ward remade Radical Entertainment’s much-loved 2003 action-adventure from scratch, figuring out how the original Grand Theft Auto 3-inspired game was coded and remaking every little detail and feature in Unreal Engine 5.
In a new video published to YouTube, Reubs declared the project complete. This latest version began life a year ago after Reubs pulled an earlier version offline to avoid potential legal issues with Disney. That earlier version drew praise from Hit & Run lead designer Joe McGinn, who said at the time: “Amazing what you accomplished! Really gives a taste of what a full modern remaster could be. Impressive work!”
Eye-catching changes include remaking the Simpsons’ family car to fit better with the game’s art style, an obvious graphical bump, in-game cutscenes, and an explorable open-world.
It’s a project fans would love to see released, but Reubs has said that will never happen. In a disclaimer included in a video from 2022, Reubs said: “This is a fan remake for entertainment purposes, this game will never be available to download. Please do not pester my poor Discord mods for a download link!”
Calls for an official Simpsons: Hit and Run remake have cropped up from time to time in the 20 years since the original’s release, but it seems an unlikely project. In 2021 we spoke to Simpsons writer Matt Selman who explained why we might not see a remake anytime soon. Selman said that while he “would love to see a remastered version of [Simpsons Hit & Run]“, it would be “a complicated corporate octopus to try to make that happen”.
Developer Radical Entertainment, now owned by Activision, is busy offering other Activision studios support. Perhaps if Microsoft ends up buying Activision Blizzard Xbox boss Phil Spencer will sort the no-doubt nightmarish licensing issues out to get things moving.
What’s next for Reubs? On Twitter, he teased Mindscape’s 1997 Lego-themed open world action-adventure game, Lego Island, is his next target.
Next remake #whoops pic.twitter.com/YFkLgbZdzj
— reubs (@ward_reuben) July 20, 2023
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.