TIME Top 10 Video Games 2003: Simpsons Hit & Run

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From the moment the clouds part and a heavenly choir chants the name of America's most famous cartoon family, you know this game is working hard to live up to its Homeric heritage—something two previous Simpsons-brand games failed to do.

But this is no retread: Hit & Run (all consoles, $46) is the first Simpsons title to boast a plot and dialogue from the show's writers and the vocal talents of its stars. The game is also a deft satire on Grand Theft Auto III, that controversial masterpiece of motorized mayhem.

The result is madcap entertainment that has you driving maniacally around Springfield on nonsensical quests, guffawing all the way. Where else do you get to help Marge wipe out violent video games by crashing into a delivery van full of them? Or watch her husband navigate a pink sedan in his underwear while chanting "I am evil Homer" as pedestrians scatter? Every corner of the game is so gag crammed ("Don't eat beef," implores a roadside billboard displaying a doctor and a plate of meat. "Eat deer!") that you'll laugh from beginning to end. Not unlike the television show.


	NEXT: Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

BY CHRIS TAYLOR

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