This ‘Simpsons Hit & Run’ Fan Remade The Game In A Week Using Unreal Engine

Although it has some issues, The Simpsons Hit & Run has gone down as something of a classic since its release almost 20 years ago. The game took the GTA template and added America’s most dysfunctional family, creating a fun romp which found a solid audience on PS2, Xbox and GameCube, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.

Despite the obvious desire for a remake or sequel – and interest from co-showrunner Matt Selman – it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a new instalment any time soon (Selman says that “it’s a complicated corporate octopus to try to make that happen”, apparently). That’s why modder Reubs decided to take matters into his own hands and recreate the game using Unreal Engine 5 – with impressive results.

Using a tool created by another developer, Lucas Cardellini, Reubs exported the map of Springfield from the original game into Unreal Engine, then used a combination of AI and manual effort to add textures. He even went as far as to enable ray-tracing, and ripped audio from the original so the characters could speak. Then he got down to programming in all of the gameplay elements – such as collectable items – finally pulling together the opening segment of the original game in a playable demo.