A dedicated fan is creating a remaster mod for The Simpsons: Hit & Run – while also hand-drawing every cutscene for the game in the classic Simpsons style.
El Gato Del Tejado on YouTube uploaded a video showing their progress so far, which includes the complications that occur when remastering a near-two decade old game by yourself. One of these issues occurred as El Gato Del Tejado began work on Hit & Run’s cutscenes, which are depicted in 3D in the original 2003 version.
“I would love to see the cutscenes of Hit & Run with current 3D technology like [the] Crash Bandicoot remake or Battle for Bikini Bottom,” they said in the video. “I don’t have much experience in 3D animation, so better to choose 2D.”
El Gato Del Tejado explained that they tried using rotoscoping – where animators trace over footage frame by frame – but this only really worked for the backgrounds and not for the actual characters. The only alternative was to draw these by hand, and several pages of research of Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s work was shown before the final result. Instead of being in 3D like the original game, the remaster mod will therefore have a cutscene style more akin to the Simpsons cartoon.
However, outside of cutscenes, El Gato Del Tejado is updating the original 3D look of the game. A previous video showed the modder’s work recreating dozens of textures, and updating the Homer Simpson model to offer a more modern look at the character. It’s clearly not going to be a quick process, with El Gato Del Tejado readily admitting the issues they’ve run into (including how Bart’s nose disappeared in the new style and how Lisa turned into a monster), but the work so far is pretty astonishing.
El Gato Del Tejado hasn’t offered a timescale for how long the work might take, but has opened a Patreon to help fund the project.
It’s not the first remake of The Simpsons: Hit & Run, however, as several other modders have tried to recreate the beloved open world game.
One modder started recreating the game in Unreal Engine 5, impressing the original lead designer, while a Dreams player created perhaps the weirdest version yet. Finally, one completely ridiculous mash-up saw modders combine The Simpsons: Hit and Run with God of War.
Thumbnail Image Credit: El Gato Del Tejado on YouTube
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
