The Simpsons Hit And Run Wiki
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Hit & Run system
"Okay, well this is the worst city in America - our police will only ignore minor crimes like petty larceny & counterfeiting. Do too much damage - and they're on you, man."
Bart Simpson

The Hit & Run system is one of the main aspects and the namesake of The Simpsons: Hit & Run. In game, the player is allowed to cause damage, violence, and destruction, but if their crime rate accumulates too much, the game dispatches the police to neutralize the player.

Understanding Hit & Run[]

Hit and Run Alert

How the Hit & Run meter fills up.

The Hit & Run system is indicated by its own dedicated meter in the bottom-right of the player's UI, represented as a thick ring bordering the radar. The meter initially starts off blank, gradually filling up with a yellow bar clockwise for each crime committed, including:

  • Running over, kicking, or ground slamming pedestrians.
  • Destroying objects on wheels or on foot.
  • Colliding into or pushing against other vehicles while driving.
  • Destroying vehicles, either through on-foot attacks or vehicle collisions (like with objects, only vehicles that produce coins upon destruction will add to the meter).

Each crime increases the meter by 5%, with the exception of vehicle destruction, which increases the meter by 33%. When the meter reaches 80% (represented as the third quarter on the meter), the yellow bar will flash red & black & an alarm sound will play, warning the player to avoid committing any more crimes. If the player doesn't commit any crimes after a short period, the meter will gradually retract counterclockwise until empty.

When the meter is completely filled, the police are summoned to arrest the player; in Levels 1, 2 and 3, only one police car is dispatched, while in levels 4, 5, 6 and 7, two police cars (Hearses in Level 7) are dispatched. At this point, the lights at the top of the meter will flash red and blue, as will the meter itself. The police will endlessly assail the player while a Hit & Run is in effect, with police cars being rapidly spawned on roads as they are either outrun or destroyed. A Hit & Run can only be ended if the player is arrested, can elude the police long enough for the meter to expire, or the police vehicles are destroyed.

The player can be arrested via two ways:

  • If in a vehicle, spending ~1 second in neutral while in close proximity to a police car.
  • While on foot, getting run over by a police car or otherwise being in close proximity to one for ~1 second.

Upon arrest, a police ticket with the word "BUSTED!" appears on the screen & the player is fined 50 coins. If the player has 50 coins or less, they will lose all of their coins, but their total will not descend into negative values. The screen will then automatically black-out and reset with the police cars disappearing from the scene as all returns to normal.

While a Hit & Run is in effect, the meter will deplete more rapidly than normal and will continue doing so even as the player commits crimes. If the player eludes arrest long enough for the meter to fully deplete, additional police cars will no longer be summoned, and the Hit & Run will fully conclude once every remaining police car has been evaded or destroyed. Any crimes committed after the meter has been fully depleted will be forgiven, with the meter temporarily turning a solid black before resetting to normal after a Hit & Run has been concluded.

Music[]

The song that plays during a Hit & Run is inspired by 70's cop chase movies.

If the player resists arrest by escaping the wave of police vehicles, uses cheats, or if the police cars are destroyed, this music will gradually fade out.

A musical cue will play, should the player get arrested.

Tips and Tricks[]

  • A main thing to remember is that if the player manages to escape a wave of police vehicles, there will be another wave until the Hit & Run meter is depleted to a reasonable level. That being said, the player can escape being arrested through several methods.
    • The obvious way is to keep driving away from the cops until the meter goes down. This does not work 100% of the time however, as in some instances the police will only stop chasing the player when their vehicles are destroyed.
    • Another way to avoid arrest is by going to areas inaccessible to police cars, be it hiding inside accessible interiors (the Springfield Power Plant in Levels 1 and 4 will not protect the player from being struck by a police car), accessing the roofs of buildings, entering fenced areas (where, if in a car chase, the police will continue to bash their cars against the fences until they explode upon impact, but areas with wooden fences may offer little or no protection for the player, for the cars can penetrate into those areas and arrest the player) or switching to a new car. All of these methods will render the player immune to arrest, though entering building interiors is the most efficient option, as the Hit & Run meter will deplete faster while in an interior.
      • Though in the case of fences and other physical boundaries, one must be careful to place their vehicle of choice in a safe area as the police cars will likely severely damage it if it's in their attack path towards the player.
    • In a last-ditch effort, the player, like mentioned before, can escape arrest by blowing up the police vehicles. The catch is that spending 1~ second of time neutral close to a cop will result in an arrest, so destroying the vehicle must be quick and the player must have a clean getaway.

Trivia[]

Simpsons HnR Radar

The early radar

  • In Levels 1-6, the police use standard cop cars, while in Level 7, they drive Hearses instead.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the police do not drive police cars like the one the player can buy. Instead, they drive an unusable car named the cPolice, which are less detailed and are driven by an unknown police officer, who resembles Lou in appearance.
    • Even if the car invincibility cheat is turned on, the cPolice cars are the only cars able to directly damage the player's vehicle.
  • Originally, in Level 6, the police would have pursued the player in Chase Sedans instead.
  • In many screenshots of the game during development, there was no hit and run meter as it was just a radar. The radar had a more police approach, however. The radar was green and also had a green line that would circle around it.
    • However, a much earlier radar was present in two early screenshots of Level 7. There was no police approach at all, and it was just a simple blue circle with road and icons.
  • In nearly all missions Chief Wiggum appears as an AI to evade (excluding Weapons of Mass Delinquency), the "BUSTED" arrested effect from a Hit & Run will occur if the player gets run over by him, though no actual coins are lost to pay the fine and no reset-black-out will occur. This is because he is driving the cPolice rather than the police vehicle available to the player. If the player gets hit by the vehicle used in Hit & Runs in that level, the busted prompt will appear. The same happens if the player gets ran over by the Hearse during the Level 7 races.
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