Youtuber and developer Reubs has hastily taken down his playable demo of The Simpsons Hit & Run in Unreal Engine 5 after undisclosed copyright concerns. Last week, the popular Youtuber recreated the first level of Radical Entertainment's cult-classic 2003 game with 4K graphics and ray tracing capabilities and released a playable demo via his Patreon. Though it took only one week to create, it only took a few days for the project to be completely dislodged.
The Simpsons Hit & Run was developed almost two decades ago by former Prototype studio Radical Entertainment and released on sixth generation video game consoles. Coming out in an era where Grand Theft Auto was widely cloned, it borrowed elements from the influential video game series and put the show's characters in an open-world sandbox version of Springfield where they could explore locations from the show on foot or in a vehicle and complete missions to progress.
In a lengthy video posted on his channel, Reubs demonstrates and walks viewers through every process and step he used to completely remaster Hit & Run. Starting with exporting the map and art assets into Unreal Engine 5, the developer showcases the game's RTX capabilities with 4K graphics before using the AI to upscale the textures, program characters and add in vehicles. Continuing his impressive effort, the developer scripts and creates the first mission of the game while showing off his project's smooth animations and striking visuals. The lead designer of the original game commented on the video, commending Reubs for his work on the project. Unfortunately, as reported by GameSpot, the demo was later taken down for copyright infringement. Reubs confirms this in an update in the video description, but does not specify what legal entity wanted the project removed.
Watch Rebus' video about the Simpsons Hit & Run remake on YouTube here.
Favored as a cult-classic, a remaster of The Simpsons Hit & Run is one of the highest requested remasters in the gaming community. Considered a remake in the most literal sense of the word, Reubs' fan project might be the closest gamers will ever get to a remaster of the title. In an interview with IGN last month, The Simpsons producer Matt Selman said that the game being remastered and sold would be a "complicated corporate octopus" due to all the licensing issues and Disney now owning the franchise. Even with all the complications, Selman continued his show of support for the game by saying that he "would love to" see Hit & Run remastered and returned to shelves, as physical copies are hard to find or expensive online.
While the fan demo by Reubs has definitely helped spark interest in the game again, the Youtuber never mentioned if he planned on recovering the demo in any capacity following this legal takedown. Since the original publisher, Vivendi Games, was acquired by Activision in the 2007 deal that created the now deeply controversial Activision Blizzard, it is unclear if the title will ever get officially remastered in the future. Reubs' fan project might have been the closest players got to reliving The Simpsons Hit & Run. Seeing the Youtuber's impressive work and positive feedback from only one level, players can only hope that a true remaster will take shape someday.
Source: Reubs/Youtube, GameSpot, IGN
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