The Simpsons Hit and Run was a milestone game. It repurposed the open world idea of GTA III and made it fun and funny at the same time, with great collaboration between capable game developers and the writers and actors from the show. It was released in 2003, though, so doesn't look quite so good today. Fortunately, we don't have to imagine what such a game might look like if made today, as one fan has made huge chunks of it again, in Unreal Engine 5.
Somehow, the modder behind this recreation reportedly completed it in just under a week. They used some clever tools like AI upscalers and stock resources to do so, but it's still an impressive move and shows that a full-scale remastering wouldn't be a massive ask of any experienced developer. Unfortunately, the original developer and publisher of Simpsons: Hit and Run have both since gone under and been dissolved.
It's not clear who has the rights to the franchise at this point, but it would be great to see it make a comeback. Hit and Run was arguably the best Simpsons game ever made, so it's about time.
If you want to try out the Hit and Run remake now, you can grab it from developer Reub's Patreon (no longer available after DMCA claim -- look around for it, you'll find it).
