This fan-made UE5 remake of The Simpsons: Hit & Run looks incredible, and we'll never, ever get to play it

And another finger on the monkey paw curls. A plan to remake The Simpsons: Hit & Run—the beloved PS2 GTA 3-like from 2003—has reached its conclusion. A joint effort by devs going by the names Reubs and Korylon, the project kicked off a year ago and was an attempt to recreate the original game in UE5 as a fully open-world (meaning all its maps combined into one) experience.

The project is now finished, meaning the first chunk of the game can be experienced in its entirety. Just not by you or me. Copyright law dictates that Reubs can't distribute the remake without being lawyered into oblivion by whichever corporation happens to own the rights to The Simpsons: Hit & Run in 2023, so we'll just have to settle for gazing longingly at a 22-minute YouTube video, which you can see above.

I'm not entirely sure if the devs have remade more of the game than they've shown off in their videos (though I suspect not). I've reached out to ask them about that, and will update this piece if I hear back.

It's seriously impressive stuff. The cutscenes play seamlessly, missions move from objective to objective, Homer bombs around Springfield in that trademark pink car with grace and alacrity, and Lisa's hair looks like a ghastly tesseract that will pursue me to my grave. It's all there! Just not for the taking. 

Reubs runs a Patreon for their game development course, and also sells an Unreal Engine plugin, which answers the question as to why on Earth they wanted to make a remake of The Simpsons: Hit & Run if not to distribute it among the public. Perhaps that's good news: If you absolutely have to play the remake, you could always try to make it yourself. After all, you can watch the other nine parts of Reubs' series on remaking Hit & Run over on their YouTube channel to get some idea of how they did it.

But if, somehow, you lack the wherewithal to do that, I suppose the closest we can get is that mod that stitches the entire original game together. Do you ever get the feeling someone should just officially remake this thing already?

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
GTA 4 - Niko Bellic
GTA 5 mod recreating GTA 4's map nuked after 6 years of work because people noticed, and Rockstar insisted on a 'friendly takedown', if you know what I mean
A man with purple hair and face tattoos poses for a mugshot in the GTA 6 trailer.
Playable GTA 6 map nuked without warning by Take-Two lawyers: 'My guess is that the map was probably a little too accurate'
Mortimer Goth swanning around inside a New Vegas casino built inside the Sims 2
A Fallout: New Vegas fan is so fed up waiting for a remake he's decided to do it himself. The twist? He's making it in the Sims 2
Skyblivion
Fan remake of Oblivion in Skyrim has a new video, looks amazing, is set for release 'this year,' and I struggle to imagine the rumoured official Oblivion remake doing much better
Skyblivion evil character
With the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games still years away, here are 6 upcoming total conversion mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4 to get excited about
Several tight-wearing superheroes surge towards the camera in a heroic fashion in City of Heroes.
One year later, City of Heroes' officially recognized fan server has me praying it's the future of dead MMOs
Latest in Games
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
Grit and Valor mech strategy roguelike
Grit and Valor - 1949 review
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'