The Simpsons Hit & Run has quietly been the arena for an incredible 10-year speedrunning gauntlet, dominated by one runner who broke 45 records in a row
Nov. 12, 2024He’s a lean, green speed-thingy
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For more than ten years, The Simpsons Hit & Run has been the home of a speedrunning arms race of blistering intensity, and I’m shocked that this is pretty much the first I’ve heard of it.
Over the next few months, this trio of runners would repeatedly hand the world record time off between them, relying on further optimization, the removal of load times, and a rapid acceleration technique known as ‘E-brake boosting’ to help with certain missions and bring the time plummeting down to just 98 minutes. No one else came close to these three for more than a year until a mysterious player known as Robot Crocodilz - who has since deleted all of their speedrunning vods - blasted past all of them before vanishing as quickly as they appeared.
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For now, that 1:16 time is where the record sits, and with the focus more on the game’s 100% category right now, it seems it might stay there for a long time. But the intensity and speed at which these records have been fought over and broken over the past decade has me shocked that this is the first time I’m hearing about the Hit & Run speedrun scene. It also has me yearning for a PS2 to play it on, though I’m not sure I’ll be grinding out the levels quite like these runners have been.
20 years on, The Simpsons Hit and Run designer reflects on the enduring legacy of the beloved “GTA for kids.”
I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.
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