Based on the famous American animated 90’s sitcom series created by Matt Groening, the action-adventure video game The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003) was a forgotten staple in my childhood. I referred to the game as ‘forgotten’ in the sense that I – along with my family and friends who I grew up playing the game with – have not played the game since owning a workable Playstation 2 (PS2) due to the consistent upgrading of gaming consoles erasing its popularity, resulting in the game no longer being played. In this case, as memories of video games are enough to induce nostalgia (Bowman & Wulf, 2018), I would analyse the The Simpsons: Hit & Run though a nostalgic framework, examining how narrative, fanbase and game mechanics impacted its beloved reputation.
Similarly to the television series, the games success can be attributed to its well crafted story telling; this allowed for a subjective interpretation of meaning (Moore, 2023) regarding the original text as the game developers brought about new adventures for the family to undertake. The game allows players to participate in completing missions across various locations in Springfield, working towards uncovering the mysterious incidents occurring and playing as members of the Simpson family as well as Kwik-E-Mart employee, Apu. As a single-player game, the importance of The Simpsons: Hit & Run possessing an engaging narrative thread becomes crucial as storytelling creates meaning beyond the pure pleasure of interacting with a game and makes the experiences memorable (Ronan, 2018). To analyse the impact the narrative had over players, I would examine how this involvement and immersion with the narrative text allowed players to essentially becomes apart of the story and build an emotional connection with it, a notion also found within fan studies.
Examining The Simpsons fanbase gives opportunity for para-textual analysis as the game is a result of the series cultural significance. A fan is an individual who possesses a positive emotional engagement with popular culture (Duffett, 2013 p. 17) which may take a variety of different forms of connection, especially expressed through creative outlets. As a result, fans cease to simply be an audience for popular text instead becoming active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meaning (Jenkins, 1992 p. 24). With this in mind, I would examine The Simpsons fanbase in regards to the games popularity and possible impact on the series as well as fan produced remakes of the game; this would allow me to explore the community aspect of fandom as members continuously come together to recreate the game on accessable consoles, leading well into the importance of game mechanics.
Game mechanics are crucial to how a game is played as they determine how the game actually feels (Ludo.ai, 2022). Available for PS2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox twenty years ago, the outdated game design for The Simpsons: Hit & Run can be overlooked due to the rules and systems which guide the players actions and games response to these actions. I would subsequently examine how the games simplistic mechanics effectively increased its enjoyability.
To make this relevant to a public audience, I would create a video essay on YouTube where I could present my research in an informative and entertaining manner whilst exploring the comments to gain a variety of different perspectives and opinions from other players. Overall, analysing The Simpsons: Hit & Run through a nostalgic lens would provide a deeper understanding of the subjective nature regarding both my own and others interpretations of meaning.
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References:
Allen, G (2022) ‘Structuralist Approaches: Genette and Riffaterre’ in Intertextuality, Third Edition, Routledge (pp. 100)
Bowman, N & Wulf, T (2018) Finding nostalgia in the pixelated video games of decades past, The Conversation, Available at: https://theconversation.com/finding-nostalgia-in-the-pixelated-video-games-of-decades-past-98518 [Accessed 4th August 2023]
Duffett, M (2013) ‘A brief history of fandom‘ in Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture, Bloomsbury Academic (p.17) Available at: https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=85TFAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Understanding+Fandom:+An+Introduction+to+the+Study+of+Media+Fan+Culture&ots=1qTQsTtyX1&sig=JfbU8epRxddgHR5T-QkXeQi4DtY#v=onepage&q=Understanding%20Fandom%3A%20An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Study%20of%20Media%20Fan%20Culture&f=false [Accessed 3rd August 2023]
Jenkins, H (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, Routledge (p.24) Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/195365034?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true [Accessed 3rd August 2023]
Ludo.ai (2022) Why are game mechanics so important? Available at: https://ludo.ai/blog/why-are-game-mechanics-so-important [Accessed 4th August 2023]
Moore, C (2023) Game Media Industries – Textual Analysis [YouTube video lecture] BCM215, University of Wollongong, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMIOh6Tn2Sg&ab_channel=ChristopherMoore [Accessed 31st July 2023]
Ronan, E (2018) Why do video games need narrative to stand out?, John Yorke Story, Available at: https://www.johnyorkestory.com/2018/12/why-videogames-need-narrative/#:~:text=Stories%20ultimately%20provide%20meaning%20beyond%20the%20pure%20pleasure%20of%20interacting%20with%20a%20game.%20If%20done%20well%2C%20they%20make%20the%20experience%20memorable%20%E2%80%93%20they%20make%20it%20emotional [Accessed 4th August 2023]
Alana Nestorovski 