Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: The Simpsons: Road Rage

Written by John Scalzo on September 19, 2002

Full Review: "Take me to the Frying Dutchman. They have all you can eat chum. CHUM!"

The Simpsons have never been shy about using stories, jokes or plots from other successful movies and TV for their own ends. So it should really come as no surprise to see all the similarities between Crazy Taxi and the latest from our favorite family: The Simpsons: Road Rage. They're not so much similarities as they are grand theft electronico. At it's heart Road Rage is a complete and blatant rip-off of Crazy Taxi, but as The Simpsons parodies of Cape Fear, Read Window, The Shining and on and on show, that's not always a bad thing.

If you're even partially familiar with Crazy Taxi then you know exactly how The Simpsons: Road Rage works with that wonderful Simpsons spin. Mr. Burns has purchased the Springfield Transit Authority and turned all of the buses into nuclear powered behemoths. The residents of Springfield won't stand for this, so instead they sit in their cars and taxi each other around, striving to earn enough money to buy the Transit Authority back from Mr. Burns. The story is a little stupid, OK the story is very stupid, but I can almost guarantee it'll be better than that tripe they'll pass off as The Crazy Taxi Movie.

Road Rage is exactly like Crazy Taxi. Exactly. You drive around Springfield picking up passengers and getting paid for it. Occasionally the Safe Trip bonus pops up and if you avoid hitting traffic you get more time on the clock. Rarer still is the Road Rage bonus where you must wreck as much of the landscape as you can. Leave no mailbox standing and more bonus seconds will be yours. That's about it. Playing for these bonuses requires you to get behind the wheel in one of Road Rage's four modes. Road Rage is the Crazy Taxi "inspired" mode of taxiing people around for fares. Missions involve leading a Springfieldian to knock over various items to earn a hidden surprise. Head to Head is your standard two-player mode. And Sunday Drive is basically a free ride through Springfield with no clock and no cash. Which poses a serious question: does anyone anywhere actually play the free ride mode in games like this? It's so boring; I can't understand why developers still include it.

The problem with all these modes is that Road Rage is just too easy for it's own good. Even on the highest difficulty level it's not hard to pull down some crrrrraaazzzzyyy money. Sorry, forgot which game I was reviewing there for a second. In a matter of hours I had every character and neighborhood unlocked. There's no challenge at all. Even the missions are limited almost entirely to knocking stuff down. The sad thing is you don't even have to beat all of the missions to earn the secret. The only one you have to beat is the last mission. Road Rage will take pity on you and let you skip every other mission if you lose enough times. And Head to Head mode is good for a few laughs but you're always competing for the same lone passenger. It's lacking the frantic sense of speed found in Road Rage mode, where not surprisingly, you'll spend most of your time.

Road Rage rises above the feelings of Crazy Taxi deja vu with a good helping of Simpsons charm. The graphics are decent enough, if a little blocky at times, but it looks like Springfield. Divided into six neighborhoods are over 100 different locations that will have any fan of the show squealing with delight. Even the Springfield Box Factory makes an appearance (but Krustylu Studios is no where to be seen). The only real problem with the graphics are the occasional clipping problems as you drop through a wall or when you'll get stuck on an invisible corner of a building, sometimes until the timer runs out. Glitches like this don't really hurt the game, but they happen more often than they should. What really gives it that touch of Springfield is the sound and voice work. Simply put, it's amazing. Every regular cast member supplies their voice to a minimum of at least 30 characters. The only character that appears with any regularity that's missing is Fat Tony. With tons of funny original and old voice samples for each character (including Homer's choice quote above) I had a smile on my face the whole time. Even the small cut scenes before and after you play are funny. The Simpsons wit is in full force here.

In addition to their own catchphrases each character has their own abilities. Marge's Canyonero can plow through any terrain, Frink's Flying Car is fastest, Homer's Family Sedan is well balanced, etc. It gives the game a little more depth, but really, no one's choosing a character based on abilities. They're picking a character based on good voice samples. Finally, in the words of Comic Book Guy: Worst. Load. Times. Ever.