Gaming Target - Xbox: The Simpsons: Road Rage

Written by Andrew Smith on January 29, 2002

Review: Add one part Crazy Taxi, two parts Simpson, three parts frustration, and then shake.

It's a simple rule of the gaming industry -- when a cool, innovative game hits the big-time, you must copy it over and over until it has been completely ran into the ground. Crazy Taxi was the one of the best games to come out for the Dreamcast during its short life, and Road Rage tries to emulate its awesome gameplay. Who would have that copying a game would be that hard?

The addicting gameplay is what made Crazy Taxi so much fun, and Road Rage copies this gameplay exactly. You drive around Springfield picking up various characters from the Simpson's cartoon and you drive them to many of Springfield's famous landmarks and locales. You will find yourself taking Barney to Moe's Tavern and then turning around to take Flanders to church. While this sounds like a great time, there are many glitches that prevent this game from even approaching greatness.

The collision detection in Road Rage is downright awful. You will run right through things that you should hit and you will hit things you aren't even close to. The car gets stuck on various objects and somehow you will occasionally find yourself falling through the roof of a home.

Anyway, the idea of the game is to collect fares from your customers. You may receive bonuses for destroying things or for providing a safe ride. After your total amount collected reaches a designated number you will have the option to unlock a new car and driver, or a new neighborhood to drive through. That is, if you don't get too frustrated from the collision detection glitches and toss your controller through the wall.

Graphically, Simpsons Road Rage gets the job done. The characters are wonderfully portrayed and look very much like their cartoon counterparts. Although, environments touch on the other side of the spectrum and look downright horrible. Objects and buildings are extremely dull and can look somewhat pixilated at times.

The audio is easily the best part of Road Rage, most notably, the character voices. They are all done by the same people who do the voices for the show and, of course, are near perfect. The characters will comment on your recklessness, or lack thereof, as well as many other things. Sound effects are very few and far between. The УthumpФ of running into things is the same for mostly everything you might hit. Besides that there are really no sound effects to speak of.

In theory, this game would have endless replay value, but the glitch, while seemingly small, makes Road Rage extremely frustrating. You will find yourself quitting soon after you start. The large range of vehicles and places to drive is very cool, but the gameplay just doesn't allow that to be enjoyable.