You'll rue the day you crossed C. Montgomery Burns!!!
Gameplay-If you've ever played Crazy Taxi, you've played The Simpsons: Road Rage. It is a formulaic taxi racer where you ferry the citizens of Springfield to their desired destination. A usual transaction goes something like this:
1) Stop your vehicle near a person standing under a blue, pulsating dome.
2) Person gets in car, exchanges catch phrases with your selected driver.
3) Drive like a fool to their desired location.
4) Get paid and rated on your performance, more catch phrases.
Every third passenger give you an extra set of requirements to meet. In "road rage" mode, you must crash into a certain amount of objects to receive $1,000 and a five second bonus. In "safe driver" mode, you must hit less than three other moving vehicles in order to receive a $250 bonus and a five second bump. The requirements you receive depend on who you pick up. Characters with a mischievous streak (Bart, Snake, Otto, etc.) spawn "road rage" while more straightlaced characters (Ned, Marge, Mayor Quimby, etc.) give you "safe driver."
There is also a mission mode where you have to fulfill a certain objective (either crashing into a certain amount of a specified object or taking a person to specified location before Mr. Burns catches you) to move on to the next mission. After the tenth and final mission, you receive a special prize.
Each driver has their own special characteristics. For instance, Apu's sports car (my personal favorite) is quick and nimble while Barney's Plow King is big and slow, but knocks everything out of its way. Overall, there are twelve unlockable drivers to go with the five with which you begin the game.
The unlockables (in addition to the extra drivers, there are also five unlockable worlds) are obtained by racking up cash through round after round of driving people from here to there. Here lies the game's biggest weakness...it's repetitive to a fault. Your basic goal is to rack up $1,000,000 to buy back the transit system from Mr. Burns (who, incidentally, chases you around the area in a car driven by Smithers). You'll end up playing your one or two best areas with your one or two best drivers to rack up the most money is the least amount of time.
The difficulty is also slightly backwards. While you start out with less time in Hard level, you make money faster. It's a much quicker game to play on Hard.
Visuals-The graphics in this game are mediocre at best. The worlds are colorful and fun to look at, but there are only about five different vehicles (not counting the taxi drivers) and I have yet to see a Simpsons game made in 3-D that looked right. The citizens of Springfield do not translate to three dimensions very well at all.
Sound-The sound isn't bad. It's got the familiar Simpsons theme and some well-done work in the gameplay mode. The entire cast is here and, while I would have liked a few more snippets for each character, the voices were done with the usual excellence. There are a couple of glaring audio hiccups, particularly in Lisa's mission level. But overall, the sound is just fine.
Value-Unfortunately, there really isn't much. The game lasts quite awhile, mostly due to the fact that, unless you're a ridiculously good wheelman, you're trying to get to a million dollars in $12,000-$18,000 bites (if you're playing on Hard). Once you finish the game, there's really no reason to play it again unless you really want to.
This game is unfairly painted with the same brush as abominations like The Simpsons: Skateboarding. It's a much better game than it's given credit for being. If you're looking for originality, you're in the wrong place. But if you're just looking for something to fill a few minutes between sessions of something more substantial, The Simpsons: Road Rage is an excellent choice.