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The Simpsons Road Rage Review - Gamecube

The Simpsons have been one of television's most memorable families of all time ever since the beginning of their TV series. Both its serious story and crazy antics proved to be its selling point and it soon gathered many fans both young and old. Like most things though, the producers and the network (Fox) saw a large market for merchandise, so fans have been given t-shirts, coffee mugs and of course video games. However, most Simpsons games have been regarded as poor quality (with the exception of Simpsons Hit and Run) proving to be just a quick buck for the developers. Now fans have been given Simpsons Road Rage, and its end result isn't too pleasing but at least it's average.

The evil Mr Burns is at it again. This time he has taken control over the town's public transport companies and has converted their fuel from petrol to nuclear power. However, it doesn't stop there. He has also raised the prices sky-high for people to use public transport, so in an attempt to foil Mr Burns' attempts, Homer Simpson and other town folks have started their own Taxi company to raise $1 million to buy back the public transport companies.

Gameplay

Taking a page (or more in this case) out of Sega's book, Road Rage basically plays similar too Crazy Taxi with one twist. It's fully set in The Simpsons' universe. Taking control of one of five characters to begin with, with a further 18 or so unlockable characters to obtain, you basically drive around Springfield, pick up passengers and drop them off at their desired location. However, when you do pick up someone, you will have to race against the clock to get to that location by following a conveniently placed hand on top of the screen, which points to the place the passenger wants to go. With that in mind, one rule is left, the faster you drive to the place, the more money you'll receive. There are also two other ways to receive more money with some fares which are to either make it to the destination safely or to corse a lot of destruction within your path.

As mentioned, you will be able to unlock characters after reaching a certain requirement. This requirement is based on the amount of money you collect (around every $25,000) and once it has been met, you'll unlock a new character to drive around Springfield with. These characters include Professor Frink, Groundskeeper Willy, Otto, Clancy Wiggum, and Snake among others, plus these characters will have cars that handle differently from one another which adds some flavour for a bit of trial and error for the car you like best. There are also five different locations to unlock. One thing noticeable about the locations, is that the buildings/houses will match perfectly in terms of location in game from show. An example of this is how the music store is next to Moe's. However, some fans (continued next page)