Pros: Fun variation on Crazy Taxi gameplay with a perfectly executed Simpsons look and feel.
Cons: Some physics problems, a few clipping issues.
The Bottom Line: A borderline effort doing some things great, but other things just done. However, it achieves its objective- a fun, pick-up taxi game.
billservo's Full Review: Simpsons Road Rage for PlayStation 2
Fans of the Crazy Taxi series have no shortage of gaming this holiday season. The original Crazy Taxi has been available on the Dreamcast for over a year with its sequel recently released. The PS2 got its own rendition of the original Crazy Taxi and the Gamecube launched with one just last week. Now, with The Simpsons Road Rage for PS2 we have yet another entry into a very specific genre- and there's even a Gamecube version coming soon.
The Simpsons do the taxi driving game much like we've seen before. Jump in a car and scout the city for passengers to take to their destinations all under the pressure of a countdown clock. However, with this version we actually have a story to it. Looks like Montgomery Burns has bought up all the city busses and hiked up the rates putting the city in an outrage. Of course, the reasonable course of action is for the local Springfield celebrities to convert their vehicles to vigilante taxi cabs.
What a cabbie roll call, too. At first the game offers up only a few characters: Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, and Grampa. But continued play unlocks more for over 17 driveable vehicles. While cars in Road Rage don't have the level of control the Crazy Taxi games do, there's a wide variety and they all handle very differently. Marge's Canyonero feels like a tank- it takes a while to get the wagon going, but once you do nothing can stop it. On the other extreme there's Bart's soap box derby cart which flies down the road but doesn't have much mass to it.
Getting to all the locked stuff isn't too hard, but it is rewarding. Road Rage even includes a mission mode for those who require some kind of purpose besides the free range pick up passengers style of play. There's six of these missions and not all of them even have to do with picking up passengers at all, but they do require you to do some serious battle with the clock. There's even a multiplayer (2 players) mode, which is a cabbie capture-the-flag game. However, these modes are strictly a diversion, albeit fun ones. The game's main objective is to drive cabs long enough to make 1 million dollars. Of course, the way you make that money is by picking people up and getting them to their destination before the clock runs out. The faster you get them there, the more money you get- take too long and they just bail, no matter how fast you're going.
Even in cabbie mode Road Rage diverts from the Crazy Taxi formula a bit. Some passengers require you to do certain things while you drop them off. For example, pick up the Reverend and you'll have to avoid traffic for a huge bonus. Pick up Otto and you'll have to destroy 18 objects on your way. Going for these additional goals usually adds time to your clock letting you make more money. There's also certain objects in each map that, when destroyed, give you a time bonus. It definitely keeps the repetitive theme more interesting. If that's not enough, Burns and Smithers drive around the town trying to take you out. They're not as dangerous as they were in Simpsons Wrestling but they'll occasionally keep you from making an extra $100 here or there with a well placed hit.
Not that an extra $100 means a world of difference. You don't do the million all in one go- repeated play adds to your total earnings. Earnings milestones along the way to the ultimate goal unlock characters and locations. It's a simple, but good way to keep you interested since the goals are well paced. The first milestone is low allowing most players to unlock something on their first try but the gap gradually widens giving players time to explore maps a couple times through before making enough to unlock something else.
As the earnings requirements for map unlocking increases, map complexity increases. The first, unlocked Springfield location does not do the game justice at all. It's made up of only a few streets and has no shortcuts to speak of, unless you count cutting across someone's lawn. If there's anything cool about this map it's the ability to drive around a few famous locations. You start out at the Simpsons' household and get to drive by Flanders' place, Bart's school and the Qwik-E-Mart. Subsequent locations start getting better, even if you can't recognize where you are. Maps become increasingly populated with a few shortcuts. Unfortunately, the game never gets as gutsy as Crazy Taxi did. Shortcuts are weak, at best even in more complicated levels. The game does have them, but when you find a shortcut you have to wonder if it was intentional. I've managed to drive off of building tops and then hang my car from a small ledge off of a building with my front two wheels. Physics problems aside, that didn't seem to be the most intuitive shortcut I could take.
As strange as the shortcuts are, the maps are surprisingly large. Even playing through a level ten times doesn't necessarily mean you'll see everything. You'll recognize the same drop off locations but end up finding multiple streets that get you there even after a few drives. I suppose this is the next best thing to actual shortcuts. Players new to a level will find themselves lost quickly, but it's a fun kind of lost.
Once you know the ins and outs of a map you'll appreciate the sometimes ingeniously evil level design. The nuclear power plant location features a huge river which divides up much of the map. Most pick ups will have you crossing the river but you have to know where the bridges are to get across. Even then, bridge traffic can stop you up. AI drivers follow paths with a purpose and sometimes even crash into each other. When they crash on the bridge you're going to need some slick driving skills to get by.
Luckily, the control is very grippy for most cars. There's not much drifting at all so when a crisis presents itself you can keep enough to control to manage. Of course, this really depends on the car you choose. You'll never see a Ridge Racer style drift around a corner, but some cars will have you do a little sliding. There really is enough variety to keep all players happy with the control.
Physics are a little iffy, though. One of the things it does well is that the game lets you crash into just about everything. This level of freedom is awesome, and Road Rage even tries to keep it real. For example, a downed light post stays down. Come back to that area later for a drop off and you better watch out. The destruction you cause along the way also messes up AI drivers. So the more havoc you create the more problems you'll have later. It's a pretty nice formula, actually. But this huge level of interactivity comes with a price. Some collisions are questionable. Hit a pole and you could get stopped up harshly, hit a boulder and it bounces out of your way. Collision detection, while mostly accurate, has a few moments of gross miscalculation. Some buildings are able to keep you stuck to it even when it looks like there's no contact. The game includes a "reset" button that moves your car out into the open (like in SSX) so developers probably knew about such problems. While the button may get you free it doesn't help with lost time.
Graphics problems with collision are rare, though. There's some occasional clipping issues, but to the game's credit the action is intense at times with a lot of moving objects. The rest of the graphics are mostly better- Road Rage looks more faithful to the Simpsons show than any other I've seen. Even the translation to a 3D world is respectable. The game starts with a 3D intro to the story line that looks and sounds like an actual episode. From there the game engine dulls down the detail a bit for actual play, but still gives a pretty accurate rendition of the Simspons' world. Players who don't appreciate the Simpsons theme will find these graphics a little dull- there's no crazy light effects or explosions or life-like animations. But the important part is that the game does keep up with the action. Not to say that valid complaints can't be made: Road Rage has some of the cheapest glass breaking animation I've ever seen, the occasional flat world boundary, and, worst of all, unfinished backs of buildings. These are annoying but usually don't take away from the fast-paced fun of the game, especially when the game's presentation is taken as a whole. The Simpsons theme is here, but changed up a little bit giving a theme park-ish feel. It blends perfectly with everything going on. The characters' one-liners are also better than in most other Simpsons games.
Overall, Road Rage is a good effort. It's a fun game but just doesn't achieve the level of style or intensity that Crazy Taxi did, even with all the additional play modes and characters. But if you've played through Crazy Taxi and want more you should be pretty happy with this game. At the least, even casual driving fans will find that Road Rage makes a good rent.
As many as 25 Simsons characters are available here for you race as, or against Intensely busy interactive world full of commuters is just waiting for...More at Amazon Marketplace
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