The Simpsons Road Rage review (GameCube)

The game is also hampered by sound effects that get immediately repetitive. Apparently, many of the cast members recorded new lines specifically for the game, but in practice, none of the dialogue between characters seems to context. There are times when Nelson, for example, will jump into Apu's car and ask to be taken to the Quick-E-Mart to do some shoplifting, to which Apu will gleefully reply with "Get ready for the ride of your life," a line that makes absolutely no sense within the context of that conversation, especially considering that Apu runs the Quick-E-Mart swore by the many arms of Ganesh to protect. This might seem like nothing more than a nuisance, but it'll become irritating after hearing the same disjointed phrases repeated over and over within a span of 60 seconds. Road Rage is filled with similar dialogue that is initially amusing but starts to wear thin . The graphics are fair, and while Road Rage doesn't have any problems with slowdown or draw-in, the overall visual effect seems to be somewhat confusing. It's as if the game uses a mixture of cel shading and standard textures to skin many of the cars and peripheral objects. If it is indeed cel shading, then it's a bad job , since only the cars appear that way. And if it's not cel shading, then the textures on the game's other objects are a little washed out.

If you can see past these problems, then The Simpsons Road Rage might present you with a little bit of replay value. You can compete head-to-head against one other player in a split-screen mode, and you can drive as any character n any location that you've unlocked in a mode without a clock. There are even 10 missions in which you're given various tasks to complete within a short amount of time, such as driving Krusty away from a mob of fans and getting Homer to work without Mr. Burns noticing. And of course, there's something to be said about simply driving around a 3D recreation of Springfield. In the end, though, The Simpsons Road Rage's control problems prevent this from being recommendable to all but the most die-hard of The Simpsons fans. And while it's better than the poor GameCube port of the original Crazy Taxi, ultimately, the only saving grace Road Rage has is that it's a Simpsons game.