|
The Simpson’s Road Rage is the XBOX alternative of Crazy Taxi….well, almost. The Simpson’s Road Rage is the XBOX alternative of Crazy Taxi….well, almost. The story is basically this: Mr. Burns has introduced new Nuclear Bus Transit System, and the residents of Springfield are not too happy with that. Some of the residents decide to put together a special Taxi Service. Quite a few characters you may know from the popular show get their cars and start the taxi service.
You start out with only a few characters (each only has one car), and one start point. By playing the game, you unlock cars and new start points, which lead to different places of Springfield.
There are four modes. They include Sunday Ride, Missions Mode, One-Player, and Two Player modes. In Sunday Ride, you basically explore Springfield, picking up passengers if wanted, just to know where some of the important locations are. It doesn’t advance you through the game, there’s no timer, no money count…nothing; just a free roam around Springfield for your enjoyment.
One-Player mode is basically the same thing as Sunday Drive, only with a timer, money stash, and a high score to beat. You get new cars and starting points for beating high scores. The money goes to buying back the regular transit.
Two-Player mode is basically the same thing as one-player, only you go head to head against another person to make more money. You can steal the other person’s passengers, and then they have to find someone else. It is pretty fun, but there are many other, much better multi-player games.
The Missions Mode may be the main mode in the game, but I am not sure about that. This mode is not very long, and it most often has you run something over (trashcans, mailboxes, light-posts, etc.). There is a total of ten (10) missions, and they are not too long. Some are harder than others, but most of them are not as challenging as I would expect from a racing-type game.
The sound in this game is poor. Each character has something to say when you pick him/her up, or drop them off. The driver (your character) says some things as well. The problem is, there isn’t much of a variety in what they say, and you’ll often hear your character repeat something 3 or 4 times in one round of a One-Player challenge. It gets pretty annoying. The actual car sounds like a cartoon car should sound like, but they should have made it better. The gear shifting is probably the worst. It makes it seems as if each car has 6 to 8 gears, which they obviously don’t. The characters do sound like the ones in the show, but that’s obviously because they have the same actors doing the voicing for the game.
This game probably lacks the most in the graphical aspect. The game look cartoon-ish, but that’s a given, and it is supposed to be that way, so it doesn’t affect my view of the graphics. What does affect it, are the dozens of graphical glitches that there are in the game. It is totally pathetic. You can go through people, trees, other vehicles, through the ground sometimes, and any other obstacle that gets in the way. Many trees will get knocked down, but for many of them, you’ll just go through, and that’ll be the end of that.
I don’t know how the programmers could call this a finished game and release it. This game obviously needed a month or two more in development. I guess I’ll just have to wait for Crazy Taxi 3. -- Anonym. Contributor, PGNx Media
---- May 23, 2002
|
