#SIMPSONS HIT AND RUN VS ROAD RAGE PS2#

The faster you go the more money you earn. The goal of the game is to pick up people throughout the town (with big blue circles around them indicating a potential passenger), drive them to their destination as fast as possible (with large yellow boxes around the area), and earn money from doing it. Sometimes the dialogue is actually funny and there are some neat inside jokes for fans of the show, but most of the time the dialogue doesn't really fit the situation and can quickly get repetitive. The characters will utter various quips from the show as you drive along. The character' voices are all true to the show. The driving sound effects are passable, but not particularly good. The frame rate is very smooth throughout and there are a few nice visual effects here and there. Overall, they result in a bland and sometimes disjointed viewing experience. They don't quite look like a cartoon and they don't quite look like a video game either. The graphics are pretty true to the series, but they look kind of odd.

Combine that with the irritatingly long load times between missions and levels and you will get tired of the mission mode very quickly. The scenarios are contrived, even for a Simpsons-based game and quickly get old and boring. You either try to knock a certain number of things over or take someone someplace within a certain time limit. There are ten missions and they are all almost exactly alike. Road Rage also has a mission mode, though I have yet to figure out why. Sorry Simpsons fans, this is not the game it could have been. Leave out these moments of skill and all you've got is a very bland rip-off starring the cast of our most beloved animated series. In fact, there isn't much technique here at all. But man, did these cats miss the point of CT or what? RR doesn't reward you for weaving through traffic, pulling off jumps or causing near-misses. The faster you truck, the bigger the buck. Like CT, the object is to make some dough by driving the denizens of Springfield around town. What's worse is that RR still has very little in the way of depth.

#SIMPSONS HIT AND RUN VS ROAD RAGE PS2#

This is the exact same game as its Xbox and PS2 counterparts, which means you'll still have to deal with irritating load times and janky collision detection problems (it's easy to get your car stuck on objects and buildings). I kept my expectations low going into the GameCube version this month and saved myself the disappointment. I slagged the Xbox version of Road Rage a couple issues ago, not for its blatant plagiarism of Crazy Taxi, but rather for its many gameplay issues.

Simpsons hit and run vs road rage