The folks at Electronic Arts did more then just bring you the misadventures of Springfield’s original nuclear family, however. Road Rage brings the entire world of the Simpsons to life, in an impressive blend of cartoon style and three-dimensional realism. While the game itself is a tad simplistic and repetitive, eye candy abounds, making Road Rage a treat for Simpsons fans.

The plot is this: Mr. Burns has purchased the Springfield Bus Line and converted the buses to nuclear-powered, severely hazardous-to-your-health public transportation. In retaliation, led by the oft-times confused but never daunted entrepreneur Homer Simpson, the citizens of Springfield start their own taxi service, in order to ferry each other around town.

The game has four different modes. Road Rage is the headliner, where you play as one of 20 Simpsons characters, driving around a three-dimensional Springfield picking up passengers and dropping them off where they want to be. Between playable characters and passengers, the game features 30 characters from the Simpsons cast, making even the most die-hard fan happy. And of course, all the voices are accurate, which makes the game far more enjoyable then it would have been if we had to listen to the horrible imitation Simpsons voice actors that a lot of radio and local television stations seem to be fond of using. Cheap bastards. In Road Rage, your only true enemy is the timer; the goal of the Road Rage level is to make as much money as possible before the time is up. You do earn bonus time by delivering passengers quickly, and by taking out Burns bus stops that you see along the way. At the end of each level, you are told whether you earned enough cash to unlock another character or level. Only the Simpson family (including Grandpa) and the Evergreen Terrace level are available initially; the rest you have to earn. But fear not, your cash total is cumulative, so unless you forget to save your game, it’s only a matter of time before you earn enough money to unlock everyone and everywhere. There are other opportunities to earn cash within the Road Rage level, on occasion you will be told to avoid traffic, or to hit as many things as possible. Successfully completing either will earn you bonus dollars which go a long way towards making the next earning goal.

There is also the Sunday Drive mode, which is basically a laid back tour of Springfield. Not much to say about this level, it really serves as a training level more then anything else. Other then the lack of a timer, it’s virtually identical to the Road Rage level.

The other two levels are Head to Head and Mission mode. Head to Head is a two-player version of Road Rage, but you and a friend must compete directly. There is only one passenger to be picked up at one time, and your opponent can steal your passenger from you by bumping your car. Head to Head is played to a predetermined amount of money, so whoever gets to the cash goal first wins. It is an entertaining variant to the Road Rage game, as long as you have a friend who can take getting beaten over and over again. (I’m looking at you, Rich.) Head to Head is entertaining, but does not have a great deal of replay value unless you cultivate a grudge match with a buddy. Mission Mode is a bit different. Each mission has its own little micro-plot that requires you to accomplish a goal within a time limit. For example, Willie has to take out newspaper stands, and Barney has to mow down a set number of mascots. The mission modes provide a nice change to the Road Rage level, and allow you to play as certain characters that you have not unlocked yet.

All four game modes use the same style of gameplay. The controls are easy to use, and it doesn’t take long before you are making e-brake turns to get around tight corners. Road Rage borrows some stylistic elements from the more serious driving games, and quick camera changes are common to provide the best view as you sail through the air in Marge’s Canyonero. EA did an excellent job of bringing the world of the Simpsons to life on the Playstation 2, especially overcoming the obstacle of making two dimensional cartoon characters into similar three-dimensional ones. While the graphics aren’t as good as watching The Simpsons on Fox, they certainly don’t detract from the game, and little details like the characters flinging their hands in the air when your car takes flight makes up for the shortcomings of the three-dimensional rendering. Sound is certainly up to par, with Springfield easily coming to life acoustically speaking. As I mentioned before, having the authentic voice actors doing the dialogue went a long way towards making this game entertaining.

Road Rage did have two flaws that even the Simpsons’ legendary humor could not overcome. The first relates directly to said humor: What the passengers say when you pick them up and what your character says in response is not always in sync. Most of the responses are generic enough that this is not noticeable, but there are times when it is very apparent that the dialogue between the two characters is actually a result of random generation. Since it was obvious that there was not a lot of work put into the storyline of the game, it would have been nice to see some more effort in the area of dialogue. The other flaw is that the overall replay value of the game is rather low. There is little to inspire you to pick that controller up again unless you are dead set on unlocking all the available levels and characters. Road Rage is an entertaining game, but it does not command your attention like any of the Halloween Specials do.

Overall, Road Rage is very much like a syndicated episode of The Simpsons that you have already seen 15 times. (Don’t ya love syndication?) Something to wile away a half-hour with, but not anything you are going to schedule your day around. Actually, back in college, we did schedule our days around the syndicated Simpsons episodes, so I guess that’s a bad analogy. What I’m trying to say is that Simpsons Road Rage is a fun game, but not anything that’s going to make you neglect your household chores.