The Simpsons: Road Rage is a 2001 racing video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, and is part of a series of games based on the show. It was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. A Game Boy Advance version was released in 2003.
The game stars Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa, as well as Mr. Burns and several other characters from the show. The Simpsons: Road Rage is similar to Sega's 1999 video game Crazy Taxi, in that the main objective is to pick up and drive passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible. These similarities led to Sega suing developer Radical Entertainment and publishers Electronic Arts and Fox Interactive for patent infringement, though it was settled before going to court. The game was met with mixed reviews from critics, many of whom pointed out its bare-bones Crazy Taxi mimicry and poor graphics. A spiritual successor, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, also developed by Radical Entertainment, was released in 2003.
Gameplay and plot
In the game, Mr. Burns has bought all transit systems in Springfield and has created radioactive buses that threaten the public health. Because of this, the citizens of Springfield must use their own vehicles as a means of safer public transport. Their goal is to earn money in an attempt to pay back Burns, get rid of his radioactive buses, and return the town to normal.
The main form of gameplay, titled "Road Rage", is an arcade-style taxi game where the player chooses a character from The Simpsons and earns money by picking up passengers and taking them to their destinations within the shortest possible time. The quicker the player is able to drop off passengers, the higher their ratings and the more time they get to drive. Regardless of how the player performs, passenger ratings deteriorate and time will eventually run out, ending the session. After each session, if the player has earned enough money, they can choose to purchase one of twelve new Simpsons character drivers along with their own vehicle, or one of five new starting locations. The PlayStation 2 version was released first, on November 19, 2001, in North America, and the Xbox and GameCube versions followed in December of that year. The cast members of The Simpsons reprised their roles for the game. Voice samples original to the game, as well as one-liners from the show, can be heard in Road Rage.
A version for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Altron and published by THQ, was released in North America on July 3, 2003.
The music track heard during the "Sunday Drive" gameplay mode is a loose remake of American funk band Con Funk Shun's 1977 song "Ffun".
Reception
The Simpsons: Road Rage received "mixed or average reviews" on all platforms, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The same console version also received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the U.K. The game has a total of at least 3 million copies sold.
Lawsuit
During 2003, Sega, creator and owner of the Crazy Taxi franchise, filed a lawsuit against Fox Interactive, Electronic Arts, and Radical Entertainment, claiming that Road Rage was a patent infringement of the former as both games feature nearly identical gameplay and objectives with the Crazy Taxi game engine. According to IGN, "Road Rage features similar game play, to the point where some reviews commented negatively on the parallels." The case, Sega of America, Inc. v. Fox Interactive, et al., was settled in private mediation for an undisclosed amount.