Introduction
Let's Play The Simpsons Road Rage
The Simpsons had a reptuation for starring in a lot of below average licensed games before Road Rage. And I do mean a lot. The Simpsons Wrestling was bad, sure, but I wouldn't recommend looking up any of the NES or SNES era ventures, either. Radical Entertainment came along, and being a developer that always has their heart in the right place, put their best foot forward to bring us a good licensed game about the already-really-lengthy television series.
...And?
Well, it's a lot like Crazy Taxi. So much that SEGA got the tiniest bit mad at Radical for the game's similarities. That was silly though, and SEGA was silly. Road Rage has its own level design, quirks, and personality. Certainly enough to help it stand as a separate game, and one worth playing for a lot of reasons. It's fast, there are many distinct vehicles, the locations are inventive, and all the characters from The Simpsons make jokes during gameplay. Always.
About the Let's Play
We're going to be showing off all of the six driving locations in the game with six different vehicles, specifically chosen to give us the most variety possible and minimize any potential repetition. We'll also play through all of the levels in "Mission Mode", and get to see the incredibly short, not-at-all-worth-the-immense-time-investment-required-to-unlock-it ending.
Videos
Trivia
EclecticTastes posted:
The Springfield Dam, as it appears in this game, is almost certainly non-canon, as the actual dam in the series was never finished, nor would it have existed very long if it had been, as Cecil, Sideshow Bob's brother, had cheaped out on the building materials to make off with the money (also he tried to blow the dam up to hide his wrongdoing), before being caught by Bart and Lisa, as seen in the season eight classic, "Brother From Another Series" (a reference to Cecil being voiced by David Hyde-Pierce, playing opposite Kelsey Grammar as Sideshow Bob, as they were also fictional siblings on Frasier).
EclecticTastes posted:
Professor Frink's car is definitely non-canon, but seems to be a reference to his hover-bike from "Lemon of Troy", one of the essential season six episodes. Bart ignored it in favor of shoving his hand in wet cement to permanently vandalize some new sidewalk towards the start of the episode, and when he was later on the run from the villainous children of Shelbyville, Frink passed by on the bike, taunting him about his earlier apathy towards it.
EclecticTastes posted:
The biggest difference between Homer's car and Moe's is that Moe's car is insured for a surprisingly large amount of money. He hatched a plot with Homer in the season nine episode, "Dumbbell Indemnity", to use it in an insurance fraud scam in order to use the money to pay for more extravagant dates with his girlfriend for the episode, Renee. Naturally, this backfires, and ultimately ends with Renee leaving Moe in disgust.
EclecticTastes posted:
Otto driving over a bunch of traffic cones is likely a reference to his attempt to get back his bus driver's license in season three's "The Otto Show". Additionally, since it was part of Reverend Lovejoy's entrance, I want to point out that Moe seems to be a fan of Little Women. He was first seen reading it to the homeless at the local shelter, explaining why his bar's always closed on Wednesdays as part of a cutaway gag in the season 5 episode, "Homer Loves Flanders". Long after this game was released, he'd later be seen hastily disposing of it in the season 20 episode, "Eeny Meeny Maya Moe", in which he meets a woman (Maya) online, and only learns after meeting her in person that she's only three feet tall (why yes, this is another episode about Moe meeting a woman and falling in love, then ruining it with his own insecurities, turns out after the second straight decade of production, you gotta return to some old wells). Little Women shows up a couple other times in the series, so one can assume that somebody on the staff likes it.
By the way, Krusty's car is the only one besides Frink's that wasn't either explicitly featured in an existing Simpsons episode, or is the associated character's normal vehicle (Ned's station wagon is more often seen parked than being driven, but the color and general make of the car look show-accurate).
EclecticTastes posted:
It wouldn't be surprising if the Honor Roller had a higher downhill speed coded in, given that it was originally a soapbox racer. It was designed and driven by Martin, originally (hence the dorky name), but was so fast he ended up in a cast, so Bart drove it for him, as seen in the season 3 episode, "Saturdays of Thunder".
Thank you, that's all!