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5 /5

Almost two years after its release on consoles, The Simpsons: Road Rage was adapted for the Game Boy Advance. While it retains the general gameplay concept inspired by Crazy Taxi, it has a reduced selection of drivers and cars, unique playing modes and missions, and adapts the 3D graphics of the original to a Mode-7-style sprite scaling and rotation engine.

The game's main mode is called Road Rage. Just like in Crazy Taxi, the goal is to pick up passengers and deliver them to their destination within a time limit, earning money in the process. Bonuses are awarded for arrival speed and hitting the target exactly. Special objectives might appear during a fare for additional bonus: either hitting a certain number of cars or avoiding hitting any traffic at all.

The second main game mode is entirely new: in Performance Mode, players select one passenger to take on and must offer them an exciting ride: the different characters' preferences for jumps, hitting cars and hitting roadside objects differ. They must be taken into account in order to take the passenger's excitement meter to its heights, resulting in cash being awarded.

The Mission Mode is similar to that in the console version: in each of the ten missions, one specific character is controlled in order to reach a certain goal, like driving over a number of objects, or racing a course, all within a time limit. Some of the missions are based on those of the console version, others are entirely new.

A Head-to-Head multiplayer mode via link cable is also available: in these, two players compete to pick up a single passenger and deliver him to his destination. By bumping into the other player, the passenger can be forced to switch cars.

The game includes 16 different vehicles (driven by 15 Simpsons characters) and six different locations. Only five drivers and one location are available from the start. More vehicles are unlocked in Road Rage mode, more locations in Performance Mode, and further extras (like a car color editor) in Mission Mode. The locations are based on those from the console game, but with some differences in track layout. None of the signature locations from the TV series are featured however - drop off points are generic. Unlocked environments can be freely explored in Sunday Drive mode.