One of the cool things about the game is that when you reach specified monetary milestones in the game you are given the opportunity to unlock more characters and more starting points, which are pretty much completely different areas of Springfield that are each fairly large in scale.
The basic goal is to earn as much money as possible before the time limit runs out, which is initially determined by the difficulty level that you have the game set for and can be increased by picking up passengers, dropping them off at their destination in a timely matter, and by busting up the Springfield Transit Corporation bus stops. And with some fares, you'll be offered the chance to get a Road Rage Trip or Safe Trip bonus by either making it to the destination while either destroying a specified amount of objects or by making it to the destination without hitting more than two other vehicles. Money is earned while you have a passenger in your car and bonus amounts are rewarded for getting them to their destination on time with the total gratuity that you earn based on how quickly you get them to their destination in relation to the amount of time that was allotted for the trip.
After you select a character from the world of The Simpsons, of which there are 17 in total including Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Grandpa plus a slew of others that can be unlocked, you're put into a vehicle specific to your character and are thrust into an area of Springfield where you must pick up passengers and take them to their desired destination before the time limit runs out. The game itself is setup similarly to that of Crazy Taxi. Burns, the fine people of Springfield have decided to offer shuttle service (as opposed to taxi service) to the stranded citizens of their lovely town with the goal of earning enough dough (about $1 million) to buy back the transit corporation from the evil Mr. Montgomery Burns has bought out the Springfield Transit Corporation, converted all the buses to nuclear power and is charging an arm and a leg to anyone who wishes to use it. The first of which is probably the fact that there's some background story to what's going on in the game. Gameplay The basic gameplay in the game's main mode of play, which is called Road Rage Mode, is essentially identical to that of Crazy Taxi with a few exceptions. It would seem to be a surefire formula for success. And there's nothing at all wrong with that, especially when you consider that Crazy Taxi is a good game that's definitely worth copying and The Simpsons is one of the best licenses around.
The Simpsons Road Rage definitely has plenty of features and traits that differentiates itself from Sega's game, but there's no denying that this Radical Entertainment developed and Electronic Arts published game is at least inspired by Sega's hit arcade game.
Sounds exactly like Crazy Taxi, right? Sure does to me. And they attempted to do this while showing off a game that had the basic goal of picking up people and dropping them off at their desired destination in order to earn lots of money before the time runs out. Back when we first saw this game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May and later at some EA Gamers' Day in the summer, some of the developers and producers for The Simpsons Road Rage tried with all of their might to convince us that this game is not at all like Sega's Crazy Taxi.