The Simpsons : Road Rage

The Simpsons: Road Rage for Game Boy Advance is a 2003 arcade driving game developed by Altron Corporation and published by THQ. Based on the animated series, it turns Springfield into a frantic taxi-style playground after Mr. Burns takes control of the town's buses and raises fares. Citizens take to their own cars to provide rides, and the player drives familiar Simpsons characters through traffic in a race to carry passengers to their destinations. This is a separate handheld adaptation of the earlier console game rather than a direct conversion, designed around the Game Boy Advance and its portable controls.

Road Rage is the central mode. Players choose a driver, find waiting passengers, stop to collect them, and reach the marked drop-off point before the trip timer expires. Fast deliveries and accurate stops earn more money and can add time, while collisions and wasted seconds make the next fare harder to complete. The game begins with Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Grampa available, then expands its driver roster as money is earned. Six Springfield courses are opened in sequence: Evergreen Terrace, the Entertainment District, Springfield Dam, Downtown, Country Road, and Springfield Mountains.

The GBA version gives its driving a compact arcade control scheme. The Control Pad steers, A accelerates, B brakes or reverses, and R serves as a handbrake; holding R while steering produces a drift. A precisely timed press of A as the starting signal disappears can launch the car straight to top speed, giving each new run a useful burst. Road Rage also introduces fare bonuses that ask the player to drive cleanly, smash roadside objects, or collide with traffic. Speed, stunt-like movement, route knowledge, and careful positioning at a destination all feed into the money-and-time chase.

Altron's handheld edition has more than its timed pickup-and-delivery loop. Performance mode begins with a passenger already aboard and challenges the driver to keep that passenger satisfied through jumps, speed detectors, horn zones, collisions, and other on-road actions. Different passengers respond to different activities, so the goal is to sustain a favorable satisfaction meter until time runs out. Sunday Drive removes the clock and scoring pressure, letting players learn roads and shortcuts. Mission Mode supplies ten scenario-based challenges, including destroying newspaper boxes, gathering flags, avoiding pursuit, and completing character-specific objectives under time limits.

Progression connects these modes through unlocks. Earnings in Road Rage and Performance open more characters and routes, while missions award extra features such as menu backgrounds, course layouts, and vehicle color changes. Collecting a total of one million dollars unlocks the ending. The presentation uses scaled and rotated sprites to translate a driving game built around 3D console hardware to the Game Boy Advance screen, while the setting keeps the recognizable names and comic energy of Springfield. Rather than reproducing every feature of the console editions, this version reorganizes the premise into a set of short, replayable handheld challenges.

The Simpsons: Road Rage Game Boy Advance also supports head-to-head play through the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable. With a Game Pak in each system, two players select drivers and a course, then compete to deliver the passenger first across a chosen number of drop-offs. That local multiplayer option sits alongside the solo modes and makes the portable release notably different from the console versions. For players exploring licensed GBA racing games or The Simpsons games of the early 2000s, Road Rage is an Altron-made interpretation focused on quick routes, unlockable content, and competitive arcade driving.