A hilarious match of hot license to game concept, The Simpsons Road Rage sends the sharp-tongued citizenry of Springfield on the road to earn enough dough to buy back the Springfield Transit Corp. from filthy rich grumbler J. Montgomery Burns.

In Road Rage mode, Homer, Bart and 15 other madcap motorists rack up cash by delivering fares before time runs out. You can earn extra loot with super-fast deliveries, being extra-destructive (not as easy as you'd think) and avoiding multiple collisions. You earn extra seconds with timely deliveries and by knocking over Springfield Transit shelters.

As you earn dough, you'll be able to open up additional neighborhoods (there are six and all) and drivers (17 total). Burns' nuclear-powered buses and a stretch limo bearing the detested tycoon himself will do their best to stay you from your appointed rounds.

On the Easy difficulty setting, you start a neighborhood with 75 seconds. If you want to do well in the Medium (50 seconds) and Hard (40 seconds) settings, enter Sunday Drive mode to learn a neighborhood's shortcuts and hidden areas. In this mode, all the fares and other elements are in place, but there's no timer and you can't earn any cash.

In Mission Mode, you're charged with completing one of 10 specific tasks while avoiding pursuers. Examples include Bart escorting Homer from the baseball park to the nuclear plant without being rammed by Burns and Willie smashing newspaper boxes in a desperate bid to thwart the paper's pro-Burns bias.

In Head to Head mode, you and a pal race for fares. You can steal a fare mid-ride by ramming your rival. The first to the dollar goal is the winner.

Each driver wields a vehicle with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Marge's Canyonero accelerates like an ant with a head cold, but is great for pounding through heavy traffic. Both Bart's Honor Roller Soap Box Racer and Professor Frink's Flying Car accelerate and steer sharply, but are easily knocked off-course. Moe's roofless Sedan has all the get-up-and-go of its driver (i.e. none), while the Reverend Lovejoy's Book Burning Mobile (complete with flames) handles as deftly as a rusted-out school bus. Solid all-around performers include Apu's Sports Car and Homer's Family Sedan.

Helped greatly by the deep involvement of the show's writers and voice talent, developer Radical Entertainment has the look, feel and sound of The Simpsons down cold. The nonstop chatter of drivers, fares and bystanders, always perfectly cued to the action, captures the show's frenetic zaniness.

One-liners alone do not a game make, and fortunately all parties involved have taken great pains to give the whole shebang that shiny Simpsons gloss. The characters and landscape look like they're lifted straight from an actual TV episode. Roadside attractions include a drive-in showing an exclusive Itchy and Scratch short, an Escalator to Nowhere and ridiculous billboards (our fave advertises a musical based on "Planet of the Apes"). The Simpsons Road Rage is chock-a-block with breakable objects, including light posts, garbage cans and mailboxes stuffed with letters.

Eminently replayable for both the jokes and the challenges, The Simpsons Road Rage is a high-octane blast. The game is in stores now.

The independent Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated The Simpsons Road Rage "T" for Teen (ages 13 and up) with the content modifiers of Mild Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. Four memory blocks on the Memory Card 59 (sold separately) are required to save game progress.